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What we really need is a digital copy of all our purchasing receipts via the following: An app which scans a QR code printed on receipts which leads to a direc

What we really need is a digital copy of all our purchasing receipts via the following: An app which scans a QR code printed on receipts which leads to a direct json/table of the items purchased, location purchased, date, price paid. NO PERSONAL DATA - just the item, store name & location, price, date, tax %. People can CHOOSE to scan their receipt and have that data slurped into the app and uploaded to a national DB for price index. sans QR system integrated to the sales we just need an OCR capable AI APP that you take a pic of the receipt and it parses it and tracks the prices. An additional feature is just snapping pics of price tags into the app and it parses them, their barcodes, prices, location, etc... Same as the Gas Price app-ish, but for any receipt as the header of every receipt has all the business information and a line item of price for purchases. It would be great if we could require all sales to provide a QR code of every receipt which provides a json/table of the above (anon) data... because I keep a running tally in my head for things that I buy and their prices. At the beginning of the pandemic, juice from MINUTE MAID in half gallon was $1.34 -- currently it is $1.68 11.25% inflation increase for this sugar water alone.

codemac 4y ago
I think most people would be fine if we had a national DB for prices. Most people would not be fine if we had 3+ competing private db's with price info used to profit off of others lack of price knowledge.
- samstave 4y ago
  agree... I originally wrote this in my comment but pulled it out as I figured the thought of a national DB some people might scoff at -- but I have wanted this for decades >>"POS's would need to be able to report each receipt with a QR code to a central (ideally government) FDA site and that information should be API accessible for the public."
- spydum 4y ago
  this exists basically at very large scales with companies like nielseniq and to some degree Catalina marketing. If there was a way to make money off it, they could easily produce a lot of useful aggregate item pricing dbs by region over time.
Semaphor 4y ago
It requires handing over quite some data, but here in Germany, I can get a digital PDF receipt from my main supermarket. There’s a parser on Github [0] that I contributed to (found it when I searched before writing it myself :D), and I use it to track price changes of items I buy. The situation could be a lot better, but at least it gives me some fun graphs. [0]: https://github.com/bietiekay/REWE-eBon-Parser https://github.com/bietiekay/REWE-eBon-Parser
- rootusrootus 4y ago
  That's pretty common in the US well. Kroger stores do it, I imagine any store with a membership program is similar. Home Depot does it too, without a membership program, if you give them your email address at POS the first time you use a new card. I'm sure they love the data.
  - Semaphor 4y ago
    The data also comes with a 10% discount, so I feel fairly paid for it.
  - gregmac 4y ago
    Meta also loves the data. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34551367 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34551367
  - omoikane 4y ago
    Membership programs: https://xkcd.com/2006/ https://xkcd.com/2006/
gruez 4y ago
>At the beginning of the pandemic, juice from MINUTE MAID in half gallon was $1.34 -- currently it is $1.68 11.25% inflation increase for this sugar water alone. That sounds like a lot until you realize that "beginning of pandemic" (February 2020?) was almost 3 years ago, and the CPI itself has gone up 15.8% in the meantime.

codemac 4y ago

I think most people would be fine if we had a national DB for prices. Most people would not be fine if we had 3+ competing private db's with price info used to profit off of others lack of price knowledge.

samstave 4y ago
agree... I originally wrote this in my comment but pulled it out as I figured the thought of a national DB some people might scoff at -- but I have wanted this for decades >>"POS's would need to be able to report each receipt with a QR code to a central (ideally government) FDA site and that information should be API accessible for the public."
spydum 4y ago
this exists basically at very large scales with companies like nielseniq and to some degree Catalina marketing. If there was a way to make money off it, they could easily produce a lot of useful aggregate item pricing dbs by region over time.

Semaphor 4y ago

It requires handing over quite some data, but here in Germany, I can get a digital PDF receipt from my main supermarket. There’s a parser on Github [0] that I contributed to (found it when I searched before writing it myself :D), and I use it to track price changes of items I buy. The situation could be a lot better, but at least it gives me some fun graphs. [0]: https://github.com/bietiekay/REWE-eBon-Parser https://github.com/bietiekay/REWE-eBon-Parser

rootusrootus 4y ago
That's pretty common in the US well. Kroger stores do it, I imagine any store with a membership program is similar. Home Depot does it too, without a membership program, if you give them your email address at POS the first time you use a new card. I'm sure they love the data.
- Semaphor 4y ago
  The data also comes with a 10% discount, so I feel fairly paid for it.
- gregmac 4y ago
  Meta also loves the data. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34551367 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34551367
- omoikane 4y ago
  Membership programs: https://xkcd.com/2006/ https://xkcd.com/2006/

gruez 4y ago

>At the beginning of the pandemic, juice from MINUTE MAID in half gallon was $1.34 -- currently it is $1.68 11.25% inflation increase for this sugar water alone. That sounds like a lot until you realize that "beginning of pandemic" (February 2020?) was almost 3 years ago, and the CPI itself has gone up 15.8% in the meantime.