Saskatoon-developed website lets you check grocery store stock

While everyone is trying to minimize their contact with crowds of people, it’s still necessary for many to go to grocery stores. However, a Saskatoon professor has thought of a way to cut down on unnecessary trips.

Dr. Melanie Morrison, a psychology professor at the University of Saskatchewan, has invented a new app called What’s in Stock?

It allows you to check whether the stores in your location have stock of the essential items you’re looking for. It tracks quantities of necessities like disinfectant wipes, yeast, baking powder, milk and eggs.

It’s a crowd sourced project, meaning anyone can update the current stock after making a trip to the grocery store.

Morrison believes it’s a good way to ensure you don’t make extra grocery runs due to a lack of stock.

“What we’re doing here is trying to help our local communities reduce their trips to the grocery store…so that they’re not making unnecessary ones and they’re staying safe,” she told 650 CKOM’s Gormley.

The idea came to her as a natural extension of BetterCart.ca, a price-comparing website she’s been running for years.

“When we start looking into products, the prices for food are rising constantly…so there has to be some mechanism by which people can save money at the grocery store.”

What’s in Stock? is available across Canada. Anyone can enter their postal code to receive a list of the nearby stores and an estimation of how much stock they’re holding in essential items. There can either be “a lot,” “a little,” or “none.”

While she is glad to run the service throughout the country, she’s planning to ramp up accuracy at home in Saskatchewan.

“We’re starting to market locally. In Saskatoon, Regina and across this province, because this is where I am and this is my own backyard. This is what me and my team know. And so we are putting all of our effort into making sure that we get it right in this province.”