The story

1. Starting out

I decided to start the project because I wasn't happy with the (now-defunct) PriceComparison.je website. It lacked a lot of features, compared to a UK alternative such as Trolley.co.uk, and I wanted to do better for the island.

I started by tacking the issue of price collection. As we all know, online grocery shopping is virtually non existant in Jersey, save for Co-op and Orderit, so web scraping was out of the question.

I had contacted a few retailers asking about obtaining the necessary price information, but did not receive a reply. I decided the best way forward would be to develop an efficient solution of collecting prices on foot. I begun developing a mobile app using React Native, but quickly realised this wasn't the most effective solution and pivoted towards a web based app.

I spent a month or two developing and improving the site, adding new functionality and fixing issues. It was then I got contacted by a UK company who was looking to do the same thing as I. As I had already completed a large chunk of the work myself, they offered a partnership. I accepted.

2. Partership

We worked together for a few months. I would develop the site and they would work on the business side of things, however it never really went anywhere, due to them being based in the UK and I being the sole person working on things over here. Thus, we decided to part ways.

I'm very greatful for their initial interest and continuous support, I probably wouldn't have continued working on Basket.je if it wasn't for them.

3. Current state of affairs

Nowadays, I don't really update the site. I haven't got the time to do this alone and would need at least 1-2 other people to help.

As previously mentioned, PriceComparison.je was shut down, but it has been replaced with Prices.je. Still not great. I have offered the site to the Jersey Consumer Council for free, but they are committed to Prices.je.

If you think you could help in some way, email me at [email protected]!

Behind the scenes

Here is the page I used to update prices (Yes, it needs some styling improvements):

Also, at the top of the page there is more options available, such as:

• Showing links to the product page (used for co-op so prices can be checked at a PC)
• Show the product ID (used for testing mostly)
• Choose which aisles you want to see

Click on a product to see the below:

When I'm done, I'll hit submit at the top and select the location I was at (e.g. Iceland Parade). Later, when we're at a PC, we find the request we just submitted:

(Again, could do with some styling improvements - this is probably one of the oldest pages on the site)

Here we can download the data as a spreadsheet and make the necessary checks and changes before re-uploading and making the data live on the site.

Full feature list

• Compare prices from 7 retailers
• Track price history over time (currently disabled)
• View price history
• See different sizes of a product and the price per unit
• See cheaper own-brand alternatives of a name-brand product
• View all products for a generic item (e.g. Tomato Pasta Sauce - example link)
• Add products to one or multiple shopping lists
• Share your shopping lists with others!
• Create an account to be able to see your recently viewed products
• See products recently added to the site in the past month on the home page
• Click on a shop and see products that are sold there and every location in the island
• When sharing a product, an image with the basic details is auto generated (example)
• Is a price wrong? Report the product, select Incorrect Price and fill out the form!
• ...possibly more things that I can't think of right now