SpecsyShopping lists
A shopping list in the order you walk the shop
A list written in the order things occurred to you sends you back across the shop four times. Sorted by section, one pass is enough.
- Fruit and veg
- Apples, spinach
- Dairy
- Milk, yoghurt, butter
- Bakery
- Sourdough
- Household
- Bin bags, tablets
- Non food
- CR2032 battery
The list is in the wrong order
A normal list is written in the order things were remembered. Milk, bin bags, cheese, batteries, yoghurt. Following it means walking to the dairy aisle three separate times.
That is why people abandon the list halfway and shop from memory, which is where the forgotten item comes from.
Grouping by section does not require any extra work at the writing stage. It only changes how the list is displayed when you are in the shop.
What in store mode changes
- Items are grouped by section rather than by the order they were added
- Ticking an item removes it from every phone on the list
- Each item keeps its detail, so specificity survives the sorting
- A photo on the item to compare with what is on the shelf
- What is left is visible at a glance, which is what you actually want in an aisle
How to use it in a shop
- Open the list at the entranceIt is already grouped, so no sorting is needed at the moment you are busiest.
- Work section by sectionFresh produce, then dairy, then dry goods, then household. One direction, no backtracking.
- Tick as you goSo the person who is also shopping does not buy the same thing.
Different shops, different layouts
No two supermarkets are laid out identically, so a fixed aisle number is useless. Sections, on the other hand, travel well. Dairy is dairy everywhere.
That is why Specsy groups by section rather than trying to model the floor plan of a specific shop, which would be wrong the moment you go somewhere else.
Questions people ask
Do I have to assign a section to every item?
Common items are grouped for you, and anything unrecognised sits in a general section you can move.
Does it work for a shop I have never been to?
Yes, because sections are generic. You are not following a map, you are avoiding a random order.
Can two of us split the sections?
That is a common use. One takes fresh, the other takes household, and the ticks keep both phones honest.