GrocerCheck allows you to monitor grocery store lineups

May 28 2020, 11:56 pm

Find out which grocery store has the longest lineup without having to leave the house.

A new website, GrocerCheck, allows users to determine how busy a grocery store is by viewing a map with colour-coded bubbles that represent how many people are inside each store. It analyzes location data from Google servers to show real-time data and weekly crowd averages for each grocery store.

The site began when CEO and co-founder Brian Chen ran out of eggs while baking a loaf of bread. He wondered if it was best for him to go to Costco and risk a long line or face the same fate at the grocery store five blocks away. This thought made him realize that others may be debating the same, and he quickly reached out to his friend Andy Liang to help him develop the idea.

The two set off coding, taking two weeks of non-stop work to create a preliminary working version of GrocerCheck that allowed users to determine which grocery store to visit around Vancouver.

Their site has since expanded to include Seattle, the Greater Toronto Area, Silicon Valley, and Las Vegas. It will soon be expanding to New York, Paris, Portland, and Montreal.

GrocerCheck

GrocerCheck

The team has also expanded to include Chief Information Officer Preston Lai, Chief Media Officer Joe Salmon, Chief Experience Officer Luke Dunn, Chief Marketing Officer Jason Yu, and Director of Finance, Topher So — all are students in Grade 11 and 12, some of whom are incoming freshman at the University of British Columbia and University of Toronto.

“Everyone plays an important role in the GrocerCheck team and it would not be possible without everyone’s help,” Salmon told Daily Hive.

He also disclosed that because almost half of their users visit on a mobile device, the team will work on an Android and iOS app as soon as they’re happy with the website’s functionality.

“The team at GrocerCheck Foundation hopes to help ease the transition between quarantine and post-COVID life by facilitating social distancing and informed decision making.”

Those who’d like to support the growth of GrocerCheck can donate online or keep up with the project through its Facebook and Instagram pages.

Alyssa TherrienAlyssa Therrien

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