Historical Prices

As the database of prices grows, we thought it'd be nice to be able to see the historical prices, to see if there is an observable trend. Over time, with inflation, the prices should tend upwards so we hope to be able to see that in the chart.


And so, we've added a new feature called 'Historical Prices' which is represented in the form of a scatter plot over time for each product. Only stores with at least 4 historical prices will show up in the plot. The plots are colour-coded according to stores. The results look amazing!

You can see some examples here:

1. Dutch Lady Low Fat Milk (1L)
2. Pringle's Potato Crisps Original (160g)
3. Coca-Cola Regular (1.5L)
4. Carlsberg (6x320ml)
5. Jasmine Sunwhite (10kg)

As you continue to add prices, the plots start to look more and more meaningful, so happy sharing!

Joe

Feature Update: List

When you sign in to PriceChat, you would've noticed a new item in your top Menu called "My Lists".  This feature allows you to create lists comprising products found on PriceChat.  You could create a list, say of shopping items, or a list your favourite candy.  It's really easy to do.  In the "My List" page, click on the "Create a list" button.  Give your list a title and a brief description.  Then click on "Add product" to start adding items to your list.  In the Add Product dialog, enter a search term for eg. "tomato" and click "Go".  Look for the item you wish to add to the list and click on the "Add" button next to the product when you find it.  You may add as many products as you want to your list.  

Once you're done adding products, you may move the items in your list up or down to reorder them, or delete unwanted items.  You can also add a comment on each item.  

Once you're satisfied with your list, just hit the "Publish" button to create the list.  The list will show the lowest price and store for each list item.  You can also send this list or any list you find interesting with your friends.  

Now, if you go to the "My List" page, you should see the list you've just created.  You may edit the list or delete it if you wish.  So far, this list creation app does not work on IE.  The jQuery and jQueryUI libraries work fine on Firefox, Chrome and Safari, but not on IE.  So folks, please do not use any form of IE!!

New Picture Upload and Product Sharing

A couple of new features lately.  First is the picture upload feature.  Members can now upload pictures for products they've added.  After adding a new product, simply go to the Product Info page.  You should see an "Upload image" link below the default product image.  Click the link to go to the picture upload page.  Choose an image file on you PC to upload.  Only JPG, PNG and GIF images are supported.  Ideally, the images should be square (1:1 ratio), but the picture uploader will automatically resize the image and generate the thumbnails accordingly.  

The second is the one-click Product Sharing feature.  You can now tell people about great deals and great products you found on PriceChat.  In the Product Info page, there is now a "Share" link.  Click on the envelope and the form will slide down.  You can key in multiple recipients' email addresses (comma separated) and an optional message.  After that, click "Send" and PriceChat will deliver the message.

We hope you will enjoy using these new features on PriceChat!

Bye!

Updated PriceChat

Hi folks!

It's been awhile since I posted anything here so I thought I'd put up something on recent updates.  As you may or may not have noticed, the site has changed a bit (hopefully for the better!).  First there is more consistency now in the look and feel of the site.  We've migrated the site from using old-school HTML tables to CSS. 

 So if you've visited the site recently, don't be surprised if the pages look all jumbled up.  You'll probably need to do a SHIFT + Refresh to reload the new CSS.  So now, without all that table, table-row and table-column markups in them, the pages should theoretically load faster as all the styling information is in the CSS.  It is also much easier for us to maintain it with this separation.

On the Javascript front, we've fixed some bugs (mostly on IE) and used JQuery.  Before this, visitors who wanted to register using Internet Explorer would have trouble selecting their country and city of origin because of IE's bad Javascript implementation.  Similarly, members who used IE to add new stores would have trouble selecting the appropriate country and city.  That has now been fixed.  

We've also got rid of the Add Price window pop up because it gets annoying after awhile.  So we've built the add price window into the Price Info page and used JQuery to do the slide up/down feature.  Another improvement is that after logging in, you get sent back to there you logged in from.  It no longer sends you back to the main page every time you log in or out.  

Our historical prices database is growing healthily.  We're very keen to do some analysis on the price data we've collected so far.  That should be coming soon and I predict the results would be interesting.

So, please sign up for PriceChat and help share prices!  

Happy Yule!

Joe

Korea shopping wrap up!

Well all good things come to an end so did my trip to Korea. It was really fantastic and fulfilling. I’d attended conference in Daejeon and visited Profs and friends back in Busan as well. But there was a huge disappointment in hunting for clothes and accessories. Really don’t have enough time and luggage space for this. I’d even strained my hand for pulling the overloaded luggage.

Yeah of course, the overloaded luggage is a result from my shopping! On the first day itself I already stuffed it with food to be brought back to Malaysia. I went to Emart which is the nearest hypermart available to me. E-Mart is a subsidiary of Shinsaege and it’s the largest discount store chain founded in South Korea. Like any other hypermart, it has shelves, neatly stacked with sections for food, vegetables, groceries, toiletries, consumer items and so on. I walked around the mart and tried to take pictures of every single corner until a staff came forward to stop me from doing so. Nonetheless I still managed to snap few pictures before my “illegal acts” being exposed^^

Emart in WolPyeong, Daejeon

Fresh Vegetables

Raw fish - Korean called it "hwaei" (they get offended if you called it sashimi -.-)

The food and snacks section interests me most! It sure brought back a lot of memories of me crunching my favourite korean snacks late at night -.-" (hehe soooo fattening). Currently many hypermarts in Malaysia carry a wide range of Korean tidbits and snacks. For instance, the so-called Korean traditional snacks – 새우강 (Nong Shim Shrimp Flavoured Crackers) and 꿀 과빼기 (Nong Shim Honey Twist Snack) are selling in Malaysia at reasonable price (with about 10% higher compared to Korea). Besides, Crown brand butter waffles like 초코하임/화이트하임(Choco/White Heim) and 쿠크다스 (Couque d'asse) can be found in Malaysia too. On top of that, the famous 유자차 (Korean citron tea) is selling at Jusco and Isetan at around RM40 per 1kg bottle. It has a jam-like texture and melts when mixed with water. Traditionally it’s an herbal remedy for the common cold and sore throat which contains high vitamin C. It has got lots of reputation and strongly recommended to try! I personally like it to be served warm… Anyhow, it seems that these days I can find most of the Korean food I like without coming to Korea , which is a good thing :D And from this shopping trip, I'd bought citron tea, candy, ginseng tea, kimchi, seaweed and some snacks perhaps for a cheaper price than getting them in Malaysia ^_^

Korean coffee -Maxim is my favourite!

Snacks

I also made a trip to their traditional market. The market is very clean and tidy! I like their fresh vegetables and fruits very much. Guess now is the season for peach and grapes as they lined the narrow alleyways. Very often you would find stewed silkworms pupae (번데기) in their market. I did try this scary looking street snack before but it doesn’t suite my taste bud, probably because it tastes like a bug. . Hehe.. Anyone who is feeling adventurous should mark it as a must-try if you happen to be there. 

Traditional market

Street snacks - silkworms pupae (Beon Dae Ki)

After a long walk.. I couldn’t find my favourite strawberry during the visit. Strawberry there is so much nicer and cheaper, which is probably one of the reasons for me to miss this country. I definitely miss Korea I and don’t really want to write a wrap up -.-" Since I came back a year ago I catch myself telling people about Korea in conversation very frequently. I guess many of my sentences will now start with “In Korea..” again after this trip...

Discount supermarkets in Europe

Here's an interesting article from The Economist about food retailing in Europe.

Seems like in Germany, and western Europe, discount supermarkets are becoming more and more popular. Here's how they work - Discounters stock a fraction of the goods that a normal supermarket offers, resulting in fewer suppliers, a high volume of purchases and sales, and massive economies of scale. You would find 16 brands of tomato ketchup in a normal big supermarket, for example, but only 1 brand at the discount supermarket. This results in generally 30-50% lower prices for groceries.

Interestingly, these discounters appeal not only to the lower income group but also the middle class consumers. This is because, due to economic concerns, many people simply make the most rational decision, i.e. to buy where it is cheapest. It's no surprise therefore, that discount supermarkets are gaining market share (up to 30%) across western Europe.

I wonder if this concept will gain traction in this part of the world. There's no reason for it not to because consumers here face the same economic reality. Anyway, it's good to know there is a massive price-war among retailers as it means better bargains for consumers. Of course, we also hope to achieve the same effect through the PriceChat community.

Happy sharing!

Getting things together for my Korea trip!

I’m in the midst of preparing for my trip to Korea next week. It has been a year since I came back and needless to mention, my craving for Korean food is getting more and more intense. I can’t wait to taste my all-time favourites 설렁탕(seol long tang), 돼지국밥 (twae ji kuk bap), 삼계탕 (sam kye tang)… to name a few. More importantly, I'm eagerly anticipating the 삼겹살(sam kyeop sal) + 소주 (soju) sessions with my friends over there. Come to think about it, I’ve officially “quit” drinking since I came back to Malaysia for good, despite the “occasional” few sips of beer here and there. ^^ Attention to all beer lovers like me, Calsberg Green Label Beer Can (6 x 320ml) is selling at real cheap price at Jusco now compared to other marts. It's about RM6 cheaper. When I saw it, I stocked it up, since beer doesn't go bad.

I really look forward to visiting my professor, lab members and fellow Malaysian friends who are still struggling with papers and journals. I guess I will need at least a 24” luggage to fit all the food stuff my Malaysian ex-uni mates requested, and also for my shopping over there. To my utmost surprise, while our marts are stocking up more and more Korean instant food, my Korean friend actually requested for Maggi curry instant noodles! There was once I shared my Maggie curry noodle with her in the dormitory. She must have found my cooking nice ^^

So far I’ve bought some local seasonings, instant noodles, and few boxes of moon cake to bring over from my groceries shopping at Jusco Taman Maluri. And not forgetting, since I’ll be away for a week time and won’t be cooking, I’ve stocked up some food for my dear as well (Look, how thoughtful am I!) I’m quite confident that he is able to cook decent pasta, noodles and some simple meals. So I’ve got this good deal from Jusco, Leggo’s Pasta Sauce Primavera (575g) is only selling at RM 8.90 and it comes with a free water-proof apron! Actually we are not cooking enthusiasts but cooking our own food is simple and economical. I am sure everyone is aware that food costs have increased and cooking at home is definitely a way out.

Lastly, a friendly reminder to people out there.. please remember to check your itemised receipt every time after paying. I bought one pack of Australia carrots but the cashier charged me another pack of peeled baby carrot which I did not buy. I wonder how this can happen as the product was not even in my cart. In fact this is not the first time this has happened. There was another time at Jusco Mid Valley where I was being charged twice for a tray of sushi priced at RM 18.90. But because of the vast price difference I noticed it immediately. If I weren't alert, I might have been ripped off by the mart as well. So let’s make it a practice to step aside and check through the receipt every time.

So all in all, I managed to save up a good amount of grocery expenses from a few super good deals. Now whenever I find good deals, I'll stock them up and share the prices with the rest of you. I'm sure many of us will benefit since we're able to offset the increase by honing our price comparison skill. ^^