Clever? Amazing? Stupid? Here's a clever idea for a product. Scan the barcode on your garbage so you know what to buy when you go to the store. Or maybe it's a stupid idea.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

Here's a clever idea for a product. Scan the barcode on your garbage so you know what to buy when you go to the store. Or maybe it's a stupid idea.

https://www.genican.com/

Looking through the list, there are several others that made me laugh. How about a heated camping chair or a way to store beer bottles magnetically by their caps? Be sure to see the last one - a non-spilling paint tray.

https://www.familyhandyman.com/stuff-we-love/20-brilliant-products-that-actually-exist/?_cmp=diytipshintsnl&_ebid=diytipshintsnl1262019&_mid=316882&ehid=73A5119F6D6B55A335D41D8BD7D8D335A74FB2CE

Day.Old.Pizza Loc: Maple Grove, MN

I get the idea, Jerry, but I think they’ve jumped the shark on this item. It is the kind of thing you see in Sky Mall or Spenser Gifts. I use a piece of paper to write down what runs out or, to add something not currently in my diet.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

Day.Old.Pizza wrote:

I get the idea, Jerry, but I think they’ve jumped the shark on this item. It is the kind of thing you see in Sky Mall or Spenser Gifts. I use a piece of paper to write down what runs out or, to add something not currently in my diet.

Yes, paper works very well.

DirtFarmer Loc: Escaped from the NYC area, back to MA

I see that there's an option to auto re-order whatever you throw out.
So I guess we need two garbage cans now: one for things we use up but want to replace and one for things we really just want out of here.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

DirtFarmer wrote:

I see that there's an option to auto re-order whatever you throw out.
So I guess we need two garbage cans now: one for things we use up but want to replace and one for things we really just want out of here.

Funny!

ClarkJohnson Loc: Fort Myers, FL and Cohasset, MA

jerryc41 wrote:

Here's a clever idea for a product. Scan the barc... (show quote)

Basic idea is not so new. In market research, one goal is to understand what a household purchases. In the US, many companies supply scanners so that participating households can record what comes into the household. In less sophisticated areas of the world, the “dustbin audit” serves the same function. Not sure how well that translates into a shopping list, however.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

MrBumps2U wrote:

Basic idea is not so new. In market research, one goal is to understand what a household purchases. In the US, many companies supply scanners so that participating households can record what comes into the household. In less sophisticated areas of the world, the “dustbin audit” serves the same function. Not sure how well that translates into a shopping list, however.

And of course, as we check out of a store, the store know what was sold, so it knows what to reorder.

sb Loc: Florida's East Coast

Some are clever, and some are solving problems we really didn't know we had. If you have so much beer you don't have room for it, you either need to get another refrigerator or reduce your beer consumption. The trash scan item scanner is interesting, but also seems like it will turn a simple task - easily accomplished with pen and paper - into something requiring wireless passwords, a printer, a power supply, etc. I imagine, though, that within a year Amazon will have a similar counter-top scanner paired with the Alexa or whatever proprietary assistant they have, and you scan your empties and then every one or two weeks the store will automatically deliver replacements.

Some of these items have been around a long time - vacuum sealing foods and a coffee pot that wakes you up. We have one that grinds the coffee beans and then brews the coffee. You first wake up to the shrill sound of the grinder, but then the smell of the fresh-brewed coffee wafts in to get you out of bed.

SonyBug

I use an iphone and the new version lets me add to the shopping list verbally. The really best feature is that my wife and I have joined our phones, so both of us add to the list, and either can go shopping from the updated list. No pen or paper required!

Sendai5355 Loc: On the banks of the Pedernales River, Texas

I use the "Keep Notes" app on my android phone to list what I need to purchase.

CaptainBobBrown

I use Notes on my iPhone. A couple of years ago I started listing every item we bought at Costco. Eventually the list became a complete listing of almost everything we might consider buying on our biweekly Costco runs. If we don't need a listed item for the next run I indent the item 2 spaces.

Everything left unindented is what to buy on the forthcoming trip. Then as we pick up targeted items I indent them on the list 2 spaces. By the time we're done I can readily see what we might have missed.

Then before the next trip I shift everything back to the left edge. Once in a while I'll have to add some new item so the list is gradually growing longer but it's not infinite and saves a lot of headaches about missing stuff or buying stuff we don't need because of uncertainty of need while shopping.

jhkfly

How bad is your memory??? Every day of your life you eat basically the same thing, use the same cleaning products, wear the same type of clothes, buy the same type of gas, etc., etc., etc. Unless stricken with dementia, how can you not remember what you need to buy and when?

DirtFarmer Loc: Escaped from the NYC area, back to MA

jhkfly wrote:

How bad is your memory??? Every day of your life you eat basically the same thing, use the same cleaning products, wear the same type of clothes, buy the same type of gas, etc., etc., etc. Unless stricken with dementia, how can you not remember what you need to buy and when?

Sounds like some young whippersnapper.

jhkfly

An 80-year-old whippersnapper!

AirWalter Loc: Tipp City, Ohio

CaptainBobBrown wrote:

I use Notes on my iPhone. A couple of years ago I... (show quote)

Good Lord, how did people ever get along without these phones, you know, back when people used to talk to each other!