My wife and I finally found a grocery app for the iPhone that works: Grocery IQ.
With this brilliant bit of code, we can update a grocery list on one phone and have that item appear on the list of the other phone. Why it took so long to create such an app is beyond me, but I am pleased that it has finally arrived.
The app also allows me to scan barcodes in order to add items to the list. Last week I finished the last of the oatmeal that I eat for lunch. Still in my classroom, I scanned the barcode on the box of oatmeal, and instantly that item was added to the list on my phone as well as my wife’s list. Later that day she went shopping and bought my oatmeal, even though we hadn’t spoken about it.
Brilliant. Huh?
Just one problem: The app also sends a text message when an item is marked as purchased on the list. Yesterday I was in Stop & Shop, making my way through the grocery list, when I received a text from my wife:
I keep getting texts from grocery iq telling me what a good job you’re doing! Don’t get the aquaphor. That’s for BJ’s.
Then I received another text after clicking off the last item on the list:
Nice! You got everything!
Talk about Big Brother. Even though I had nothing to hide and no objection over my wife knowing where I was or what I was doing, I couldn’t help but feel like someone was looking over my shoulder, following me through the store, monitoring my every purchase decision.
Do I really want the app to send a text to my wife every time that I make a purchase and tick it off the list? Do I really need this kind of constant, up-to-the-second surveillance in my life?
I’m not sure.
And my wife was wrong in assuming that I had gotten everything on the list. One of the items that I was supposed to pick up was a mango. Though my daughter eats mango all the time, I have no idea what the damn fruit looks like and trusted the signage in the produce aisle to assist me.
Instead, I came home with this:
Does anyone know what it might be?
