Woolworths and Coles are not saying whether they will copy a UK supermarket who have produced an Android sat nav application for consumers navigating for goods in their stores.Woolworths and Coles are not saying whether they will copy a UK supermarket who have produced an Android sat nav application for consumers navigating for goods in their stores.

However a Woolworth’s executive did admit that sounded like a good idea, so did shoppers at Woolworths in Neutral Bay.

The Android-only app allows people to enter in their shopping list and then provides a map to each item, in a bid to save people time looking for goods in the supermarket.

The system also lets people send their shopping list to another person (with the same app on their phone), so they can go shopping on another person’s behalf.

The UK Telegraph said that when a customer enters a Tesco store, the app will create a store map with all of the items on the shopping list laid out on it. After pressing the start button, the app will then find the shortest distance between the products and the shopper, and create a route for the trolley to follow. Other items can be added to list at any time and located within the shop.

Joan Nelson a shopper at Woolworths in Neutral Bay said “Sounds wonderful. My husband often goes grocery shopping for me and I can guarantee I will get a call say where is or this or what did you want”.

Another shopper said “Woolworths are price gouging. I wish we had Tesco prices and their new app. Despite their overcharging you can never find anyone to tell you where items are because they don’t invest in customer service”.

And although an in-store app may be some way off, stolen shopping trolleys littering local streets may become a rarer site as Woolworths launches a new app that locates lost trolleys and helps them get back to the nearest supermarket.
 
A new trolley tracker app will allow locals report abandoned Woolworths or BIG W trolley with just three taps of their smartphone.

Trolley Services Australia has developed the new app to run alongside its existing trolley tracker hotline and website. The app uses the phone’s inbuilt GPS systems to locate the position of the trolley.
 
Every time a customer reports an abandoned trolley they go into a draw to win a $1000 reward every month.