Use AI to save money on groceries

GM. This is Work "After" Work, the newsletter that helps you go from employee to CEO of your own unicorn startup - ooh spicy!

Here’s how we’re starting the week:

• 🤖 Browse.AI

• 😂 Meme of the day

NOT ALL HEROES WEAR CAPES

Alright, folks. Inflation is hot and budgets are tight. If you’re looking at egg prices like this, same…

According to recent surveys, 45% of Americans are going out less and opting for “generic” or store-brand grocery items instead of their favorite brands due to price increases.

But what if you didn't have to give up your favorite brands? Walk with me.

I found a site called browse.ai that can help you track the prices of your favorite brand items.

How does it work?

The AI tracks your favorite grocery store websites in real-time and emails you when prices come down, and then you go shopping - shoutout technology!

You’re essentially creating a “robot” to do a repetitive task (like monitoring a website) and notify you when something changes on a site in real-time.

To use browse.ai you have to:

• Create an account

• Click ‘Monitor Site Changes’

• Enter the URL of the site you wish to monitor

• And let the AI do its magic

It’s pretty user-friendly and comes with a free plan where the robot checks the site for you once a day. If you want to get notified by the hour or minute, you need a paid subscription that costs $48 - $300 a month or $19 a month if you pay annually.

For keeping track of your grocery items there’s no need to buy the paid version, once a day is enough.

But there could be a scenario in which you’d want to take this a step further and buy that paid version after all... if you set up a side business or support an existing one.

Don't act shocked now; you know that's why I’m writing 😉

There’s two ways I’d use this tech:

1. Set up a subscription service

It’d be nice to have a “grocery sidekick” that tells you whenever the price of beef or chicken comes down.

Use browse.ai and bundle up a subscription service where you send people daily price changes for grocery items, electronics, gadgets, etc.

Just charge less than browse.ai. Maybe $10-$20 a month. If it’s actually saving people money, they’ll pay for it since it brings them value.

Here's why I think this would work: 

• Americans love discounts. 93% share that discounts and offers are important factors when deciding whether or not to purchase.

• High repeat customers. Save your customers money once and you’ll have buyers who are always going to want to save.

To get started, you’ll need:

• A website or app: Get help from freelancers on Upwork or Fiverr if this isn’t in your wheelhouse (like it isn’t for me). I know many people who have done this and built businesses without being tech geeks. Most freelance developers charge $15 - $30 an hour.

• Marketing strategy: Once you have a website or app, it's time to niche down. Go after:

1. Shoppers - customers put in their favorite grocery stores and frequently bought items to track. Once one falls in price they get notified. “Linda! Your eggs are now 5% cheaper than yesterday!”

2. Gamers - New consoles are all the craze, but they’re pricey. “Chad, PS4s are going for 10% cheaper at GameStop!” 

3. Tech Geeks - “Arthur, the iPhone 14 Pro is 20% off on [website].”

4. Beauty - “Kylie, the Dyson Airwrap is $20 off at Sephora.”

5. Car Buyers - scan car dealership websites 50 miles from your customer’s location and update them when that Tesla Model 3 falls below $35,000.

If any sales are done online, like gaming consoles, include affiliate links to get kickbacks for all the leads you’re driving to their sites.

2. Reselling items made simpler

If you resell items you probably watch eBay listings like a hawk.

Save yourself the time and stress by using browse.ai to scrape the web and provide you a table of 100 listings every day (if you’re using it for free) or every few hours (if you’re using the paid version).

This not only gives you the data in a cleaner way (say goodbye to scrolling for hours) but it also allows you to compare and spot any low prices quickly.

How to set this up:

• Go to eBay or the site you want to track

• Search for the product you’re looking to resell (let’s use golf clubs for this example)

• Copy the URL and paste it into browse.ai and click ‘Start Recording Task’

The AI will then bring you back to eBay where you’ll tell it exactly what you want in your table. Click “Capture List” and tell the robot each item you want in your table.

Then name each field and hit “Finish Recording”. Now you’re brought back to browse.ai.

From here you can schedule how often you want the table refreshed and let the AI do its magic!

Here’s the table it spits out:

You can see what clubs are cheapest and where there might be opportunities. Or download it into a CSV to sort by price and do any further analysis.

Facebook marketplace is a great place to do this too if you want to keep it local. If anything catches your eye, you’ll be one of the first to see it.

Gary V used to make an extra $1,000 a week flipping things he found at garage sales. This is the same thing, just online. You can still do all the haggling you want!

MEME OF THE DAY

😂😂

That's all I got for ya today folks!!

DISCLAIMER: None of this is financial advice. This newsletter is strictly educational and is not investment advice or a solicitation to buy or sell any assets or to make any financial decisions. Please be careful and do your own research.