A Better Shopping List wins Rep. Liz Cheney’s 2021 Congressional App Challenge in Wyoming’s At-Large District

When asked what inspired the creation of A Better Shopping List, the student said, “I wanted to create something that people in my life would actively use and benefit from. So, I asked my peers what app they wish existed. The most common answer was a shopping list that organized itself. I know from personal experience that this would lift a small burden off of many people’s shoulders. My mom’s shopping list is always all over the place. Items that are next to each other in the store are on opposite sides of the list! This leads to a lot of backtracking and forgotten items. If there were a way to organize the trip by location, it would be so much faster. Less things would also be forgotten. My initial thought was to create an app that scans any grocery store layout and organizes by where items are located. The app would know exactly where to find specific items, then plan out the fastest route for the shopper to take. However, that project is a bit too ambitious for one person. I decided to just take a user’s shopping list and organize it by type. I made this decision because items in the same section are likely to be near each other. This also encourages the user to know everything they are looking for in one specific area without forgetting anything. This also makes things more simple for the average user compared to the complex map analysis. I wanted this app to be easily used and accessible, since everybody goes grocery shopping. Now, thanks to “A Better Shopping List”, any shopping list can automatically be laid out nicely.”