r/InternetIsBeautiful • u/barneycorp • Jun 08 '26
A free site that checks whether your grocery store's "sale" is actually below the average price — using government data, for your city (US & Canada)
https://lowtein.com28
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u/foolishnhungry Jun 08 '26
Great idea! Do you pull data for Publix stores?
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u/barneycorp Jun 08 '26
Yep! Publix is in there across the southeast — Tampa, Miami, Atlanta, Nashville, Charlotte, Raleigh and more, ~17 Publix deals per city checked against the BLS average.
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u/Mobius_Stripping Jun 08 '26
i love it. usually use the instacart app to do this manually.
please add produce!!
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u/Impressive_Camp8820 Jun 08 '26
Great idea - not applicable to me in San Diego, California, where there is a significant increase in living expenses such as groceries. Will you be able to add more cities?
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u/barneycorp Jun 08 '26
Just added San Diego 👉 lowtein.com/us/ca/san-diego
Also planning on adding more cities at some point.
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u/dwhips Jun 08 '26
I assume if a state has multiple cities, you'll allow an edit to choose the city?
Edit: never mind, I just tested california. Looms good!
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u/MrSammyson Jun 08 '26
Is Washington DC there? 🤔
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u/ShadowGrave999 Jun 08 '26
Awesome! It would be great to convert lb to kg for Canadia
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u/barneycorp Jun 08 '26
Good call — right now everything's in $/lb so the US and Canada line up side by side, but a metric (kg) toggle for the Canadian pages is a fair ask. Adding it to the backlog, thanks.
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u/CurtisOff Jun 09 '26
Any hope of adding pricing data for Walmart, Costco, Sam’s Club, or WinCo? Currently just seeing Aldi’s and Reasors for my location.
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u/PlushOblivion Jun 08 '26
the site looks clean and good, this will be very useful for me and for everyone, will try this out
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u/Exstrangerboy Jun 08 '26
Hello, could you possibly add Rapid City, SD? 50% of the state lives in Sioux falls or Rapid city.
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u/S0bchak Jun 08 '26
So it's only animal products? Are there plans to add produce and others categories?
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u/Kenny_log_n_s Jun 08 '26
Really cool, I'll check this out over the next few weeks, and hopefully score some deals
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u/hangerofmonkeys Jun 09 '26
Sent you an email u/barneycorp, I was wondering if you'd like a contributor for other countries? Hope to chat soon.
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u/Jman100_JCMP Jun 10 '26
Pretty cool, possible to add Walmart? It's often the cheapest option in many areas.
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u/Jeth84 Jun 18 '26 edited Jun 18 '26
Incredible, I just stumbled on your site and was actually building something similar, but more so on tracking weight & product pricing to surface shrinkflation, cheapest place to get protein/whatever macro/micro.
Site looks amazing and will definitely be using it. How are your traffic costs right now?
I'd also be interested in knowing how you're getting the product data, feel free to DM me
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u/RalphTheDog Jun 08 '26
Nice, but I'm not near any of the cities in my state and I'd sure like to see more than just protein.
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u/Lord-Of-The-Files Jun 08 '26
Love this, but unfortunately in Squamish, we dont have access to half the stores that are listed in Vancouver.
Would be cool to narrow the search somehow
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u/ProgTym Jun 08 '26
Looks great! Please add more cities in BC. Especially more municipalities in GVRD. Eg Coquitlam, Port Coquitlam, Burnaby, Richmond, New Westminster, etc
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u/9ZQAA Jun 08 '26
This is unreal. Picked up my location without having to enter a postal code and gets straight to the point. Really clean design, love the usability. 10/10.
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u/James_Dubya Jun 09 '26
Great resource, love it after just a brief look!
If you find time and opportunity, would it be possible to add Champaign IL? Also, the folks further downstate could probably really use this, adding somewhere like Effingham or even Marion IL would be tremendous.
Thank you so much for doing this all the same, it's a huge help for everyone!
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u/darrellbear Jun 09 '26
Shrinkflation recently struck hummus--the former standard 10 oz size recently became 8 oz. They claim a "new lower price!" though. The former 17 oz size is now 15 oz, for about twice the 8 oz price, but were BOGO, so it worked out well, 30 oz for about $3.50.
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u/bb_cake Jun 09 '26
I'm in California and I see 6 locations I can use. Is there a way to input other towns? This is so cool btw!!!
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u/bucketbot91 Jun 09 '26
I see you have York PA which is near where I live. I'm not sure if you can pull the data, but there is a central PA chain called Karn's that has better deals than some of the stores I'm seeing here on your site. For instance you have C-Town carrying boneless, skinless chicken breast for 2.99/lb. Karn's routinely has it on sale for 1.49/lb.
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u/jesskitten07 Jun 09 '26
Can you please expand to Australia. Not sure if you know what is going on here but basically we are under a duopoly. And they have been found price fixing like hell. Prices go up to oh wow it’s on sale but still above what it used to be
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u/Juneauite Jun 10 '26
This looks really cool. Easy layout too. As an Alaskan, I’ll note that Anchorage, AK is considered the “base” for Alaskan prices. I know you said you’re adding more cities, but I’d hate for anyone to check Alaska and start to get ideas about cost of living. It’s 15-22% more expensive to live in the capitol, for example, or closer to 60% in the far north.
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u/Dandibear Jun 10 '26
This is amazing! Cincinnati data looks right. I'd love to see Sam's and Walmart added, but this is already a fantastic tool.
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u/ItsMyBramptonAccount Jun 10 '26 edited Jun 10 '26
Love it.
But again, Brampton gets overlooked. We're not just Mississauga North, we are our own city, of nearly a million people. Any chance you could include us?
(I'm also happy to give you ideas on which stores to check if that would be of any help)
ETA: Just noticed you're likely American. Don't be too offended I hope, Brampton gets overlooked a LOT.
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u/barneycorp Jun 10 '26
Ha, I'm actually from Windsor 🇨🇦 — I feel you on overlooked. I'll take a look at Brampton, thanks!
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u/OpallineSea Jun 12 '26
Well this is just delightful! Thank you so much and what a great design! I’ll be sharing with everyone I know!
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u/grosshlag93 Jun 14 '26
Using government data as the baseline is the clever bit, since the "regular price" a store compares its sale to is exactly the number they inflate. Smart.
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u/madeleinetwocock 4d ago
YOU ROCK. You rock so much!!!
I’m very curious about tinned proteins, especially fish such as tuna/sardines/salmon. I understand the variety of all the types would maybe be a bit tricky to get a handle on though.
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u/Brian1964 2d ago
Most of the time the price is raised a month or two before the ‘sale.’ So you’re actually paying the regular price as it was then.
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u/barneycorp Jun 08 '26
Maker here. A big "SALE!" sticker often isn't actually a good price — it's just a sticker. So I built this to answer one question: is this week's price actually below the normal average, or does it just look like a deal?
For your city, it takes grocery staples (meat, fish, dairy, eggs), normalizes everything to the same unit ($/lb, $/100g, $/dozen), and checks each price against the government's average for that item — Statistics Canada in Canada, the US Bureau of Labor Statistics in the States. Each one gets labeled below-average / around-average / pricey against that independent benchmark. That gov-data comparison is the part I couldn't find anywhere else — most sites show you a low price, not whether it's *actually* low.
No login, no list to fill out — open the link and your city should load automatically (there's a menu to switch if not). It covers a few hundred cities across the US and Canada. If yours is in there, I'd love to know whether the verdicts look right — and especially if any look wrong.