this post was submitted on 03 Jun 2024
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[–] [email protected] 52 points 6 months ago (6 children)

It's not that there's no API. It's that there's probably a different API for every single grocery store. And they make random changes and don't have public documentation. That's why we need the AI.

[–] [email protected] 40 points 6 months ago

Yup, exactly, no standardized APIs.

[–] [email protected] 28 points 6 months ago (2 children)

The stores don't want you to have easy comparable access to their prices.

They'd quite like it if you just came in, saw that the item you wanted is out of stock, and then just buy some shit you didn't need.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 6 months ago

Yeah, we're not going to make technology that drives prices down

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago

But they'll happily give you full access to everything they have if you're another corpo and you promise to marginally improve their sales anyhow. That's, sadly, how businesses work.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 6 months ago (2 children)

Indeed. LLMs read with the same sort of comprehension that humans have, so if a supermarket makes their website compatible with humans then it's also compatible with LLMs. We have the same "API", as it were.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Can LLMs interpret structured input like html?

[–] [email protected] 5 points 6 months ago

Yup. And those that can't can have a parser pull just the human-readable text out, like a blind person's screen-reader would do.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 6 months ago

No, that's why we need regulations to enforce standards.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 6 months ago (2 children)

You just need someone to do it. Here in Austria someone did it: https://heisse-preise.io

It's only in German and most of the prices aren't from a public API but crawled from different sources.
It's open source. Nothing except greed is stopping them from providing something like this.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Imagine if instead of building their own bespoke systems, grocery stores (and other places) created an open source software foundation and worked together to produce the software they needed.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 months ago

I sometimes dream of such things. Less waste, better inventory, customers get to choose inventory based on their wishlist, better prices, then I wake up.

We actually have a small liquor store nearby that really puts stuff on the shelves if you casually mention something you like. But that's more the exception than the rule.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago

That's impressive, and honestly looks like it was quite a bit of work. I wonder how the author finances himself? There doesn't even seem to be a donation button on the site. I found a lengthy article on Wired but it doesn't appear to mention how he can afford to do all of this for free.

It's open source. Nothing except greed is stopping them from providing something like this.

Nothing is stopping anyone from doing this except the amount of work it takes to write and maintain all those data import scripts. I think greed is the wrong word here. It's not unreasonable to expect some sort of monetary reward for providing a useful public service that actually helps people save money. Everyone's gotta eat, right?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago

Actually, you'd be surprised. Instacart has up-to-date price and product data for TONS of grocery stores. And while their API likely isn't public, they MUST have one in order for their smartphone apps to work.