Why Shelfbee
Every other grocery app answers a different question. Here's ours: given your postal code and what you need this week, which one to three stops minimize your total real cost — price plus gas plus time?
The cheapest shelf isn't always the cheapest trip
A $0.50 saving 25 km away costs $13.75 in driving plus $9.90 in time. Most apps treat shelf price as the only number that matters. Shelfbee folds the drive into the math:
real_cost = price + (distance_km × $0.55) + (drive_minutes × $0.33)
The per-km figure tracks the Canadian Automobile Association estimates for an average compact car (gas, insurance, maintenance prorated). The per-minute figure values your time at $20/hour. You can override to a pure-price sort when you want it; the real-cost answer is just the default.
How Shelfbee fits next to other tools
Flyer apps (Flipp)
Answers: What's on sale this week, by retailer
Doesn't: No cross-retailer price comparison, no travel cost in the math, no shopping-list optimization
Retailer apps (PC Optimum, Save-on)
Answers: What's on sale at MY store
Doesn't: Locked to one chain. Can't tell you when driving 8 minutes to a different store actually wins
Delivery apps (Instacart)
Answers: What can be delivered to my door
Doesn't: Ranks by what generates the highest delivery margin, not by what saves you money
Shelfbee
Answers: Where should I shop this week to minimize total real cost?
Doesn't: We don't do delivery. We don't replicate the entire flyer experience. We answer one question well.
Apples-to-apples comparison
Every store names its SKUs differently — “No Name 2% Milk, 2L Jug” vs “Beatrice Partly Skimmed 2% Milk 2L.” If we just matched on text, the same product would appear as a dozen separate listings. Instead, Shelfbee maintains a canonical product layer — a curated list of ~1,500 high-velocity items that retailer SKUs are mapped against. When you search “2% milk 2L,” you see every retailer's version of the same product on one card, sorted by real cost.
This is months of curation that doesn't auto-generate. It's the reason comparison works.
Trust matters as much as math
Some shoppers prefer FreshCo for produce, Costco for baby. Real-cost ranking handles the math; per-category retailer preferences handle the trust. Set yours in /settings and your trusted stores get a soft ranking boost (never a hard filter — a 50%-off deal at a less-preferred store still surfaces, just below your preferred one).
No account required