| Let's go shopping |
| Written by Eloise Wall | Sunday, 22 November 2009 19:31 |
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As revealed by The Age in their article of 9 November, according to OECD figures, Australian grocery prices have risen 41.3 per cent since 2000 - faster than Britain's 32.9 per cent or America's 28.4 per cent. This fabulous news is compounded by the failure of the $7.7 million Grocery Choice website. This online tool was to allow users to find cheaper prices for their weekly shopping and put pressure on the big Australian supermarkets to be more competitive. Alas, it was not to be. Here at Chisholm & Harper, we have pondered over many cups of tea, how this amount of money was blown before someone realised that the prices on the site could not be kept up-to-date in a useful way. In its article of 17 November, The Age suggests that a combination of poor design, adherence to arbitrary time pressures and resistance by Coles and Woolworths, all contributed its demise. It is truly a shame that the design of this really valuable tool and the governance of this huge project could not have mitigated this disaster before so much money was blown. These are certainly areas we see as KEY to project success. Meanwhile, it seems that iPhone apps are popping up to try an address the gap left by Grocery Choice. Hopefully, there will be enough data available to make them useful and realistic. Unfortunately, I am left wondering if the people who really need to save money on their weekly shopping basket can afford an iPhone, the appropriate application and mobile Internet needed to make it work for them. I hope so. |
