Given that these prices are going into a database, I was hoping that you could click on an item and get its pricing over time (not a referral link to the Trade Joes web site).
Sorry can't edit it now but you are correct and I wasn't thinking "that" kind of referral :-). Easy to see that interpretation though, will have to remind myself to use "links that reference the product".
FWIW cmoog, I think it is pretty cool. I've always felt that good surveillance on retail prices with specific product information (like weight/servings) would be a solid data set for economists and people like me to understand "real" inflation, "greed" inflation, and general product pricing trends.
I love the idea of pricing over time. It seems like things jump around in 50 cent increments quite a bit. Would be interesting to graph it. I wonder if you'd be able to gather enough data before TJ's decides to implement better endpoint security, though. Having tried to do something similar with airline website data, they sure can make it challenging.
My radical hack idea was to start an online newspaper and to contract with the local super markets to run a copy of their weekly insert. Fill the paper with local news and collect price data over time which could be marketed as a product to people who were interested in the data.
The most appealing part of this hack is that the advertisers weren't the customer, they were the product. :-)