[IrishTechie]

I often think how great it would be to have a site where I could see all the shops nearby that have stock of X at Y price even if they don’t do online shopping. For example I am certain there are multiple places near me that have some 5m 10t tie-down straps, I’d happily drive to one to collect, but I won’t drive or ring 10-20 shops to find them so just order on Amazon.

It’s a tough problem I guess with so many stock systems out there and inevitably whoever creates the site will want to monetise it, then slowly enshitify it.

[theoreticalmal]

I bet most companies wouldn’t want to share that information, as they would end up directly competing for every item with every other store in the radius. Most stores have cost leaders on some items and then make up for that lost revenue with higher margins on others. With the new system, every store would have their high margin items next to the same item, but sold as a cost leader, at other stores

[ryandrake]

I agree with you, and this backwards mentality is handing even more business over from smaller local shops to the big online stores!

People are going to discover your prices anyway. Hiding them just means it will take longer. I remember my grandpa used to go to five different grocery stores weekly, just to do grocery shopping, because he knew store A had the cheapest eggs, store B had the cheapest vegetables, store C had the cheapest milk, and so on.

[account42]

And the same stores will then complain that Amazon is taking their business. Also, loss leaders don't make sense unless that price is widely known to the point where it draws people into your store.

[pimlottc]

This is basically what Google Shopping does, although it's mostly limited to major chains.

Here's an example:

https://www.google.com/search?q=rubbing+alcohol+nearby&udm=2...