Tired of price comparisons? This app will do it for you

CHP, a price comparison app for supermarkets, is ideal for the pre-holiday season when shopping spikes.

A price comparison app (photo credit: PR)
A price comparison app
(photo credit: PR)

CHP is a price comparison app designed for supermarkets, making it perfect for the busy pre-holiday season when shopping increases significantly.

The app was developed following the 2014 Food Law, which aimed to enhance competition specifically in the food sector and consumer goods market to reduce prices for consumers. One key aspect of the law is price transparency. Mathematician and programmer Moshe Dolev decided to create CHP, an app that allows users to compare prices across various supermarkets using either a product's barcode or its name.

The idea for the app came from the need to know where to find the best prices before the weekly grocery run. CHP is packed with features, processing between 5 and 10 million records updated daily, allowing it to handle large amounts of data efficiently while sourcing, uploading, processing, and presenting the information.

The app allows users to create a permanent list of groceries and items they regularly buy. This makes it easy to generate the weekly shopping list by checking what is already in the house before heading to the supermarket. Users can also create a weekly list, adding items that need replenishing each week.

The list can be shared with other household members, provided they also have the app. CHP also keeps track of ongoing promotions—users can mark critical items and receive mobile alerts when one of the stores offers a deal on them.

Items are organized by store departments, helping users avoid unnecessary trips across different aisles. The app compares prices for all products in the list that overlap across different stores. CHP compares prices at leading supermarket chains and retailers like Super-Pharm, Be, and Good Pharm but does not include neighborhood grocery stores. Additionally, CHP is approved for use by Hadran, making it suitable for the religious and ultra-Orthodox communities.

The app is ideal for people who like to shop smart and plan ahead. It’s especially useful before holidays when larger shopping trips are common. CHP allows users to check the price of any product available on the market across leading supermarket chains in a given area, helping them choose the best place to shop.

It’s important to note that the prices on the app are updated every few hours, compelling all retailers to stay current. The app’s pricing data is sourced from retailer publications.

CHP is available to the general public and was created as a non-profit venture. The app’s name originates from the English term "cherry pickers," referring to people who go from store to store, buying only items that are on sale.