After reading this post about Android outselling iPhone, I got a tweet from Scott from the Ausdroid Podcast who suggested emailing customer service for Coles and Woolworths, which I did, and received the following replies confirming that both supermarket companies are working on Android applications.
Coles:
Thank you for your enquiry regarding Coles Shopmate.
Unfortunately this application is only available on the iphone; however I can confirm that we are currently working on making this application available for Android phones as well.
Once again we thank you for your email and looking forward to your future custom.
Yours Sincerely
Melany
Coles Customer Care.
Woolworths:
Thank you for contacting us about our new App.
We’re currently looking into extending our app across different handsets, including Android, and hope to have something to announce in the near future. Stay tuned for more information soon via our website and Facebook page (facebook.com/woolworths).
Please let me know if there is anything further we can help with.
Kind regards,
Deirdre
Woolworths Supermarket Customer Service Team
The current iPhone app for both stores offers the ability to create lists, check recipes, locate stores & view specials. The Woolworths app is also able to scan barcodes, whilst the Coles app appears to offer a ‘Virtual Home’ option to suggest products for rooms in your house.
So it appears that both of the large chains are looking into apps for Android and perhaps other platforms as well.
Why do we care? These duopoly’s already control every aspect of our lives from retail,pubs/gambling,fuel and god knows what else I’ve forgotten. So why let them control it any further with a app to make it easier for them to sell/track stuff to us?
Why are they so Hung up on Apple Android now is the biggest and the gap is widening. Get with the times big companies!!
well.. I got something different….
“Thanks for your email. We are
currently looking at all platforms for Coles Shopmate but unfortunately don’t
have any immediate plans to roll it out to Android in the immediate future.
Regards,
Coles Webteam”
Why retailers wasting lots of money on creating several device specific Apps when one mobile website would do the trick so everyone had access?
Looks like ‘APP FEVER’ is causing people to make some very expensive mistakes.
Mobile is ok but you can’t beat a native app.
Mind emailing ANZ about their GoMoney app too? 🙂
I did and they told me SFA.
Apparently they can also organise a list into order so that each aisle had all its items in a row..to do this it must have the geography of every single Australian store in it…. Sounds like a lot of work
Each store already has a list at the end of each aisle (usually). Because the layout of each store is slightly different, I’ve found them invaluable. It’s the laminated sheet on a string/chain.
Looking forward to the android versions.
This goes better than that. If you are stuck on a product and cant find it the app tells you the isle. I at first had trouble finding water as it wasn’t in the drinks isle.