Online Gluten-free Food Catalog – Gluten Free Grocery Shopping Made Easy

Nov. 13, 2012 - PRLog -- The online Gluten-free Catalog has three main features: 1. it helps shoppers search for gluten-free products by brand name, product type, and store name; 2. it enables shoppers to find the store offering the lowest price; 3. it allows users to add new entries to the catalog and keep the catalog up-to-date.

The first feature is to help shoppers search for their favorite gluten-free products by brand name, product types, and store name.  

For example, if Mary wants to look up gluten-free cereals, she could click on “cereal” in the Gluten-Free Product Type menu, located on the bottom-right corner of each page. On the “cereal” page, all of the gluten-free cereals are listed in order of entry dates. Each entry contains a short description about the product, its price and the corresponding store name, its brand name, and the city where the store is located in. Most entries are also accompanied by an image to help shoppers visually identify the product in the store.

In another example, John wants to find out what gluten-free products are carried at the Metro store. He clicks on “Metro” under the “Stores” menu, located at the top-right corner of each page. After browsing through the entries, he makes a shopping list for his favorite gluten-free products available at the Metro store in his city, so he wouldn’t have to walk through every aisle in the store to search for his gluten-free groceries.

The second feature of the Gluten-free Catalog is to help shoppers compare prices of the same product carried at various grocery stores and provide them with money-saving opportunities.

The good news is that many grocery stores carry the same gluten-free products. The bad news is that they don’t price these products equally.  Since gluten-free foods are generally more expensive than regular groceries, smart shoppers can save a significant amount of money using a quick price comparison amongst several stores.

For example, Lisa wants to compare the price of the Eco Pac cereal made by Nature’s Path. She would enter the keywords “nature’s path eco pac” in the Search bar, located at the top-right corner of each page. After pressing on the “Search” button, the search result page would return a list of Nature’s Path Eco Pac cereals with the keywords “nature’s path” and “eco pac” highlighted in bold. Each item in the listing is a link followed by a brief description. By clicking on each link, a detailed description of this product would be displayed, accompanied by its price and corresponding store. From a quick glance, Lisa could find the store carrying the lowest price for the same cereal.

The third feature of the Gluten-free Catalog is to allow users to add new entries and keep the gluten-free catalog up-to-date.

For example, Loblaws recently introduced a new gluten-free bread made by El Peto. Jennifer searchs “El Peto bread” on the website using the Search bar, but can’t find this new product anywhere on the website. She wants to share this new product with the gluten-free community, so she logs onto the website (or creates a new account for the first time) and adds a new entry for the El Peto gluten-free bread in a matter of a minute. To add an entry, she clicks on “Add Gluten-free Catalog Entry” tab, located at the header menu. The “Add Gluten-free Catalog Entry” page looks just like a blog, where she fills out a short description about this new product, uploads an image, and enters its price. Then she chooses the product type, brand name, store name, and the city from the drop-down menus. Upon submission, she would see her new entry show up on the top of the front page. Also, the new entry would be visible under the Brand Names, Product Types, and Stores menus. As well, it would become searchable through the Search bar within 24 hours.

In another example, Peter found out that the Enjoy Life’s chocolate chip cookies is on sale at Lablaws in Ottawa. He goes on the website and searches for “Enjoy Life chocolate chip cookies Loblaws Ottawa” and finds the entry for this product (alternatively, he can click on “Enjoy Life” under Brand Name category). He adds a comment to the entry, informing the rest of the gluten-free community about the price change. Once the sale is over, Peter or someone else can add another comment to reflect the price change again.

The Gluten-free Catalog helps shoppers find a large variety of gluten-free products that are available at their local grocery stores. The grouping of products in terms of product types, brand names, and store names makes the search easy and flexible. The advanced search feature on the website also helps smart shoppers find the best deals, generating tremendous money-saving opportunities for these generally more expensive speciality foods. In addition, the website allows shoppers to exchange and share news about product introduction and price change. Thanks to the power of the Internet, the most up-to-date information can be shared instantly across the entire gluten-free community in Canada.

Wen encourages you to peruse through the website http://glutenfreecatalog.ca (http://www.glutenfreecatalog.ca/) . You are most welcome to create an account and start sharing information with other gluten-free shoppers, either you are in Halifax, Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto, or Vancouver. Although the gluten-free catalog is currently based on grocery information in Ottawa, you can help expand the catalog to make it serve shoppers from coast to coast.

Wen constantly strives to make the website more useful and user-friendly. For that reason, you are welcome to submit your feedback or suggestions to info@glutenfreecatalog.ca . She hopes that the Gluten-free Catalog will make your shopping more enjoyable and satisfying. Together, you can make Gluten-free shopping easy!