day two exercise

It's rare that I go to a grocery store without forgetting why it is that I'm there. After a couple minutes of aimless wandering, I finally stop in the middle of an aisle to really concentrate on what items I need to purchase. I usually concoct a loose mental list of pertinent items before arriving at the store, so I try to reference that as other organized shoppers pass me by with lists in hand.

Writing a list of the items I need is often helfpul. It's true that I sometimes forget my pretty list at home, but the act of writing down the items is a useful exercise and I often try to visualize the list once I'm at the store and have realized that I've forgotten it at home. Sometimes I phone home to make sure I'm not forgetting any essential items, but this is only helpful when there is someone there to answer my call.

I would love to have a Grocery List option on my cell phone. Although I can be forgetful or absent-minded, I usually remember to bring my cell phone with me before leaving the apartment. Rather than writing grocery items on a piece of paper that can easily be left behind, I could input those items directly into my cell phone, therefore reducing the chances that I'll end up at the grocery store without my trusty list. This interface could also allow me to edit the list by adding items to it throughout the day (for example, if some forgotten ingredient comes to mind during class). An added bonus would be if this cellular Grocery List was organized based on like items, so that all things produce would be clumped together on one screen and all the frozen items would appear on a different one. There is nothing worse than being nearly done your shopping and realizing you need something from the aisle in which your shopping adventure began. A menu would allow users to navigate which screen they would like to see as they move through the various sections of the supermarket.

This interface could be problematic because it would take a long time to input all the items into the phone. I don't text message very often because it takes so long to type even a short message and I anticipate the same could be tedious in terms of this Grocery List option. The screen on many cell phones is also small and some people might find it difficult to read their lists, in which case, they would not use the option.

Although this sounds like a good idea in theory, I would probably stick to my old-fashioned habit of writing lists on paper, even though it means risking forgetting something while shopping and possibly having to make a return trip to get the forgotten item(s). The time it would take to enter everything into the phone and subsequently into the right category is not worth it to me. It would also sort of be a pain to carry your cell phone in one hand while trying to steer your cart through a busy store.