Got this email the other day:
We need your help. There's only 14 days left. ☹️
Why is Trolley closing?
Recently, we discovered information that we present for free on Trolley.co.uk is the legal property of a data company.
After working with them, we were generously offered a heavily discounted licensing fee of £28,800 that we'd need to pay to continue helping people save on their groceries.
We're 4 volunteers who've spent hundreds of hours creating Trolley, paying for the server and hosting costs on our own - we don't make a penny from running it.
Trolley.co.uk doesn't make any money either and we now know that we would have to pay or close.
By donating just £5, you'll help save Trolley and be part of helping millions of people make ends meet for an entire year.
We really need all the help we can get. Would you be willing to help save Trolley?
DONATE £5
If you're unable to donate
More than anyone, we know how difficult times have become and if you're unable to donate, we completely understand.
Please don't worry, you can still help! By sharing with friends, family, with social media, and with popular forums like HotUKDeals and Reddit, you'll be spreading the message far and wide and helping even more donations come in.
Is this legit? I'd pay to keep the service running for sure. It definitely is worthwhile.
We need your help. There's only 14 days left. ☹️
Why is Trolley closing?
Recently, we discovered information that we present for free on Trolley.co.uk is the legal property of a data company.
After working with them, we were generously offered a heavily discounted licensing fee of £28,800 that we'd need to pay to continue helping people save on their groceries.
We're 4 volunteers who've spent hundreds of hours creating Trolley, paying for the server and hosting costs on our own - we don't make a penny from running it.
Trolley.co.uk doesn't make any money either and we now know that we would have to pay or close.
By donating just £5, you'll help save Trolley and be part of helping millions of people make ends meet for an entire year.
We really need all the help we can get. Would you be willing to help save Trolley?
DONATE £5
If you're unable to donate
More than anyone, we know how difficult times have become and if you're unable to donate, we completely understand.
Please don't worry, you can still help! By sharing with friends, family, with social media, and with popular forums like HotUKDeals and Reddit, you'll be spreading the message far and wide and helping even more donations come in.
Is this legit? I'd pay to keep the service running for sure. It definitely is worthwhile.
29 Comments
sorted byI will be gutted if it goes as there's no other app like it. Mysupermarket hit me when it went as it was a great app
It covers off questions like what if they don't reach the target. They can pay the money in 3 instalments so they'd effectively get a reprieve.
I do think they're being disingenuous though. There is no chance in hell someone owns pricing data. It is unique to each store. If anyone owns it, it would be the store. I am certain you would be laughed out of court if you tried to take someone to court for displaying price information without a licence.
So in my view the information they can't show would be things like product description as this is data that is given to stores. And I am quite sure that an intermediary exists to make this easier rather than 1,000s of manufactures contacting 10 supermarket chains with updated ingredients, descriptions etc then they contact 1 intermediary who the supermarkets all take data from.
It will be either GS1 or NielsenIQ Brandbank.
As for nothing else like it, they exist. priceable.co.uk/ is probably the next best.
“You saved Trolley.co.uk! Hi,
A little while ago, we were on the verge of closing due to licensing disputes.
Thousands of you spread the word, donated, and raised an incredible £11,966 in just over a week. Seeing how much you cared, an organisation that's loved by families across the UK decided to sponsor Trolley.co.uk.
Today, having secured funding for the next year, we're refunding every penny that was so kindly donated.
What happens now?We're finalising the last few things and we're hoping to announce the news very soon. For our incredible donors, your refund should hopefully be with you within the next 7-10 days.
Thank you for all of your support! 💜
With all of our love,
Team @ Trolley.co.uk”
After reading it all. It's too short a notice and that is a massive target figure to reach, then again anything is possible nowadays. Also the 28k is for a year, as a result the site model is going to change with possible adverts, referral links, etc. which has the potential to cripple the customer base that is trying to save the site.
More importantly, how were the Trolley team collating? Were they using a third party in between or using an algorithm code crawling through the supermarkets site's for the price points?
I'm aware there are industry sites that offer such services, could it be the Trolley team managed to do the same with ease and better still without any payment gateway?
I am now wondering how Mysupermarket operated, then later shutdown and also how the current legal ownership came about. (edited)
What happens next year when the next licence fee is due, and likely will be several times the current amount.
Replying to
For example, a simple search for 'Sheba cat food' provides a live price comparison of where the product is cheapest. This website cannot do this.
That would depend on the company remaining a non-profit, run on the basis of voluntary labour.
trolley.co.uk/sav…ey/
What does the data company do?
The data company digitises and maintains the product information for 98% of grocery products in the UK. They’ve generously worked with us to bring this cost as low as possible. (edited)