An Ithaca-based startup company won a $200,000 prize for their online grocery app. The app can track customers shopping habits and lets them know when a product they use is about to run out. Some other features are, automatic application of discounts the store is offering.

1. Syracuse on the Cutting Edge of Online Grocery
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Will Rosie revolutionize grocery shopping or get lost in the noise?
After an Ithaca-based company won a $200,000 startup prize to support their online grocery ordering app,
excitement is high as the app nears its Syracuse launch. A Syracuse.com article discusses the soft launch
of the app, entitled Rose Applications, Inc. Already available at P&C stores in Cortland and Ithaca, the first
grocery store to use the app in Syracuse will be Nojaim Brothers, located on Gifford St.
CEO Nick Nickitas sees the Syracuse launch as a way to reach the revitalized Downtown Syracuse
population as well as SU students who make up the largest group of early adopters in the Syracuse Metro.
With popular services like FreshDirect and Soap taking off in New York City and elsewhere, the founders of
Rosie definitely have their work cut out for them. The major differentiator between Rosie, named after The
Jetson’s sarcastic robotic maid, and those aforementioned competitors is that it actually tracks consumers’
shopping habits and automatically alerts them when they are about to run out of a product that they buy
regularly. In theory, the app could replace grocery lists and solve the problem of forgetting the obvious
product while shopping.
Other features include automatic application of discounts that the store is offering. This means no more
coupon clipping or tedious checking of the circular ads. Rosie also gives you the option of pickup or
delivery. The pickup service tacks on just under six dollars to your order and allows you to skip the lines by
picking up your pre-bagged, prepaid groceries. Delivery will cost you an extra $12 or so.
While the app seems like a novel idea, there are still questions about its viability. Does Rosie provide
consumers with something truly new that they cannot get elsewhere? Are alerts about household items
running low actually necessary or simply a high tech solution to a problem that nobody has? With only a few
stores available on Rosie so far, it may be too early to predict Rosie’s fate, but it could be an app to watch.