A trio of UVic grads have developed an app that helps Victorians save money on their groceries while planning meals that are healthy and budget friendly.
The idea for this app came to co-founders Yashar Samim, Alex Micu and Tomer Torgeman while they were venting to one another about the difficulties of budgeting as grocery prices skyrocket.
Samim had just moved out of his parents house at age 24, and was not used to footing the bill for his food.
“It was the first time I had to pay for groceries,” Samim told Victoria Buzz. “It made me realize how expensive things are, and also how hard cooking is, because I was used to my mom’s cooking.”
“So I tried to find a solution and I realized there was a gap—grocery deal apps don’t connect to recipes and recipe apps don’t really care about your budget.”
He says he would get frustrated looking back and forth between online recipes and grocery store deals that were not cohesive, and in the end, felt he was spending too much.
And so, the idea for Baski was born.
While creating the app, Samim realized that in Victoria, there are several locally-run grocers who often have better deals on some items than even the big box grocers.
“I wanted to make a platform that covered both ‘mom and pop’ shops and big chains so people have both options.”
Baski came together quite quickly once the idea was hashed out.
It started with a complex Excel spreadsheet that Samim had developed for his own use. Then, Micu and Torgeman took that, and having experience in software development, created a web app interface that was launched in the summer.
The trio then posted about their tool on the Victoria subreddit forum page, and were surprised when they received over 300 responses from people interested in testing Baski out.
From there, they turned Baski into a proper app, available for both Apple and Android products. The trio behind the app were able to make this happen with some seed money from a UVic commerce competition and a mentorship program.
Now the Baski app has over 6,000 users and counting.
How Baski works
Samim says Baski can be used in one of a few ways.
“You can either go directly to recipes and pick one that you like and it will tell you the ingredients that are on sale,” explained Samim.
“Or, you can create your own grocery list, input the stuff you already have in your house and this way you can find the best prices and recipes that include ingredients you already have.”
This process uses a combination of an algorithm and AI to find what a Baski-user wants to make and where has the cheapest ingredients for that meal.
There is another feature on the app called “Deal Swipe” that Samim thought would be a fun addition.
The feature works similarly to how Tinder and other dating apps work. It will show the user a deal at a local grocer and allow them to swipe right if they think it is a good deal, left if it’s a bad deal and up if they like it so much, they want it to be added to their grocery list.
What’s next for Baski
Samim says that he hopes to keep improving Baski by creating new features that will help not only shoppers, but small business owners as well.
“One of the things we’re working on that will be part of a future update will be a second app that will be available to mom and pop shops,” Samim explained.
“Let’s say you are a butcher, baker or small grocer that wouldn’t necessarily be able to make flyer deals because you don’t know what your demand is, you can still upload your deals into Baski.”
As an example, he said a butcher could upload a deal on a steak cut and that would allow that product to come up on users’ apps while they make their grocery lists.
He also says that he hopes people will provide input to help them address bugs and issues that make the app difficult to use and is open to any and all suggestions.
