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The Flash Drive - The Big Interview: The Grocify App · The Flash Drive with Carl Wastie

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Weekday's fweet A seven pm there's a flash drive with
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Karen wed on KFM ninety four.
• 0:08
  Speaker 2: I know you may think it's just an app, why
• 0:10
  Speaker 2: people are going on, but you do realize you've created
• 0:13
  Speaker 2: an app that is designed not only on a utility level,
• 0:18
  Speaker 2: but also on a psychological level. You basically in the
• 0:21
  Speaker 2: heads of every South African. So while done, my friend, thank.
• 0:26
  Speaker 3: You, I appreciate it. I just just wanted to give
• 0:28
  Speaker 3: people cheap groceries.
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  Speaker 2: Is that it? Yeah, that's the that's the noble cause.
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  Speaker 2: I just want to give you cheap of groceries. So yes,
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  Speaker 2: the app, do with it what you want, and that's
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  Speaker 2: exactly what we're doing today. But I think the best
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  Speaker 2: place to start is what is grosify gro Cify. We've
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  Speaker 2: seen it in the Google App Store, the play Store.
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  Speaker 2: I just want to know, for anybody who is not
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  Speaker 2: really app savvy, what is Grosify.
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  Speaker 3: Well, to break it down into simple terms, it's just
• 1:00
  Speaker 3: an app that finds your nearest stores and then compares
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  Speaker 3: the groceries to make sure you get the cheapest variant
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  Speaker 3: of it.
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  Speaker 2: So geo located as well. So when you say your
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  Speaker 2: nearest stores, are you saying that you actually are getting
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  Speaker 2: the data from the area in and the retail stores
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  Speaker 2: around you, and that's how it finds you the best
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  Speaker 2: deals in certain products.
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  Speaker 3: Correct, Yeah, that is exactly how it does it.
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  Speaker 2: This is fascinating, but as a South African, I know
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  Speaker 2: where this came from. Like I know this is the
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  Speaker 2: head space of all of us. However, I need to
• 1:31
  Speaker 2: know the story. How did you come up with an
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  Speaker 2: app like this?
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  Speaker 3: Well, I didn't know. It wasn't my idea. It was
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  Speaker 3: my girlfriend's and mother's idea. I would usually capture, you know,
• 1:43
  Speaker 3: comparing like grocery prices between like four to five different places,
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  Speaker 3: and you know, she just looked at me one day
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  Speaker 3: and she was like, why don't you make something for this?
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  Speaker 3: And I thought, no, that's impossible, and then all two
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  Speaker 3: weeks lad that I started trying.
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  Speaker 2: Wow, so this is all your mother in law's idea
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  Speaker 2: pretty much?
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  Speaker 3: Yeah?
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  Speaker 2: Is she available for the rest of this interview?
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  Speaker 3: But if you wonder, what's tomar at the two pms,
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  Speaker 3: I can go recover.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, that'd be great, Thank you. I'd appreciate that. But
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  Speaker 2: let's just start off with you said you gave it
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  Speaker 2: a shot, So I need to know how this works.
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  Speaker 2: Let's just say I'm looking for a South African essential
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  Speaker 2: what we always look for and always compare. I'm sure
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  Speaker 2: you know which product this is. You have an idea, right,
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  Speaker 2: South African product that we all look for deals on
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  Speaker 2: every time we shop.
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  Speaker 3: Toilet paper.
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  Speaker 2: Come on, brother, hello toilet paper. You have no idea.
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  Speaker 2: There are WhatsApp groups at the moment of people getting
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  Speaker 2: together and finding cheaper toilet paper at the places they're at.
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  Speaker 2: So how did you get to that fine tuning of
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  Speaker 2: actually number one getting retail data and then aggregating that
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  Speaker 2: onto a single app so you can see what has
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  Speaker 2: happened in your area.
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  Speaker 3: I can obviously I can't give away the entire secrets,
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  Speaker 3: do it?
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  Speaker 2: Please don't. It's fine and I didn't ask for the secret.
• 3:10
  Speaker 2: Let's just give it to me like a layman's terms.
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  Speaker 3: Then layman's terms. That's not a problem. Yeah. So essentially,
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  Speaker 3: when it comes down to it, it's essentially a two
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  Speaker 3: part So all products, regardless of retailers, actually have a
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  Speaker 3: constant code called like a gt I M like that
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  Speaker 3: comes from the producer, yes, right, who like made the coke?
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  Speaker 3: So step one is essentially you have to match those
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  Speaker 3: and then that's kind of the easy parts, right, so
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  Speaker 3: you you match those and then okay, cool, it's it's
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  Speaker 3: one to one, and now you're immediately know the second
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  Speaker 3: part is I've essentially got an algorithm in the app
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  Speaker 3: itself that looks at the two names of products, and
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  Speaker 3: if it's similar enough, then it groups them together.
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  Speaker 2: Okay, don't give away all the secrets now, but I'm
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  Speaker 2: I'm getting what you're putting down because I know that
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  Speaker 2: products come out the barcode, and that barcode is on
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  Speaker 2: the actual product, no matter what retail store it's in.
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  Speaker 2: So I'm assuming that the barcode is almost speaking to
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  Speaker 2: the product itself, and that's what the algorithm catches in
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  Speaker 2: order to aggregate and then give it you on a
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  Speaker 2: display screen, toilet paper, here, here, here, and here here.
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  Speaker 2: Your prices make a good decision, so a little birdie
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  Speaker 2: tells me. Because I haven't interacted with the apt just yet,
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  Speaker 2: I've gotten as far as downloading it. I'm looking forward
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  Speaker 2: to using it. But a little birdie tells me that
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  Speaker 2: there's also a little thing a feature in there around
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  Speaker 2: cost of getting to the store in question to get
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  Speaker 2: the cheaper deal. Is that true that.
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  Speaker 3: Is completely true.
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  Speaker 4: It does calculate that what who are you your Ethan
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  Speaker 4: musk Giard was anyway, dude, let's just do this, Okay.
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  Speaker 2: So you saying that if I find TP toilet paper
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  Speaker 2: at a retail store that's a bit further away at
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  Speaker 2: least that's calculated in right.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah. Yeah. So for example, if let's say Checkers has
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  Speaker 3: toilet paper for like I don't know someone or I
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  Speaker 3: don't I don't do much.
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  Speaker 2: Just yeah, say one hundred and fifty bucks okay, yeah.
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  Speaker 3: A hundred two bucks toilet pay fair Checkers, And then
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  Speaker 3: you know you have a spot near by or you
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  Speaker 3: know that's maybe a bit further away. And like let's
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  Speaker 3: say their toilet paper is you know, they're on a
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  Speaker 3: super sale and they want to get rid of it,
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  Speaker 3: and it's like a hundred and like ten or whatever. Yeah, right,
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  Speaker 3: so to me, you see like a forty rand difference.
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  Speaker 3: Oh that's pretty big, and you know that might entire someone,
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  Speaker 3: but then they go like, oh no, like it's a
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  Speaker 3: waste because I'll use up XYZ in a petrol. But
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  Speaker 3: the app shows that for you. It just it calculates
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  Speaker 3: the distance and then it's essentially based on how big
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  Speaker 3: your car is. These are some details you have to
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  Speaker 3: answer because I can't tell how big your car is
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  Speaker 3: and like that. But essentially, yeah, it does that. And
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  Speaker 3: it also has a constantly updated price for petrol based
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  Speaker 3: on where you are, and then it'll just tell you
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  Speaker 3: so then you'll see like, oh wait, it would only
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  Speaker 3: cost me like eight rand worth of petrol, so I
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  Speaker 3: should do that to say for your own.
• 6:01
  Speaker 2: I'm I'm shocked, I'm surprised, I'm enthused, I'm proud, I'm
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  Speaker 2: you're a South African. I want to give you a hug.
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  Speaker 2: This is an award winning app. I'm telling you now
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  Speaker 2: on this day, I told you it's going to be
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  Speaker 2: award winning because you're making our lives so much easier,
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  Speaker 2: especially with that idea of putting the petrol in there,
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  Speaker 2: because that's what people say, Hey, I saw it, dear cheaper.
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  Speaker 2: But then I'm going to have to drive out your
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  Speaker 2: own petrol to get there. You know, this is the
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  Speaker 2: thing and I love this, So tell me a bit
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  Speaker 2: more about I'm going to throw you a curve ball.
• 6:33
  Speaker 2: Let me put it that way. Here's the curveball. Sometimes
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  Speaker 2: retail stores in their independence or in their franchise stable
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  Speaker 2: will have a deal. Maybe they overstocked. This is usually
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  Speaker 2: when a deal happens, right, So Canola oil, for instance,
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  Speaker 2: they've got too many of the bottles on, you know,
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  Speaker 2: in stock, and what they'll do is immediately they'll slap
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  Speaker 2: on a discount. Now, how do you account for that?
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  Speaker 2: Because that happens quite frequently. So so I know the
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  Speaker 2: Apple have existing costs, etc. And I'm sure you updated
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  Speaker 2: with your algorithm, but how do you account for those
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  Speaker 2: sort of on the spot deals for limited time only?
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  Speaker 2: Will that be reflected on the app?
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  Speaker 3: So for lack a better term, there's a lot of math.
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  Speaker 2: That's fine, don't worry. It's Monday. No no, no, no mathematics.
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  Speaker 2: Please save me from do me. Okay, I'll tell you
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  Speaker 2: what explain it in maths lit perfect math list.
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  Speaker 3: Okay, Well, in math the list essentially the problems already
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  Speaker 3: been solved. If you take a look at the app,
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  Speaker 3: if you want to use it, it already shows you deals
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  Speaker 3: per per store. And then when it comes to the
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  Speaker 3: national ones, at least for now, I've gotten into contact
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  Speaker 3: with the SPA and they're willing to essentially give me
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  Speaker 3: stuff that I can use to display the national level
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  Speaker 3: deals on the app.
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  Speaker 2: This is yeah, this is crazy. So you're saying that
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  Speaker 2: these retailers are open to say, hey, then a big
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  Speaker 2: deal coming maybe next week. Would they be able to
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  Speaker 2: negotiate with you? Or you're still brokering those types of relationships.
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  Speaker 3: I'm still brokering those tops of relationships. It's a very
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  Speaker 3: how do you say, like, I'm in murky waters. I've
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  Speaker 3: never done or experienced anything like this. I'm just being
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  Speaker 3: very careful.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, I know you do, because obviously you have everybody aggregated.
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  Speaker 2: They're in the same basket, and I think that's probably
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  Speaker 2: where the contention comes from. But I'm going to tell
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  Speaker 2: you stay steadfast and keep on this course because I
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  Speaker 2: think what it does it perhaps holds a lot of
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  Speaker 2: retailers accountable, I suppose in a lot of ways for
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  Speaker 2: their prices. And then the next schooler thought is that
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  Speaker 2: the larger retailers have a better supply chain because they're
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  Speaker 2: bigger versus the smaller retailers who can't afford a lot,
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  Speaker 2: like the convenience stores, et cetera. But also, I think
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  Speaker 2: this is an opportunity for some of the products that
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  Speaker 2: those smaller retailers to be on show. Especially if they've
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  Speaker 2: broken their own deals. That could make our lives a
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  Speaker 2: lot easier as consumers. So I think this is a Yes,
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  Speaker 2: I know you're going to hit a lot of roadblocks
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  Speaker 2: here and there, but I think that in principle it
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  Speaker 2: is helping every South African And you have no idea.
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  Speaker 2: As someone who is also on the hunt for great deals,
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  Speaker 2: I have so many pamphlets and apps and it just
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  Speaker 2: gets a bit messy. So this is essentially the cleanup
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  Speaker 2: of what I do anyway on a monthly basis. So
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  Speaker 2: well done to you for an incredible app thus far.
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  Speaker 2: I know it's still developing, but it's out there and
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  Speaker 2: I know that the responses are going to be great.
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  Speaker 2: So well done to you, Ethan, and to your mother
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  Speaker 2: in law. Yeah, just give it, give us some credit. Okay,
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  Speaker 2: she's amazing, she had a good idea. She does whatever
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  Speaker 2: South African consumer does. We compare prices all the time.
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  Speaker 2: Of course, there's one last thing. I know that on
• 9:48
  Speaker 2: the play Store we can download it there, but I
• 9:50
  Speaker 2: know that iPhone users and there are many would like
• 9:53
  Speaker 2: to know when that's going to be available on their
• 9:56
  Speaker 2: app store, So when is that going to be dropping?
• 10:00
  Speaker 3: Funnily, enough. I think that was the most ask question.
• 10:02
  Speaker 3: But yeah, I'm I'm sort I'm sorting it asked and
• 10:06
  Speaker 3: I'm hoping before the end of March that it'll be
• 10:09
  Speaker 3: on the I Store, Apple Store, at wherever you guys
• 10:12
  Speaker 3: are about.
• 10:13
  Speaker 2: Yeah, are you saying that you're an Android user like me,
• 10:17
  Speaker 2: I'm an Android? Say yes, of course, No, No, I'm kidding.
• 10:21
  Speaker 2: Love my android love this app as well. So just
• 10:24
  Speaker 2: as a last thought, I'm looking into the future beyond
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  Speaker 2: some of the roadblocks, et cetera. You know, where do
• 10:31
  Speaker 2: you see this going? Like, what's the what's the big
• 10:33
  Speaker 2: dream for you? I like to manifest verbally, I think
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  Speaker 2: it's important, So you know where would you like this
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  Speaker 2: to go? What's what's next in the business plan for you?
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  Speaker 2: Taking Grossify out there?
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  Speaker 3: Well, if I if I, if I want to manifest,
• 10:46
  Speaker 3: if I'm trying to manifest, the best idea what I
• 10:48
  Speaker 3: want in the future is I kind of just want
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  Speaker 3: an app that a user can talk into and they
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  Speaker 3: can go, like, listen, I need this mini meals for
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  Speaker 3: like five people over this week on the cheapest stuff
• 11:01
  Speaker 3: for me. And then it runs through an algorithm and
• 11:03
  Speaker 3: then it grabs the data from the stores and then
• 11:06
  Speaker 3: it plops it up and then just lets you hit order.
• 11:10
  Speaker 2: Okay, so you know you better do that very quickly
• 11:11
  Speaker 2: because you say that out loud now, So well, yeah,
• 11:17
  Speaker 2: I think you just put pressure on your deadline for
• 11:20
  Speaker 2: that now because naturally many software developed developers listen to
• 11:24
  Speaker 2: the show. But now, I love the fact that I mean,
• 11:27
  Speaker 2: don't worry, it's live, which means I know whose idea
• 11:29
  Speaker 2: that was, So don't worry. I got you back at
• 11:31
  Speaker 2: the IP court anyway, dude, it's been great to chat
• 11:35
  Speaker 2: to you while done in creating this. I know there's
• 11:38
  Speaker 2: a lot of nuances about how it got developed in
• 11:40
  Speaker 2: the back end, but I know that type of terminology
• 11:43
  Speaker 2: you may just fly over my head and a lot
• 11:45
  Speaker 2: of other people's heads. But number one, you're a South
• 11:48
  Speaker 2: African who looked at a South African need. You created
• 11:50
  Speaker 2: it app for it. You use tech to assist a consumer.
• 11:54
  Speaker 2: That's what where tech should be. It should be in
• 11:56
  Speaker 2: that space where you're making it easier and you're actually
• 11:58
  Speaker 2: getting more bang for our buck, which is very important
• 12:01
  Speaker 2: given the socioeconomics of South Africa. So, Ethan, this is
• 12:05
  Speaker 2: a moment for you and I just wanted to capture
• 12:07
  Speaker 2: you on this day as we all start downloading to
• 12:10
  Speaker 2: say thank you and we wish you all the best.
• 12:12
  Speaker 3: My friend, I appreciate it. Thank you.
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: Weekdays three to seven pm, there's a flash Drive with
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: Karl we Si on KFM ninety four point five