Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Tracking Austrian grocery prices by scraping store sites

mastodon.gamedev.place

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

261–270 of 402 posts

Re: Tracking Austrian grocery prices by scraping store sites

#261

Post by gsich »

FirmwareBurner wrote: post #26
michaelhoney wrote: post #2

This is a great thread, and it shows the power of smart, tech-capable citizens.

>it shows the power of smart, tech-capable citizens Consumers in Austria who travel abroad/to Germany often, already knew they were getting scammed for a long time now, but couldn't prove it and now they can, so the more important question is what will come out of it, as the data shows the big retailers clearly cooperating on price fixing. My guess, nothing, as the government regulators who are supposed to watch over…

>Consumers in Austria who travel abroad/to Germany often, already knew they were getting scammed for a long time now, but couldn't prove it and now they can, so the more important question is what will come out of it, as the data shows the big retailers clearly cooperating on price fixing.

Well they could prove it (ie take the receipt with you), but got lame excuses for why is's cheaper in Germany.

Re: Tracking Austrian grocery prices by scraping store sites

#262

Post by dustfinger »

xeckr wrote: post #245
dustfinger wrote: post #235

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Austria's real problem is that it's a bad business environment with high taxes and tons of regulation. I feel that Canada has a similar problem.

It's obviously not as conducive to business as in the US. However, one advantage I can think of is that registering a new business in Canada takes only about a day.

I should add that I don't know much about regulations in either country. I would love to start a similar opensource project for Canada. I am very curious about what we might find.

Re: Tracking Austrian grocery prices by scraping store sites

#263

Post by Aurornis »

SenAnder wrote: post #242

And this is why scraping is under technical and legal attack. To maintain their panopticon, where they see all, while you get only a pinhole view of, in this case, the economy.

Scraping is huge business for people who don’t have your best interests in mind, too. There are many businesses built on the idea of gathering as much of people’s data as they can find in the public internet and selling it to anyone willing to pay.

Contrary to what many people thing, Facebook, Google, and other companies do not sell your data! They are ad companies that use their private data to target ads, but they aren’t selling it to 3rd parties likely many people have been led to believe. This has created a market opening for nefarious companies to scrape these websites, compile the data, and sell it to everyone from police to governments to spammers.

I’m not saying there’s a right answer to regulation, but it’s incorrect to say that scrapers are always the good actors championing the public’s best interests.

Re: Tracking Austrian grocery prices by scraping store sites

#265

Post by wholesomepotato »

ro-_-b wrote: post #260

I lived in Austria and in Germany and it's 100% true, prices in supermarkets are significantly higher in Austria even for products produced in Austria. The reasons IMO are: * less price sensitivity: German people are extremely price sensitive, they discuss and compare prices all the time. In Austria people care way less about this on average. Supermarkets take advantage * higher logistics costs: population density in…

If we all lived in tents, cost of living would go down.

It's silly. If you can afford not having to worry only about the price, congratulate yourself and enjoy it.

Re: Tracking Austrian grocery prices by scraping store sites

#266

Post by vitro »

Void_ wrote: post #255
vitro wrote: post #254

I was pondering about an idea for an app that will crowdsource prices of items and their development in the time. You know, to be aware when there is some product discount, but during the discount period, the original price is higher that usual which means customer is being mislead. This practice, although prevalent, is not legal in EU [1] The app would let you track prices for products in individual stores by scanni…

I don’t know about rest of EU, but here in Slovakia, every receipt has a QR code. You can send that number to API for receipt verification - and it returns all line items and prices. If we could get people to scan the receipts (expense tracking for example) we would have massive amount of crowdsourced data. Wish I had time to pursue this idea!

Interesting! That would make things way easier.

Another feature that comes to my mind is setting up watches for products you are interested in. Especially for people who need to watch every expense, this could come very handy.

Yes, time..

Re: Tracking Austrian grocery prices by scraping store sites

#267

Post by elAhmo »

I_am_tiberius wrote: post #147

I don't understand why people, at least in Vienna, go to alternative stores. There are so many small stores with much better food prices in Vienna. I guess prices need to rise even more until people change their behavior.

Can you share some examples of such stores?

Re: Tracking Austrian grocery prices by scraping store sites

#268

Post by ro-_-b »

ro-_-b wrote: post #260

I lived in Austria and in Germany and it's 100% true, prices in supermarkets are significantly higher in Austria even for products produced in Austria. The reasons IMO are: * less price sensitivity: German people are extremely price sensitive, they discuss and compare prices all the time. In Austria people care way less about this on average. Supermarkets take advantage * higher logistics costs: population density in…

Also important to note:

Germany is a car country: most ways to work, gym, etc in the average German city are done by car. Makes it easy to drive the extra mile to the cheapest supermarket.

Austria is much better for using public transport or the bike. In this case you won't make the extra way to stop at the cheapest grocery. And in the areas in Austria where people use cars population density is so low that not a lot of competition between supermarkets exists

Re: Tracking Austrian grocery prices by scraping store sites

#269

Post by Timon3 »

the_mitsuhiko wrote: post #213
woodson wrote: post #211

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You’re saying there is no equivalent to Ladenzeitgesetz in Germany?

There is, but not nearly as restrictive. Stores can be open from at least 6 to 20 any day of the week other than Sunday and in most states in Germany, Sunday trading has been at least partially permitted. In Austria you cannot even operate a fully automated grocery store (either by vending machines or something like Amazon Go) without being afoul of the regulation.

> There is, but not nearly as restrictive. Stores can be open from at least 6 to 20 any day of the week other than Sunday

I just looked up the corresponding law for Austria, and they are allowed to open from 6 to 21 on weekdays, and 6 to 18 on Saturdays. Doesn't really seem more restrictive?

> and in most states in Germany, Sunday trading has been at least partially permitted.

Not really. For each Bundesland there are a couple of cities where a few stores can open, but they are a very rare exception. Example for tomorrow: https://www.kaufsonntag.de/datum-termine/september/17-09-202...

And keep in mind that even for those cities it's not all stores. I checked Cologne as an example, and there it's for example only stores in the district Köln-Lindenthal.

Re: Tracking Austrian grocery prices by scraping store sites

#270

Post by kiney »

ro-_-b wrote: post #268
ro-_-b wrote: post #260

I lived in Austria and in Germany and it's 100% true, prices in supermarkets are significantly higher in Austria even for products produced in Austria. The reasons IMO are: * less price sensitivity: German people are extremely price sensitive, they discuss and compare prices all the time. In Austria people care way less about this on average. Supermarkets take advantage * higher logistics costs: population density in…

Also important to note: Germany is a car country: most ways to work, gym, etc in the average German city are done by car. Makes it easy to drive the extra mile to the cheapest supermarket. Austria is much better for using public transport or the bike. In this case you won't make the extra way to stop at the cheapest grocery. And in the areas in Austria where people use cars population density is so low that not a lot…

Not true. Most people in germany have a supermarket in walking distance to their home and the bime infrastructe is often critizised but actually good compared to most cou tries
Post reply on HN