New mobile app developed to follow commodity prices

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Commerce and Trade, in collaboration with the National Telecommunications Regulatory Commission (NTRC), has developed a mobile application that allows persons to view the prices of commodities at various supermarkets in St Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG).

The application, called Vincy Prices, was conceptualized by a former group of students from the St Vincent Grammar School (SVGS) going by the name of ECU.

Group members Luc Telemac, Christian Friday, Jeaniel Ibrahim and Luke Bullock presented the app during the NTRC’s iSquared competition back in 2014.

Speaking during the launch of Vincy Prices at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ conference room on March 30, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Commerce and Trade and deputy prime minister Louis Straker said that the objective of the app is to provide the general public with comparative prices of various commodities at different supermarkets.

Straker said that the app provides consumers with the location of some of the best priced commodities and this will assist in reducing shopping time. He noted that in addition, the app will soon be able to give the user the ability to scan items at different supermarkets and receive a listing of the availability and prices of the same item at different locations.

The supermarkets featured on the app so far are Coreas Food Mart, CK Greaves, Randy’s Supermarket, Massy Stores, PH Veira and Bonadie Supermarket.

According to Straker, the Ministry of Commerce and Trade is committed to updating the prices every second and fourth week of the month, after the officers have collected the data. The app is basically a digital embodiment of the Ministry’s commodities price list that is published in the newspapers on a weekly basis.

Straker said that the decision to create the app came from the fact that since introduced in 2013, none of the ideas or innovations of the NTRC’s iSquared competition have been implemented.

The app can be downloaded from the Google Play Store and is only available for android devices. It was developed by the NTRC’s Cyron Cyrus.

The launch also heard from the NTRC’s director Apollo Knights, executive director of the St Vincent and the Grenadines Chamber of Industry and Commerce (SVGCIC) Anthony Regisford and the ECU group. Also present were Leader of the Opposition Dr Godwin Friday and Ambassador of the Republic of China on Taiwan Baushuan Ger.

Knights said that the main challenge when developing the app was dealing with the stakeholders in relation to getting the data on products from the supermarkets.

He added that some of the supermarkets said they did not want to be part of Vincy Prices.

Addressing the launch, ECU’s group members thanked their former teacher, Susannah Ollivierre, for helping conceptualize the idea.

Group member Bullock said that they are quite happy to see how far the idea has come and would like to see it go even

further with added features.