“It was the first time that I felt the price change and while discussing it with my wife we thought it would be cool to know which supermarket is the cheapest.”

“I am a software developer so I started experimenting by getting the prices of the products from the online shops of the supermarkets and comparing them,” Manolis explained. 

What Manolis found is that there isn’t really a single cheap supermarket in Malta – some products are cheap at one supermarket, while other products are cheap at other supermarkets.

“So I decided to publish the project without making any revenue to help people compare prices and decide where they will do their shopping,” he explained.

“By using our website, users can prepare their shopping list and see how much money they are going to spend; where they can save money and keep on their budget.”

“All supermarkets are placing their products in a specific way, for example, you will find the expensive products on the eye level, but if you squat and look at the lower shelves you can find another brand with much less cost usually,” he explained. 

“For example, rice can be found in most households; you can buy 500 grams of rice starting from 90c up to €19.95. Usually, the buyer will go for the Uncle Bens or Tilda which are shiny and well-known and cost approximately €1.80-2.30.”

Manolis gets all of the products from the online shops of the supermarkets. On cheaptrolley.com, there are already 180,000 products from 10 supermarkets, with 50,000 of them already being grouped.

“Our target is to manage to group all the items to help the users do their shopping without the hassle of comparing prices themselves,” he said. 

When Manolis first started the website, it had around four supermarkets – since then, it has reached 10 supermarkets – and he’s on the hunt for more.

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