Picture this: You’re wandering around the grocery store, trying to buy Canadian. That carton of blueberries is a no go — and that loaf of bread doesn’t make the cut, either. The juice you wanted to buy was made in Canada … using imported ingredients.
Wouldn’t it be great if your phone could just magically tell you whether the products you want to buy are Canadian or not? Well, now it can — thanks to savvy entrepreneurs across the country who’ve created apps meant to help shoppers identify the origin of everyday staples.
There’s Shop Canadian, the brainchild of two software developers in Edmonton; Buy Beaver, which was dreamt up by two Montreal entrepreneurs; O SCANada, created by a mother and son in Calgary; and Maple Scan, an AI-powered tool made by a Calgary researcher. All four apps have a feature that lets shoppers scan an item’s barcode to determine …