About Membership
1.1 How do I sign up GrocerySurf membership?
If you are a new visitor and would like to sign up for GrocerySurf, please click
Join GrocerySurf on the homepage. For more information about privacy policy and terms of use, please click the links at the bottom of the page. You can find these links at every page of the website.
1.2 Member benefits
As a GrocerySurf member, you will enjoy:
- unlimited, easy-to-use, and complete-personalized shopping lists
- virtual pantry
- unlimited storage of recipes
- check shopping list through mobile phone and computer
- coupon alert
- grocery saving tips that fit individual lifestyle
- automatic reminder for items that are running low
It is easy to use, and free to sign up.
1.3 What is Secure connection?
GrocerySurf uses the Secure connection guarding the information you submit on the login and sign up page. Your information is encrypted during the trasmission. You may notice little delay while loading the page. The message box will show as follows: Establishing secure connection. Please wait...
1.4 I forgot my password. What can I do?
Goto the Login page and click on the link "forgot my password." You will receive a temporary password in your email account. If you do not find the email in the Inbox, it may be because of the spam filter setting. please check the bulk folder or junk mail folder.
1.5 About your privacy
We never send email and ask the information such as your login name and password. If you ever receive the email fraud, please notify us immediately. In the meantime, do not click on the link in the email and provide any personal information.
For more information about privacy policy, please click the links at the bottom of the page. You can find the link at every page of the website.
Recipe Section
2.1 Does GrocerySurf have recipes?
Currently we do not share or provide recipes. The reason is simple - people we've been working with often have recipes that are used regularly. What we think useful is a tool to transfer ingredients from recipes to the shopping list. - It is called recipe cart.
To know more about recipe cart, click here.
The upcoming feature in the recipe section includes the guest chef of the month and the recipe of the month. Our guest chef not only shares the recipe with all Grocery Surfers, but also hosts the Q&A for that month. We will have more discussions in depth about recipes and cooking related topics. And it is open to all Grocery Surfers.
2.2 How to - add new recipe?
Go to the recipes page, and click on the sub menu link add new.
If you have the recipe on paper, please type in the title of recipe, comment if any, source if applicable, ingredients and cooking procedure. You can skip the cooking procedure part if you do not need it as a reference while cooking.
Use the Enter key to separate each ingredient on a new line. The ingredient box should look like this.
Click NEXT, and you will see the program assign the aisle name for each ingredients (Yes. Grocery Surfers try really hard to make it efficient!) Some ingredients may not have aisle specified, please choose the aisle. Next time the program will remember your input and won't ask for aisle again for the same item. When finished, click SUBMIT. The recipe title will show up in the left menu bar.
We had checked some popular recipe websites for the recipe input. If you see space or special symbols in front of each ingredient, please ignore it. The program will remove them all after you click NEXT button.
The recipe website we had tested include:
Allrecipes
Epicurious
Food Network
KRAFT food
Martha Stewart Everyday Food
Recipe Source
Better Home and Garden
Please contact us if there is a problem during your use or any good recipe source you would like us to test. Thank you.
2.3 Recipe cart - Transfer the recipe ingredients into shopping list
Recipe cart serves as a transit between the recipe and your grocery list. Based on shopping frequency (ex. once a month, every week), pantry stock and meal planning, you can transfer the items needed for weekly/monthly meal plan into the grocery list. The recipe cart allows you to organize the list before the final input into the grocery list. For example, you can change the store you would like to go shopping for each item. You can also change the quantity of the items, add notes, and combine the duplicate ingredients needed in separate recipes. This way the grocery list has no clutter and is more accurate for your shopping trip.
To start, go to View Recipes page. Click recipe title from the left menu bar to view the recipe or use the search box to find the recipe by ingredients or title. Choose the store to input the ingredients, then click ingredients as needed. When finished, click Add to recipe cart button.
2.4 Examples of using Recipe cart
- simplify the list
- add details
Let us say you need 2 egg yolks for the breakfast scrambled egg, and 4 eggs for the sponge cake as the dinner dessert. Instead of showing 2 egg yolk and 4 eggs in the shopping list, you can combine them into half dozen of eggs in your shopping list.
Different recipe may require same ingredient but different brands. (Yes. I believe the brand does the magic in many of my recipes.) You can change or add more details in the notes for that matter. As a matter of fact, you may have to put them into shopping lists for different stores because one store may not carry all the brands you need.
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Shopping List
3.1 How do I use the shopping list?
To add one more item type the item name. You can either click on the button Add new item or press the Enter key on your keyboard for faster input.
To jump from one field to another (ex. item name, brand, notes, aisle), press the Tab key on your keyboard or click the field.
To specify the aisle name, click the aisle in the aisle list or type your own aisle name.
3.2 How do I use the smart input feature?
The smart input is shown in the yellow box when you type the name of the item. For example, by typing letter e in the item field, you may get egg, eggplant, envelope in the yellow box. If there are many items, please specify one more letter (ex. egg for egg, eggplant). You can click on the item you want and it will add into the shopping list automatically.
The smart input remembers your input, and it adjusts the data to fit your personal preference. In other words, it actually grows as you use. We do not share the smart input data between users as spam protection.
3.3 Can I add my own aisle to the aisle list?
Yes, You can define your own aisle list by simply typing the new aisle name for the item in your shopping list. The new aisle will be added into the aisle list once you unload the item into pantry room. For more information about unloading zone for pantry room, click Here.
Please note that we do not share your aisle list with other users so that there is no unwanted input shown in the aisle list.
3.4 Do I need to fill all the fields in the shopping list?
No. Feel free to use the fields that you need and leave the other fields empty. The only required field is the name of the item. However, we would suggest you to complete the input as much as possible since the smart input feature will fill all the fields automatically for your next purchase. It does not make any difference except for the first time input.
For more information about shopping list, please click here. It will go to the blog article.
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Printable Shopping List
4.1 How do I print shopping list?
Most browsers have the convenient printing command for use.
- Click File on the top of the navigation bar and choose Print Preview
- If you do not see the color or star symbols in front of each item, please click here. You need to enable the setting for allow color/image background for printing.
- Choose the Landscape or Portrait layout for printing.
4.2 Why do I see stars with assorted colors in front of the item name?
The color star is a quick viewing aid for the items that are in the same aisle. You need to have color printer to see the color. If you have color printing option but the list does not show the color, it is the browser setting that causes the problem. Please click here for the solution.
4.3 I have color printer, but the color does not show. What's wrong?
- Please check if the printer default is black/white printing. The setting has to change to color printing.
- If the printer is using color printing option and the color does not show, it is the browser setting that has been disabled. Here are the solutions depending on which browser you use.
For Firefox user, please open Print Preview and click Page Setup button. Once the box is open, you will see a check box for Allow Color/Image Background. Please click to enable this setting.
For Internet Explorer user, click Tool and choose Internet Options. Once it is open, choose the tag Advanced. Inside you will find the check box under Printing for Allow Image/Color Background.
If the problem still exist, please contact us.
Mobile Shopping List
5.1 What is the web address (URL) for mobile phone access?
Mobile access has the same URL as the web version. It is www.grocerysurf.com Please bookmark this address in your cellphone so you don't need to type it everytime.
You can find more about how to use mobile shoping list in our blog. Please click here.
5.2 How do I use mobile shopping list?
Mobile shopping list instruction is written on the blog article Grocery Surfers Go Mobile. Click here to read if you would like to try the mobile list. Before heading to the store, please check with your cell phone service provider if your plan includes the internet service and if it has a secure gateway. If it does not have secure gateway, please use non-secure login to proceed. Important! Please logout to end the session after shopping.
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Reminder
6.1 What is a reminder and how it will help me?
The reminder setup is based on your purchase history for each item. When you unload the grocery into virtual pantry, the reminder is generated. For items that are not on your weekly list, the reminder may take four to six weeks to show up in the reminder. To check the details of your reminder, go to the Pantry room.
6.2 Where is my reminder?
The reminder is located at the homepage after you login under the GrocerySurf genie
with items that are running low within 3 days, 3 to 7 days, and 7 to 14 days. You can input the items straight from the reminder into shopping list of the store you choose.The reminder will be empty until the second time you unload the items into the pantry room. If you would like to speed up the setup process for the reminder, please check the next section for Where can I make change to the reminder?
6.3 Where can I make change to the reminder?
You can also manually setup the reminder. It can be set as one time or ongoing reminder. To manually setup the reminder, go to the Pantry room. You can use the calendar to setup the exact date or make it a routine reminder by setting up the frequency.
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Pantry Section
7.1 What is Unloading Zone?
Unloading Zone serves as a gateway between shopping list and pantry room. Unloading the items into your pantry room after shopping allows us to set up the reminder for you. The pantry room loaded with the items and its purchase history. You can manually setup the reminder or let the pantry genie do the calculation.
If you use printable list, check Bought or Delete box for each item. When finished, click Update pantry.
If you use mobile list, the grocerysurf pantry is automatically updated when you submit the changes while shopping.
Now consider this. There were extra purchase during the shopping that you would like to put into the pantry. Use Extra purchase button in the unloading zone to add more items. For the item you would like to leave for the next shopping trip, simply leave them on the page unchecked.
7.2 How soon do I need to visit the unloading zone after shopping?
We understand that you life is fully loaded, and the shopping trip can be tiring for you. Therefore, we do have some error tolerance in our calculation for the reminder setup. As long as you unload items into the pantry, it will function properly. You can visit unloading zone just before making next shopping list. When you finish, click Update pantry. And you will find current reminder on the main page.
7.3 New! I want to start another shopping list without visiting the unloading zone.
For printable shopping list users-
Now you can skip the unloading zone and start making next shopping list with one easy click. Evertime you print a list, Grocerysurf genie on the homepage will ask you if you would like to start a new shopping list. Click the link, and the shopping items will be unloaded into pantry automatically.
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Trouble shooting
8.1 Known issues
8.1.1 Unresponsive script message (Firefox)
This message has only occurred during our test, and no problems reported so far. It may happen if the list is extremely long. If you experience this problem, please click the button "Continue" to procceed.
8.1.2 shopping list does not have the color background
Please click here to check FAQ 4.3 I have color printer, but the color does not show.
8.1.3 Browsers
Internet Explorer is slower than other browsers in terms of processing speed. Test result: (150 items) IE - between 13 to 17 seconds, Firefox - between 4 to 5 seconds.
Browsers tested: Internet Explorer 6 and 7, Firefox version 1.5 and higher, Netscape 8, Safari 3.0, and Camino.
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Multiple languages
9.1 Can I input languages other than English?
GrocerySurf program supports multiple languages. The languages we had tested include English, Chinese, Polish and Russian. You can use any language in all fields that include recipe input, shopping list, store names, and aisle names.
-- Frequently Asked Questions --
TOPICS
1. About membership
2. Recipe
3. Make shopping list
4. List on paper (printable)
5. List on cellphone (mobile)
6. Reminder
7. Unloading Zone (Pantry)
8. Trouble Logging in
9. Trouble using the program
10. Multiple languages
Don't find what you need? Please write to us or check the weblog All about GrocerySurf.
Last updated: 8/2/2007