Inflation – particularly in grocery items – has left Canadian families in a precarious position. With prices fluctuating constantly and little understanding of what drives the volatility, it has become near impossible to manage food expenses while maintaining a healthy, nutritious diet. In turn, many families are being forced to choose unhealthy, lower-cost foods. And in 2022, over 8 million Canadians skipped meals, forced to choose between essentials like food, rent, medication, and clothes. Foodbank usage also skyrocketed, increasing 425%.

Food Banks of Canada and Skip Express Lane wanted to empower Canadians to make informed choices helping them adapt to real-time price fluctuations, save on groceries, and cultivate wholesome dietary habits.

Our initiative aimed to position SkipExpressLane as an innovative alternative to traditional grocery options, while providing a personalized, budget-conscious, and reliable tool for families.

Inflation Cookbook is a digital grocery shopping tool that tracks real-time food pricing data to help Canadians get inflation out of their cart. It addresses the complex challenge of price volatility in the industry, influenced by unpredictable factors such as supply chain disruptions, weather events, or even religious holidays (lamb prices explode at Easter and Eid). By harnessing real-time data insights, the platform tracks weekly price fluctuations of 400+ key ingredients across major retailers and 80+ locations nationwide.

The core creative idea lies in its ability to transform real-time data on price volatility into actionable, budget-conscious options for consumers. Providing this invaluable

information to Canadian families while grocery shopping allows them to make informed decisions that lead to significant savings and healthier meal choices. This inventive approach disrupts the grocery industry pricing strategies and creates a lasting impact on the lives of Canadian families, amidst historical inflationary conditions.

The data gathering is done through our unique algorithm which collects real-time pricing information for over 400 key ingredients from major retailers and locations across the country. This process ensures comprehensive coverage of the diverse grocery pricing landscape across Canada’s different regions.

Data interpretation is the next crucial step. Inflation Cookbook's innovative algorithm processes the gathered data and identifies trends in price changes. This information is then translated into actionable insights, generating personalized recipes using the chatGPT API for recipe creation and midjourney5 for imagery. A chef and nutritionist then validate the recipes and their nutritional benefits before they go online. And recipes are customized based on each family's size, location, and budget.

Targeting is done geographically, accounting for the cultural, income, and weather variables across the Canadian provinces.

The data journey begins with an always-on and comprehensive, real-time data-gathering process, accounting for the complexity of price volatility in groceries. Inflation Cookbook harmoniously blends data from various grocery banners, tracking more than 400 ingredients ensuring a holistic approach to addressing the challenges of grocery shopping amidst rising inflation. Next, the platform's innovative algorithm interprets the data, identifying trends in price changes and translating them into actionable real-time grocery insights revealing what to buy and, perhaps more importantly, what not to buy.

Implementation of these insights is where Inflation Cookbook truly shines. It generates grocery lists and recipes that empower users to make informed decisions, leading to substantial savings and healthier choices.

The week's recommended ingredients are then translated into actionable insights, generating personalized recipes using the chatGPT API for recipe creation and midjourney5 for imagery. A chef and nutritionist then validate the recipes and their nutritional benefits and flavour profiles before they go online. And recipes are customized based on each family's size, location, and budget.

Using stock market-inspired graphs and charts to display real-time pricing data, the platform conveyed complex information in a familiar and easily digestible format. This allowed users to quickly understand the price trends of various ingredients, enabling them to make informed decisions. This not only streamlined the user experience but also reinforced the platform's core concept – tackling food inflation through smart, data-driven shopping.

While the data-process was complex, the design had to be brutally simple and iconic, from setting-up your preferences, to the way the data and recipes are presented, to getting your cart delivered in under 25min thanks to SkipExpressLane.

Inflation Cookbook is self-sustaining and launched in 2023 through a partnership with Canada’s largest newspaper, giving it unprecedented scale and embedding it into the inflation story.

Inflation Cookbook‘s impact on Canadians’ grocery bills is undeniable, allowing a family of four to save, on average, 20.3% on their weekly cart. This substantial reduction in grocery expenses demonstrates Inflation Cookbook's effectiveness in empowering consumers to make informed, budget-conscious, healthy decisions. By December 2023, the platform is projected to have generated over $21.8M in total savings for Canadian families.

Inflation Cookbook quickly captured a sizeable following (28,600 weekly users), a testament to its widespread resonance. The platform gained significant attention as soon as it was launched, with over 400 million media impressions and 355+ articles published within the first week alone. In that same week, it had sent over 3000 new customers to shop on SkipExpressLane.

These results exemplify the power of data-driven creativity and its ability to transform industry and improve lives, creating lasting, positive change for Canadians.