App tells you where to find toilet paper, milk, other supplies

Chris Pastrick | Tuesday, April 14, 2020 11:10 a.m.

OurStreets

The crowdsourcing app OurStreets Supplies helps consumers find essential supplies like toilet paper and fresh produce near them.

The search for toilet paper and milk just got a little easier.

A new app is offering shoppers a guide to where products are plentiful or scarce.

What started out in January as a crowdsourcing app for cyclists and runners to report unsafe conditions on city streets has become a tool to track down much-needed supplies amid the coronavirus lockdown.

“Over the last few days, we’ve heard users all over the country who have used OurStreets to see and share what’s available near them,” writes Paul Travis Klein, editor of the OurStreets blog. “It has been encouraging receiving emails and seeing reviews that let us know we’re on the right track.”

OurStreets Supplies, designed (and modified) by Mark Sussman and Daniel Schep, works a lot like Waze or GasBuddy in that users submit information after having visited a grocery or big-box store.

When sharing information, the user selects “Share What’s in Stock,” finds their particular store and reports on the availability of a variety of items — soap & sanitizers, toilet paper, diapers, personal hygiene, OTC medicines, cold & flu items, fresh produce, breads, eggs, milk, dairy, fresh meat, canned and frozen goods.

The app also allows the user to note whether social distancing is being observed in the store.

The main screen is a display of nearby stores with entries already added. Or you can filter down and just search for TP, milk or whatever you are looking for.

While a map is not available on the app, there is one at OpenStreets online site.

Sussman told NPR that the app could stop people from having to drive all around hunting for goods.

“There’s not necessarily a lack of supplies — there’s just a lack of information around where those supplies are located,” he said. “People are afraid to go from store to store to store to find what they need.”

The app is free to download on Android and iOS platforms. For at least the next 60 days, the app will be free for retailers who want to report their inventory levels.

Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto tweeted about the app just last week.

Hey Pittsburgh. Get useful information. Give useful information. Share useful information. https://t.co/jqBhBwps0D

— bill peduto (@billpeduto) April 8, 2020

The change in the app came at the suggestion of some folks in the government around Washington, D.C., asking Sussman’s team to repurpose it to track the availability of supplies around the area.

“We ran with the idea and quickly realized that this needed to be a nationwide effort,” he says.

It was no small task, but Sussman says they were able to update and re-release an update to app stores in just 11 days.

“We did about two months of development work in less than two weeks,” he says.

Sussman says the response from users has been “pretty incredible. We’ve had over 12,000 downloads of the app since we announced this new initiative and in less than 2 weeks have had over 150,000 searches and 6,000 inventory reports across most of the U.S.

“About 10% of that activity is in the greater Pittsburgh area.”

Of course, while the supply side of the app is getting the current attention, its original purpose remains.

“All original functionality of the app is still intact within OurStreets, and we are continuing to work forward toward establishing relationships with cities, advocacy organizations and B2B partners,” Sussman told Technically Media. “Street safety isn’t going to be solved when this pandemic is over. If anything, covid-19 has highlighted how unevenly space is allocated to pedestrians, cyclists and scootists, as compared to cars.”

As far as keeping OpenStreets Supplies in the long haul, Sussman isn’t sure.

“We’re building the plane and flying it at the same time, so future plans are a little up in the air (no pun intended). As long as social distancing guidelines are in place, we’ll be maintaining the app.”