Optimal Shopping List Maker

Editors' ReviewDownload.com staffAugust 28, 2015Still scribbling grocery lists on the back of an envelope? With the right program, you can quickly generate lists and print them out in tidy, cost-tabulated rows. Unfortunately, Optimal Shopping List Maker probably isn't the right program. Its clunky four-pane interface lets you add products to your shopping list with a simple double-click, but the supplied items are generic and often misspelled. Each product has editable fields for price, quantity, units, shop, and department, and you also can add new products and stores. To really use the program, you'll need to spend a lot of time adding products and prices and generally customizing the database to your satisfaction. Once you've done that, you can quickly generate grocery lists, view them by store or category, or search stores for the lowest prices. The program's coolest feature, which sadly we didn't test, is its ability to transfer lists to your mobile via Bluetooth or a infrared connection. If you always buy the same things at the same stores, Optimal Shopping List Maker may reward the time you put in on the front end. But given its shabby design and lack of automation, this shopping-list assistant strikes us as, well, less than optimal