Developed in North Bay and now available across Canada in English, Gofer.run aims to simplify one of consumers’ most time-consuming tasks: figuring out where to buy what. Users can share smart lists with family members, digitize handwritten notes, and run comparisons that prioritize the lowest overall basket rather than just individual deals
With grocery bills still climbing, a North Bay-based startup is betting that price transparency can put money back in your pocket. Gofer.run, a free app, compares unit prices across nearby stores and builds the lowest-cost basket based on how many stops a shopper is willing to make.
The app is designed to give shoppers more control at the checkout.
Gofer.run is a grocery comparison app that helps you identify the lowest prices across multiple grocery stores in your area. The company says it often saves users about 25 per cent on their grocery bill.
“At a time when food prices remain elevated across Canada, the app aims to bring transparency and competition back into everyday grocery shopping,” says a company release. “The January 2026 Consumer Price Index report confirms Canada leads the G7 in terms of food inflation at 6.3 per cent, following increases of more than 25 per cent over the past five years. For many households, those increases have added up quickly.”
Unlike traditional flyer apps or store-specific tools, gofer.run compares prices across all grocery stores in your neighbourhood and recommends the most cost-effective combination of stores for a user’s grocery list. It picks up both sale and non-sale priced items and then compares them across all stores in a shopper’s specified area to find the lowest cost per 100 grams or 100 millilitres.
It can take a minute or two to do a “gofer run,” depending on the size of your list, as the app is crunching a tremendous amount of data. It is comparing product by product across all stores.
“For instance, if ketchup is on your list, it will pull all ketchup products from all stores and compare prices,” says Co-Founder Mark Sherry. “Once the shopper has input their grocery list into gofer.run the app then uses an algorithm to give the shopper the best combination of stores and products to reduce their bill. So, if there are 50 items on a list, it will pick the lowest cost store that can fulfill all the items if the shopper wishes to only shop at one store.”
If the shopper chooses to go to two stores, it sorts the lowest cost bundles by store, three stores the same, up to six stores.
“One specific item on the returned grocery run may not be the lowest cost overall, but the combined basket of goods is the lowest based on how many stores a shopper is willing to go to. If shoppers are willing to go to more than one store, it literally could save a family of four hundreds of dollars per month.”
“We use technology in a practical way,” Co-Founder Eric Dion added. “It’s not about changing what people buy; it’s about helping them avoid overpaying for the items they are looking for. We have created a ‘Trivago’ for groceries.”
How Gofer.run Works
Users enter or upload a grocery list, and gofer.run analyzes prices across nearby grocery stores to show where each item is cheapest. The app then provides a clear breakdown of potential savings, empowering shoppers before they ever step into a store.
“Price transparency changes behaviour,” said Dion. “When consumers can easily compare prices, it encourages fairer competition and discourages tactics that rely on hidden markups elsewhere in the cart. We are building the one app that helps consumers with all their grocery-meal planning needs.”
Key Features Include:
Price comparison by unit across neighbourhood stores (e.g., $/100 grams or $/100 millilitres) for accurate product comparisons
Smart grocery lists that can be shared with family members before the actual “gofer run” so all household members can add to the list
Weekly flyers/Price-matching lists to easily use in-store
Photo search, allowing users to snap a picture of a product to compare prices while actually shopping, or find out which stores carry the product
List digitization, converting handwritten lists into digital ones
Saved lists and multiple shopping runs for recurring trips
Endless Recipes, easily allowing ingredients to be added to a “gofer run”
Highlights Canadian products by designating products with a maple leaf.
The company claims early users say the app not only helps reduce grocery costs but also simplifies decision-making.
Gofer was developed in North Bay, with a focus on everyday Canadians who shop across multiple grocery chains and want simple, unbiased price information.
For more information or to download the app, visit www.gofer.run.
Gofer.run is free to use and is available for download on iOS and Android stores for use across Canada – currently English only.