There's a new way to track wait times at grocery stores in Toronto

A new app tracking wait times at grocery and other stores in Toronto is here to help as we all struggle to figure out the best time to do our one big weekly shop. There have previously been sites designed to track wait times at Costco and local stores near you.

Unlike a previous site designed by an Italian developer, Live Lineups was made by a Canadian-based team. However, you can still use it to track lineup times anywhere, and this app similarly uses crowd-sourced information and is totally free.

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Report current waiting time and the availability of essential items at stores. Since the items are categorized into a limited list and it is optional to report items availability, it’s very simple to report while you are waiting in the long line or when you are inside the store & doing shopping. #livelineups #reportwaitingtime #reportstorestatus #crowdsource #essentialitems #panicshopping #longlineup #toronto #ontario #canada #northamerica #unitedstates #helpcommunity #covid19 #pandemic #socialdistancing #contactless

A post shared by Live Lineups (@livelineups) on Apr 27, 2020 at 5:27am PDT

The app uses your location and crowdsourced information to provide wait times of stores near you, colour coding them in green (zero minute wait), yellow (15 minutes) and red (45 minutes). That way, you can tell you're better off heading to No Frills as opposed to Costco at a certain time.

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You can check the current waiting time and the availability of essential items from near by grocery stores, supermarkets or drug stores from your selected location using crowdsourced data. #livelineups #storestatus #reportstorestatus #grocerystore #supermarket #drugstore #waitingtime #toronto #ontario #canada #webapp #crowdsourced #reportlineup #essentialitems #openedstores #nopanic #socialdistancing #COVID19 #pandemic #helpcommunity #panicshopping #northamerica

A post shared by Live Lineups (@livelineups) on Apr 26, 2020 at 5:32pm PDT

Live Lineups also uses crowdsourcing to estimate the availability of essential items at stores like baby products, bath products, household items, fresh food and dried goods. You can view stores in list form or on a map.

The app was initially named Panic Shopping. Hopefully it can help prevent people from doing just that.

by Amy Carlberg via blogTO