Show HN: I built a free app for New Yorkers to save money on groceries

A New Yorker launched Swiftburst, a free app that promises to help people find the cheapest groceries nearby by searching staples like milk, eggs, bread, chicken, rice, and bananas. On paper, it sounds like a wallet-saving dream for anyone staggering through New York City food prices. But in the community discussion, the real action wasn’t about bargain milk — it was about whether the whole thing actually works, whether the data is reliable, and whether the launch post itself was, yes, “slop.” One commenter came in swinging right away, roasting the post for feeling low-effort, which set the tone fast: less polite applause, more aisle-fight energy.

Then came the practical skeptics. One person asked the obvious question: do New York grocery stores even publish their prices in a usable way? Another said the app felt “totally backwards,” arguing that if nearby stores don’t show deals, users hit a dead end almost immediately. Ouch. And in a particularly New York twist, someone reported the app was sending shoppers to a closed Trader Joe’s for the cheapest milk — the kind of detail that turns a money-saving tool into an accidental comedy sketch.

Still, not every comment was a drag. One local food fan lit up the thread by name-dropping Mr. Mango, the legendary cheap-produce operation supposedly selling giant strawberry packs for 99 cents. That turned the comments into a mini love letter to New York’s weird grocery economy: part optimism, part roast session, part “please add my favorite miracle fruit store.”