Grocery List: Out of Milk Reviews

by The Real Horo

Just got an update a few days ago and now when GroceryList launches, EVERY TIME, a screen comes up to say you’re “only using x% of the power of GroceryList ”. It starts at 25%. At the bottom of the screen there are two toggles, one to “allow us to notify you with great deals” (off) and “Turn on location services for deals at the store” (off). Turning on the deals toggle changes the % to 75. But that’s all I see no indication on how to get to “100%” and/or how to stop the screen from appearing every time GroceryList is launched. There’s no way to scroll down the page and nothing else in GroceryList I can find to change the percentage. I will not tolerate this screen. I DON’T want notifications, and I DON’T want to give the developers my location. I will likely be deleting GroceryList in the next day or two if I can’t figure out a solution for this. What marketing genius thought it would be a good idea to nag users EACH and EVERY time GroceryList is launched, apparently FOREVER?

Ridiculous!

by Brownysxx

...but recent upgrades have made it less user friendly. The problems I have seen are with sorting categories and editing items. I shop at the same grocery store every week. I walk through the store the exact same way every trip. When I create a list for that store, I should be able to pre-set the order of the categories on that list. However, no matter how many times I sort the categories on my list...every week they go back to being ordered a different way! GroceryList forces me to re-sort my grocery list every week, which is ridiculous, because it won’t save my changes to the Manage Categories list. Second- I have to add prices to my items EVERY WEEK. For example, I buy Cheerios every week. But every week when I make my list, the edited item from the previous week (where I’ve entered the price) is sorted to Uncategorized. So I have to select the correctly categorized version of the item and re-enter the price EVERY WEEK. Or, I have to choose the correctly priced version of the item, and re-categorize it to Breakfast EVERY WEEK! Out of Milk is intended to make shopping easier and more organized, and it used to do that! But recently, it has more than doubled the time it takes to make a list, and increased the amount of time I have to spend in the store every week. Please, PLEASE, fix these issues because I love Out of Milk and I don’t want to use a different list app!

by Rdwhitti

I have used Out of Milk for several years as my grocery shopping list. I have tried several others but always kept coming back to this one, that is until the latest update. My needs are relatively simple so I am sure that I don't use nearly all of the potential of GroceryList. Unfortunately the latest update not only changed the UI to something truly awful but it (once again!) messed with my categories that I had so painstakingly setup. It seems like every time there is an update this happens. Why??? I wish that I had not updated and could go back to the old version. I would have rated GroceryList 5 stars previously but these awful updates are getting tiresome. Please just leave well enough alone!!!!! As other have mentioned, when I spend hours painstakingly creating categories exactly the way I like them and arranging them according to my store layout, PLEASE DON'T MESS WITH IT!!!!! And another thing, please include an indicator so that I can differentiate between default and custom categories with the same name. I want to delete ALL of the default categories and create my own. And please don't create new default categories like the current version seems to like to do repeatedly. This is getting tiresome. LEAVE MY APP ALONE, PLEASE!!!!!

by Artsyjjpics

I’ve had GroceryList for over 2 years. It was great. Then suddenly they updated. I got locked out for a week cause I didn’t remember my password to an app I never had to log into. Then when I add my items it automatically chooses a category for me. Not one of the ones I had before even though it was part of the history. Then when I move stuff into the category I want it either bounces back into the default category it chooses or it bounces into uncategorized. So basically everything is jumbled and makes no sense to me the way I operate. It seems like either a glitch or they want you to do it there way without consideration for those of us who have been using GroceryList for a long time. I’m leaving GroceryList and looking for another as it’s so frustrating I rather take the time to write this review then actually recreate my list again. Oh yeah one last thing I found random lists it created and when I deleted them it did so without warning that I was about to delete an active list. So I lost the 30 items I had already taken a frustrating amount of time to document. Go find another app.

by NDcrew

I used to love GroceryList, for look, feel, and ease of use. I tested many and chose Out of Milk. Following “upgrades” a couple of years ago, the aesthetics of GroceryList decreased and more problematically the functionality that I used as critical (categories which facilitate efficient and organized shopping) no longer works. Multiple private inquiries to avoid giving a bad public review have been recognized with similar answers to the effect of other users have submitted the issue is already being worked on to resolve in the next 2-3 months. However, it has been well over a year without any improvement. Manually re-organizing shopping lists each time items are added as GroceryList no longer successfully stores and utilizes user-defined item and category/shopping aisle relationships requires a LOT of time for the user making GroceryList no longer friendly and functional. Expect repeated duplication of categories, items going into GroceryList -native category vs your last user-defined category, items not going into either GroceryList -native category or your last user-defined category, unsorting of categories, and possibility of app-native categories just not matching your grocery store’s aisle organization. Unlike a couple of years ago, there are now better apps.

by Jeanah80

I was a Grocery IQ app user for many years [sigh—miss that app] and one reviewer thought this was the closest thing to that. I humbly disagree. GroceryList frustrates me in that if I create a category called “canned goods” and then later add an item classified by GroceryList as “canned goods,” I end up with two categories called “canned good!”

And I really miss how in Grocery IQ, I would scroll through my list of things I usually bought just clicking on them and they would move to the bottom with a green circle in front of them. I could go through that clicked list then at the store and after they were in the cart, click on them again and they moved back up under their category where they had been. In GroceryList, if you click on something in your list, it crosses it off and moves it to the bottom so I ended up kind of recreating my list for each shopping trip which is silly because we buy so many of the same things each week.

by Slugraduate

I have use GroceryList for several years as a shared grocery list with my spouse. I’m really frustrated by the fact that my shopping categories seem to keep being duplicated. For example if I put milk into the list, I have to go back and add the category, though I did this last week, and there are two beverage categories in my list. I logged into the PC to manage my categories and delete a bunch. It doesn’t seem to have Saint over to my phone though.

Maybe the most frustrating thing is when I go to manage my list history, I have to click delete wait for it to load before I can collect delete on the next item. I Soum this is where the auto populate feature comes from when typing in an item in my grocery list. I shouldn’t have to select from 8 different bread purchases. One will do.

Why isn’t there just a checkbox that I can check everything I want to delete and delete it all at once? Same with the tax exempt categories I have to go into each individual one to collect tax exempt. I want to uncheck all the tax exempt at once

by Henry Deltoid

Once I buy a grocery I tap the name and it gets crossed off and drops to the list of items I no longer need. So it's great. Nicely organized and easy to customize. The problem is when I want to use it again. If I type in a search; it doesn't tell me which is from my own history or which is from GroceryList database. Then it duplicates items in the list below as well as the "history" list. The history list is in alphabetical order. The crossed off list is not. Items are all repeated multiple times. So each time I need to create a grocery list I have to scroll through two lists, delete lots of repeated products, etc. It also autopopulates a product name with several repeated choices and lots of them are misspelled. GroceryList is years old and it's still easier to write everything down on a piece of paper like we did in the 90's than it is to use GroceryList. Icing on the cake: the barcode scanner fails 99% of the time to read anything.

by Bill In Murrieta

I’ve used GroceryList for years and until recently, I have been very happy with it. It allows me to create a number of lists I can share and it updates while I’m in the store and my wife thinks of new items at home. Once I was getting items and checking them off and my wife was home adding them again thinking they were not there. Had to call her and tell her to stop. However, in spite of my liking GroceryList , I do have some issues. First is that I’ve had problems with it adding items on its own. They’ve always run adds promoting items and now those items are automatically being added to the list. This is annoying and confusing when multiple people use the list. Second is an issue with categories. I ended up with more than one of a particular category and deleted it. It keeps coming back more than likely caused by putting in an item that I have bought previously. Anyway, these issues may may not come up for everyone and that is good. Because of the significance of the first item to me, I’m just going to check out the other similar apps in the meantime.

by RosannePDX

GroceryList has a lot of good functions, and would be great if it weren’t for some annoying bugginess.

First, some changes to items, like making a note, don’t save if you’re switching between apps. Also the function to copy an item to another list definitely doesn’t save properly. I am often switching between apps when I’m meal planning and making a list at the same time. When I am shopping, I switch apps to check the store apps for coupons, deals, etc. This results in changes I make in the list disappearing, and has caused me to miss buying an item I needed more than once.

Next, the database for list items isn’t persistent locally. Meaning if you make changes to an item, such as changing the category it is under, those changes don’t save for the next time you add that same item to your lists again. They are storing their item database somewhere, it just isn’t impacted by changes you make to items within your lists. This leads me to leaving a lot of items on my lists (as checked off) that I don’t really need every week, so that it retains my edits (as long as an app switch doesn’t wipe them out first). Which brings me to my last complaint...

If you have an item on your list already, there is no indication of that when adding it. You can end up with duplicate items on your list, if you don’t notice it’s there already and just use that entry.

by JackholeZombie

I’ve been using GroceryList for about 3 years & it’s the best app available for making grocery lists. No other apps do all that Out Of Milk does. Unfortunately, for the past 6 months or so whenever I am making a list, GroceryList will just suddenly delete an item. Sometimes it’ll even add the item to a different list that I’m not even working on. I’m a very forgetful person which is why I make lists so it’s really frustrating bc if an item gets deleted, & I don’t notice it, I end up not buying that item & have to make a second trip to the store. I’ve had to resort to writing a physical list then copying into GroceryList ... which sorta defeats the purpose of even using it. I’ve tried uninstalling then reinstalling, & have also tried making another acc. Don’t know what else to do. I really love GroceryList & there aren’t any others like it so I’d hate to have to stop using it. If it wasn’t for this problem, I’d certain give it 5 stars. Please, PLEASE fix this issue! Thank you.

by Peoswriter

My wife and I have been using GroceryList for a while. It’s very useful, with several features we haven’t explored yet, but the categories feature really needs some work. I had shared categories as well as ones I created my own and somehow ended up with loads of duplicates (4 “Dairy”, 3 “Produce”, etc). I tried to Manage Categories to delete the dupes, but the categories can’t be viewed alphabetically, which complicated matters (no idea how they’re being sorted now), and after I did delete all the duplicates — everything not shared — all the deleted categories still appear in the menu I see when I try to edit an item’s category, making Manage Categories pretty useless. I’m disabling categories for now to avoid the frustration, but the category list to select from really needs to update to match the Manage Categories screen. Sorry to focus on a negative, but it’s my biggest trouble with GroceryList since all attention spent on categories for easier shopping ends up being wasted time. Thanks!

by Fun App 2

I’ve been a GroceryIQ user for 8 years but that doesn’t work any longer with iOS 14 on my iPhone. So I needed to find a replacement. I tried several list apps and Out of Milk was the winner! It most closely resembles all the features of what I was used to. I have a couple suggestions to help make it even greater. Could the items on the list be sorted in alphabetical order within the categories? I buy a lot of produce weekly for my family and I often can’t recall if I’ve added a particular item. It would make searching through what is already on the list so much easier if the categories were sorted alphabetically instead of last added on top. The second suggestion would be to be able to create a “favorites” list and move items from that list to the grocery list. I found it useful to have an all encompassing list of all the items we buy regularly and be able to scan through that list to make sure I didn’t forget to check on the quantity on hand for this week’s list.

by Blueyez954

I still love GroceryList and have used for many years, but the new update took away adding previously categorized items. Used to you would start typing and it would drop down showing the time and the category it was assigned to. Now you have to click on history to add previous items. While that is nicely alphabetized, you can’t even type to bring up items that are farther down the list. Makes it less user friendly when you use it frequently at same store.

**Previous 5 star rating: By far my favorite grocery list app. So simple and I can arrange my categories to go with the aisles at my grocery store. So when I add my items each time it goes in order by aisle. My grocery list knows my grocery store better than I do. 😆

by TheRealAaron

I like GroceryList a lot in principle but there's one annoyance: other people. It seems to draw its suggestions and categorizations from user input. That means there are tons of typos, items miscategorized, duplicate categories, etc. For example, there's "Baking", "Baking and Cooking", "Baking & Cooking", etc. Which one your items get classified into is random chance based on what the original user decided to do. The biggest advantage of classifying your items is that you can arrange the categories according to the layout of your store and it will arrange your list accordongly. But when you unknowingly select an item in a mew category, it places the category alphabetically instead, messing up your ordering.

If I were the developers, I would create a limited number of pre-set categories and allow users to create their own, but not make them public.

(Does this seem more like a bug/feature request than a review? That's because the "Submit a Request" button in GroceryList leads to a webpage that throws a 403 error)

by Dopakreem

I’ve been using GroceryList for two years or more. I love the simple, clean UI and the ability to sync to different devices. My memory span is pretty bad, so being able to quickly record something to purchase later is very useful. I also like the “Pantry” feature. I look through the fridge, cabinets, etc and cross reference with the Pantry list to make sure I don’t forget something at the grocery store.

I wish there was a way to purchase a premium version (single purchase, not subscription). The banner advertisements at the top of GroceryList are difficult to close, and clicking the “X” usually results in accidentally adding that sponsored product to the shopping list, which then has to be manually removed.

Other than this mild annoyance, GroceryList is a timesaver. I recommend it!

by KManoukian

Love this cleanly designed and easy-to-use grocery list that I can add items to whenever I happen to remember them. After using GroceryList for years, I was getting very frustrated with some category issues mentioned by other reviewers. I started looking for other solutions, but GroceryList still looks nicer and functions better for this purpose than any of the other grocery list or regular list apps I tried. I agonized over what to do, since this really affects my workflow. I finally created a new account on Out of Milk and started fresh. When I started out I had no categories, so I added my own and so far so good. It seems that the developers released an update before they really should have, but that the category issues have finally been fixed. I like having a separate app just for groceries, because I need different functions than on my regular to-do list. The only wish I have is that the to-do list section, which I'm not even using, be turned into some type of menu planning tool, which I would absolutely use. I tried another app that lets you store recipes and make menu plans, but it was cumbersome and ugly. I really don't need to store recipes because it would take too long to constantly add new ones (I like to try new things, so I'm not an "every Tuesday we have tacos" kind of cook). However, it would be nice to have a basic calendar where I could just list what I plan to cook each day.

by Lollieme

So glad to have learned of this a few years ago and have told others about it. You almost always have your phone with you, so you can add to your shopping list wherever you are and whenever something pops into your mind. And since you almost always have your phone with you, you’re going to have it with you at the store, instead of a piece of paper sitting at home on your counter! There are many great features, some I’m still discovering. Probably my favorite is the availability of having different lists for different stores. Oh, and the fact that you just check off each item as you put it in your cart, which makes it available for the next time is amazing! This has made shopping much better. Wish it had been around when my six children were all home.

by MissFallout92

I had been looking for a new app to organize and make a grocery list for awhile. I have a family a 5 so our list is huge by the time I need to go shopping. GroceryList categorizes the foods and other household essentials into their proper areas. So when I’m at the store and in the dairy area for example I can get everything I need from that area easily. You are also able to easily check off your items or delete them from the list entirely.

Also there’s an option in GroceryList where you can keep your phone screen awake while you shop. I love this because I frequently need to use my calculator to keep a total. GroceryList does let you price each item and you also can choose to add sales tax for a total however I prefer to price in store because typically I don’t know what the exact price is.

Finally, GroceryList also includes a pantry list and a to do list. I really recommend GroceryList to definitely anyone who has a large family and that is looking for a good app to keep things organized!

by FridayGirl

I needed to find a replacement for Grocery IQ with their latest incompatibility with IOS 14.5. I only needed a simple grocery list app that would allow the ability to create lists for different stores, share common items across lists, sync between my iPhone and iPad, and create my own categories. Out of Milk provides all of this functionality, and more! It’s very intuitive to use, and the sync function works great. I can update their categories with my own names, add color-coding to my own categories, and save frequently purchased items in the “pantry” to easily add them to a list. It doesn’t have the branded items found on Grocery IQ, but I actually like the simpler interface (e.g., a search for salsa doesn’t show up with 20 different types of salsa). I can add notes for brands I prefer, customize the quantity types (e.g., 12 oz.), and even add unit prices. I can share the list with my husband, also. The features and functionality make this a winner!

by ViolentKittie

I’ve used GroceryList for 4-5 years and it used to be a great app but not anymore. In addition to the category issues that others have mentioned there is a problem with syncing. When GroceryList is open it seems to sync every few seconds, which seems like it would be great but it’s not. I have literally entered an item on my list and then GroceryList shows it’s syncing and the item disappears from my list. Yesterday I spent about 15 minutes trying to add two items to my list and it seemed like I got them to stay on there but today at the store, as soon as I opened GroceryList it synced and they disappeared again. There needs to be an option to turn off syncing. I only use GroceryList on my phone and don’t need for anyone else to be able to add to my list so syncing is useless anyway. Really disappointed to have to find a new app after all this time but these issues have been going on for a while and I just don’t want to have to deal with a simple task being made more difficult anymore.

by DCgnat

Just gave this a try as it’s the only one that integrates with Alexa. I figured with a 4 star rating it must be pretty good, right? So what am I missing?
So far my issues are:

I apparently have to manually ADD my categories? What?
When I pull an existing item, it may or may not have a category - so MILK- obviously dairy, right? Nope. Had to pull and delete multiple entries before I found one that is dairy. And of course, that entry has the K randomly capitalized. How many people use this database and yet, a “milk” entry is messed up? When I tried add the tag manually, it created a duplicate dairy category. When I added “olive oil” via Alexa, it correctly added it to the list but didn’t assign it a category and the only way to add it is to manually type in in, apparently. Where’s the pre-loaded list? I ended up adding another entry which did identify a category and deleting my original entry. And most humorous - it creates an Alexa list but then when you add things through Alexa, they don’t actually go on this list!
Font size on the screen is also small but with tons of white space between entries so it doesn’t actually let you see more on the screen. So why?

As burdened down as Grocery IQ has become with coupon clutter, at least it does the basics right. For the life of me, I can’t understand why OOM has a higher rating. It’s a clunky mess.

by DurangoRCSS

I have been a user of GroceryList for over 5 years and have previously given it 5 stars. The recent updates have downgraded it to barely two stars.
What happened to the easy entry process? Used to type a few characters of a frequently used item in the shopping list and the drop-down would come up with the item. Now if you type "water" you no longer get "distilled water", Sam's Choice water"' etc. - you just get "water".
Further, why isn't there a process, when selecting from your list of previously used items, to index (for a long time user's long list) to the alphabetical section of the list? If you're looking for "sardines", it takes 8 hours to scroll down to the "S"'s.
Why can't the Categories be sorted - Alphabetically, by frequent use, by flow in market?
New and Different is not necessarily Better. Clean up this mess and perhaps your ratings will edge back up towards the "5" category!!!

by Adrtuyp

I’ve been using GroceryList for years and it does most of what I need it to. There are a couple things that need to be fixed. The autocomplete suggestions need a lot of work. As you type to add items to your list, autocomplete will suggest items. What drives me crazy is that it will suggest 4 different ways to spell the item, 3 of which are misspelled. And it does this on everything. Misspellings shouldn’t be suggested, especially on basic items like milk or bread. Can someone tell me what breaf is (bakery category)? The bad part I that I’m not a great speller so then I have to stare at the suggestions to make sure I select the correctly spelled one. When there several close spellings, which is the correctly spelled version of avocado? Also, why aren’t my items (that I regularly add to my list), with related categories the first suggestions? This is a good app, but could be great if they fixed the autocomplete suggestions.

by Writer Guy In RI

Overall it's a good list tool but I can't rate it higher than a three at the moment because of three major issues that reduce its convenience:

1. There is no way (that I have found at least) to alphabetize your master lists, such as the Pantry List. When you are talking about a very large selection of produce for example, it would be much easier to find broccoli if I could just scroll down to the Bs. As it is now, I have to scroll through the whole list to find it between Limes and Green Beans.

2. No search function - this is especially annoying given issue 1. There is no search field to find things and the text field at the top is to add items to the list.

3. No easy way to avoid duplicates. If I can't find something in the list and add it (as a result of issues 1 and 2), it's not uncommon for me to find later that it was there all along so I now have two listings for the same thing but in different locations in the list, not together where it would be easy to see duplicates (see issue #1).

That bring said, there are definitely some nice elements to this. I'd love to rate it higher if these issues could be addressed. And if there is a way to take care of 1 and 2 already, I'd love to know how because it isn't at all clear when using GroceryList .

by JessvstheWorld

I’m a new user...as in, I’m actually still trying to figure out the whole system. So far, I like it. I was a GroceryIQ user for probably 6-8 years, and I believe that app is being discontinued. This is the closest thing I’ve been able to find to that app in terms of store, category and item organization. I have two requests/suggestions, however. The first is that a weight option be added to pricing. I use the price by weight tool for cheeses, meats, and some produce. Being able to price things according to weight will help keep the accuracy of my overall budget when shopping. My second suggestion is a reverse info input on barcode scanning- right now, from what I can tell, the scanner either knows the barcode or doesn’t. The feature to add UPC codes to the item info is helpful, but it would also be neat to be able to scan and, if the barcode is unknown, immediately be able to fill in the necessary information for the product. That way the user doesn’t have to manually add the UPC numbers. So far, this is the most comprehensive shopping list app that I have been able to find, and I appreciate the features it already has- especially the option to add or remove sales tax (we don’t have sales tax on groceries in CA). If the developers are looking for new features to add, I think the price-by-weight and reverse barcode input would be two great ones to add.

by Orgazized Couple

My ONLY suggestion is to add a “due date” and “completion date” for items on to do list. My husband and I share GroceryList and it’s literally changed the way we grocery shop and stay organized. We utilize additional features to add more specialized list for our specific needs. No more forgetting. No more duplication of efforts.

I’ve always believed having a grocery list not only obviously reminds you to get what you need, but if you stick to ONLY what’s on your list, you can control impulse buying.

We have list for movies we want to watch, books to read, music, camping gear list, fishing gear list and most recently Christmas list! GroceryList is a game changer and other shopping apps I’ve used can’t touch this one!