Executive Summary
The business that I did my project for is homemaking. While
this may seem like a joke to some, homemaking is an intense, very involved job
that is stressful, exhausting, and often frustrating. Anything that helps
simplify or consolidate some of the many responsibilities of a stay-at-home
parent can make a huge difference to that parent. In this case, the specific process
that I wanted to expedite is that of grocery shopping and creating a grocery
list. It is easy to become overwhelmed when there is a list scribbled quickly
onto a post-it note and you can’t remember where everything is in the store or
whether you’ve already gotten that item.
This problem is the basis for my project. My project is
based heavily on the use of userforms. Clicking a button opens a form that
allows the user to select a grocery store item, enter the quantity desired, and
then the background programming sorts the item by its department in the store.
The departments shown on the spreadsheet are also sorted by location in the
store (the specific store is Walmart, since that is the store we commonly shop
at, and it is the most uniform grocery store across the country). Another
button creates a web query that pulls data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics
(BLS). The website includes a list of over 60 grocery items, as well as the
national average price for each item, including historical data. Though this
will not give the exact amount relative to our local Walmart grocery store, it
provides an approximation that can be added to a total. Thus, my wife can have
a general idea for how much she can expect to spend on groceries in that trip.
60 is a big number, but it is definitely not an exhaustive
list of all grocery items. So, I created a feature (using more userforms) that
allows the user to add items and determine where they are in the store. It also
allows the user to select and change the department in the store, in which that
item is located.
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