Small Business
Apps We Love – Restaurant and Retail Store Finders
We live in an app-based world that not only affects our business lives, but also many social aspects, such as finding good restaurants, going on road trips and shopping.
Mar. 13, 2015
We live in an app-based world that not only affects our business lives, but also many social aspects, such as finding good restaurants, going on road trips and shopping. There are many options available, of course, so we asked some of CPA Practice Advisor’s contributors, Thought Leaders, and award winners for recommendations of their favorite apps and have added a few of our own for your perusal.
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- Jim Boomer, CPA.CITP, CIO of Boomer Consulting, uses OpenTable when he’s looking for a restaurant. “It’s easy to search for and find restaurants as well as make reservations directly from within the app.” You can also earn points when you make reservations online and receive coupons to use on future restaurant outings.
- Barrett Young, CPA, founding member of The Green Abacus goes to Yelp when he’s looking for a restaurant. “Yelp has the best database of local reviews, and a Yelp restaurant with less than a 3.5 star rating isn’t worth your time.” Note: Yelp is not just for restaurants – you can find almost any kind of local business on Yelp.
- Jim Boomer also likes Urbanspoon. “When we can’t decide what we’re in the mood to eat, simply give this app a spin and it will make some recommendations. Urbanspoon is not only useful in finding the perfect place to eat but also makes the process into a game.” You can also filter your Urbanspoon search by geographic location, type of food, and price point.
We also love:
About.com’s Tech group recommends Zagat to Go, calling it the king of restaurant reviews. Not all cities are covered, so check to see if yours is there before downloading.
Thinslices.com picks Walgreens as the top retail mobile app. Send photos to be printed at your nearby store, download coupons, refill prescriptions, get reminders to take medications, and earn points for doing healthy activities.
Forbes magazine likes the CVS app which is similar to the Walgreens app. Preview store inventory and even shop online to save yourself a trip. Use the app to find a clinic, and keep track of your special deals and rewards.
TotalCustomer.org picks Nordstrom as it’s leading retail app for access to catalogs, online shopping, excellent customer service, and information on in-store events.
CNET.com gave top honors to the Domino’s Pizza app, called Dom, which lets you place an order for delivery or carry-out. Not only can you order from the entire Domino’s menu, but you get instant access to estimated wait time and can see the progress of your order with the Pizza Tracker!
Appadvice.com gives high marks to CrashSpace, an app that lets you upload pictures of your damaged auto and then it sends out the information to repair shops near you who will bid on your repairs.
Want to compare prices before you go to the store? Fox News recommends ShopSavvy. Scan the barcode of an item you want to buy and ShopSavvy will compare prices at local stores and also online retailers so you get the best deal.
Gail Perry, Editor-in-Chief of CPA Practice Advisor, uses GasBuddy to find the lowest prices on gas as well as a map to show how to get to the stations.