Smartphone/Shopping List Integration

I’ve been thinking about heading to my local home improvement superstore lately to place a pretty big order.  Like, more than $2,000 worth of stuff for delivery on one of their big trucks.  The problem being that I know getting the order into the system with all the right products is going to be a pain.  There’s no bridal registry hand scanner option where I can carry it around and flag all the stuff I want.  I’m going to have to write down all the inventory codes and read them to someone, and it’s going to take forever.  These places already have a lot of pricing data exposed, so why not create the following:

A smartphone app, iPhone to start, other platforms later.  Camera-based shelf tag scanner, you open the app, create a new ’shopping list’, approve giving it your location (so it can pick the right store and confirm that you’re actually at the store) and then start tagging items.  Here are 2″x4″x8′ boards.  Scan, I want 8 of these, add to list.  It grabs pricing information over the web via a simple API.  Shelf tag + store, return product and price data.  The app keeps a running total, maybe the list is broken down by department.  Rev 2 could push availability data into the app, so if you hit 20 panels of sheetrock it tells you the store doesn’t have that many in stock.  Once you’re done with your shopping list and ready to go you hit the ’send to store’ button which in rev a could fire off a fax with bar codes printed on it that could easily be scanned.  Rev 2 maybe drops it into the order system fully formed.  Then you just go up, give them your name or phone number, confirm the order total and availability and checkout.

It seems pretty simple to me and would likely apply to other market segments.  Why not have a grocery store app where as you use things you know you’re going to need again, you scan the upc with the camera before you toss it in the recycling or trash?  I’m sure a standalone app like this exists, why not tie it into a call-ahead ordering system?