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"Last November, we learned about Alice.com, a website that promised \u201Cfree shipping, saving you time, and making sure you never run out of bathroom tissue.\"  At the time, we wondered what exactly the founders of social shopping network Jellyfish (bought by Microsoft in 2007) were building.\nNow the wondering and waiting is over. Alice.com is launched the open beta version of its new web-based tool today.  The startup's goal is still the same: to make sure you never have to run to the store again because you're out of batteries, soap, shampoo, coffee, toilet paper, or other common household items.  Alice also adds planning and budgeting features, smart reminders, and coupons to give the grocery store a run for its money.\nHow Alice Makes Sure You're Not Running Low on Coffee\n\n\n\n\nAt the core, Alice is an ecommerce website for toiletries and household essentials.  Alice provides recommendations based on who lives in your household. For example, if you live in a house of all guys, you clearly won't have to buy women's essentials.  The recommendations appear as cute little bathroom ducks.  \nClicking on a duck takes you to an area where you can choose your products.  Say you want AA batteries.  You go to the coffee section and add your favorite brand to your shopping cart.  Here's where it gets interesting, though: now you can add custom labels, set quantities, and most importantly, set a time for a reorder reminder.  Thus, if you tend to run out of batteries every month, you can set a reminder for buying batteries monthly so you never run out accidentally.  \nOverall, there are hundreds, if not thousands, of options and brands to choose from.  Once you've set all of your products (your duckies) and your reminders, you will have a display of your shopping orders, your discounts, and your taxes.  A short reordering process every other week or month will likely save you from emptying out your detergent supply.  \nAnd the kicker: shipping's completely free.  Not a bad touch.\nAlice: Features Galore!\n\n\n\n\nWhile Alice focuses on the shopping and reminders sections of its website, it is chock-full with features, some of which are live and some of which are still being built.  The first one you'll probably notice is a ticker of coupons at the bottom of your screen.  Alice offers discounts that constantly cycle and include a number that tells you how many coupons are left.  Coupons may provide small savings, but it adds up.  Plus it's a smart way for Alice to keep you shopping.\nAlice also has shopping analytics, reminiscent of the graphs available in the popular finance software Mint.  Alice will tell you how much you buy, when you're buying, your average spending, and compare it the spending of comparable families.\nThere's also an advanced planning feature, which visualizes your reminders.  If you find that you're getting overstocked on vitamins, just drag it to a new reminder time (i.e. every month to every two months).  Finally, Alice's Neighborhood feature is a giant group live chat function if you have a question, concern, or are just plain bored.  We couldn't get it to connect in our tests, though.\nWhy Do We Wait Until We Run Out of Stuff, Anyway?\nAlice intends for you to answer two simple questions: Do you run out of stuff? And do you hate going to the Wal-Mart or grocery store to buy it all? If, like almost every other person, the answer is yes, then Alice is going to be very useful.  The prices from our spot-check are comparable or even cheaper then some grocery store prices, although we'd have to do a full analysis to confirm our suspicious.\nHowever, the added analytics and advanced planning features are what make Alice stand out.  Not only are you never going to run out of toilet paper, you will know exactly how much of your budget it takes up.  Alice makes you a more efficient and less stressed shopper, and in this down economy, that makes Alice a winner."^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://mashable.com/2009/06/22/alice-beta/>