Compare supermarket unit prices with a human access handoff

Why use this

1. A shopper comparing supermarket prices may see different bottle sizes, multipacks and conditional promotions. A low shelf price can be poor value when the quantity or required purchase differs, and an inaccessible retailer can leave the comparison incomplete.

2. A unit-price worksheet could make the arithmetic and promotion conditions reviewable. Keeping inaccessible retailers visible would avoid presenting the current ranking as comprehensive before any owner-handled access challenge is resolved.

Why an agent / simpler alternative

Useful judgment

Interpret pack sizes and promotion conditions while identifying incomplete retailer coverage.

Simpler alternative

Use displayed unit prices when products and eligibility conditions are directly comparable.

Unsuitable when

Product equivalence or required promotional conditions cannot be verified.

Proposed inputs

1. Name

   Product comparison brief

   Owner

   Shopper

   Minimum scope

   Exact product requirements and relevant store area

   Quality check

   Separate acceptable substitutes from exact matches.

2. Name

   Retail offer snapshots

   Owner

   Research owner

   Minimum scope

   Pack size, price, promotion conditions and observation time

   Quality check

   Check quantity units, membership conditions and inaccessible stores.

Access and setup — proposed or unknown

Proposed minimum

1. Read-only permitted offer pages or supplied snapshots; offline arithmetic first.

Compatibility unknowns

1. Unknown: exact runtime, retailer access, location pricing and current promotions.

External actions requiring approval

1. Completing access challenges, signing in, sharing location or purchasing goods.

Expected deliverable and review checks

Proposed artifact

Unit-price comparison with quantity calculations, eligibility conditions and coverage gaps.

Critical checks

1. All compared quantities use the same unit.

2. Conditional prices are not ranked as universally available offers.

Missing output evidence

No retailer access, challenge completion or live-price validation occurs here.

Failure signals and proposed responses

1. Signal

   A multipack price is divided by one bottle’s volume.

   Why it matters

   The ranking becomes mathematically wrong.

   Proposed response

   Recalculate total usable quantity and retain the shown arithmetic.

2. Signal

   An inaccessible retailer is silently dropped.

   Why it matters

   The shopper may mistake a partial comparison for the full market.

   Proposed response

   List the gap and revise only after authorized access provides evidence.

Effort and cost — unknown

Setup work

1. Define comparable products and a common quantity unit.

Ongoing review

1. Recheck promotional eligibility and newly available retailers.

Unknowns

1. Unknown: current stock, local prices and access-handoff effort.

First check — proposed, unexecuted

Status

proposed_unexecuted

Synthetic fixture

Invented offers include a multipack, a membership-only discount and one inaccessible store.

Acceptance checks

1. Quantity arithmetic is visible.

2. The conditional offer and missing store remain clearly labelled.

Stop conditions

1. A challenge, purchase or missing promotion condition needs owner action.

Limits

1. Editorial shopping comparison; no purchase or complete current-market ranking is established.