7 ms·

Show HN: Localmint - Quickly find local store opening hours

34 points by oisin 12y ago

oisin 12y ago
We have built Localmint to help consumers avoid the tedious task of browsing store locators, which typically offer terrible user experience, especially on smartphones. Would love to hear any feedback you have. Oisin Ryan - Co-Founder
- buckbova 12y ago
  Tedious? Open google maps, search on phrase, and note closest search results.
rangav 12y ago
Hello, I am one of the co-founder of Localmint. Localmint site helps users to find local store opening hours fast and convenient way from any device. We love to take feedback from the community on how we can improve our service. Thanks Ranga Vadhineni
- bhousel 12y ago
  Are you trying to build a business off this service, or will it just be an open dataset that anybody can use for whatever they want (along the same idea as openstreetmap)? I'm just asking because I've toyed with the idea of building the latter, and I strongly believe it's something that will exist eventually, whether I build it or someone else does.
  - rangav 12y ago
    We are trying to build business on this idea, So we have no plans to open data for others.
deleted 12y ago
[deleted]
grimtrigger 12y ago
Pretty cool. How are you getting the data?
- oisin 12y ago
  Hi grimtrigger, some retailers submit and manage their own data, but mostly we get it from their websites.
chuinard 12y ago
I would go to Yelp for this info (usually the store hours). The site looks good but just throwing that out there, I don't think you have any info that Yelp doesn't.
- oisin 12y ago
  Hi Chuinard, we have made the Localmint website and apps as simple and clean as possible. We see having less info than Yelp as a positive. Thanks for commenting!
  - Lambdanaut 12y ago
    Less information doesn't necessarily correlate with simplicity. Now that you've got a clean product, figure out a way to segment the market so that there's more reason to use localmint. Maybe adding more information (in a clean way) is the answer. As I see it, to use your site there's still the extra steps of 1. Having to remember the "localmint.com" name and 2. Having to type it in the browser every time I need to look up store hours. When I open a new tab I'm already at a Google search engine. Why not just use it instead? You'll need to build a compelling enough reason to visit localmint, because right now it's not the easiest solution.
LarryMade2 12y ago
Looks and works great! Here are a couple things: Have some sort of indication of what's currently open or not. Many folks would look for whats "available now" if they are on mobile... . When you select a category it doesn't give you an option to search an area - especially when you are already looking in an area. I've been developing something similar for a small area doplaces.com
- oisin 12y ago
  Hi Larry, we have considered the "open now" feature and it is in the pipeline. Really keeping it simple to start with. Search by area option should always be available? Doplaces looks great. Best of luck!
  - LarryMade2 12y ago
    Say you are looking at grcery stores in SF and pop open categories and select bookstores, instead of seeing bookstores in SF you see a list of all the bookstores... Categories in area view I think would work better as a filter. or at least have a way to pop back to your last map view with that category from the businesses page.
bhouston 12y ago
If I ask Google it usually works. They seem to have added some support for this, probably via their Google Maps for Businesses or something like that. So it is a challenging market to enter.
- bithive123 12y ago
  Siri also answers these kinds of questions.
dubcanada 12y ago
That is a very targeted market. And I'm not sure what you are using, but nothing is turning up for me. For example... http://www.localmint.com/ie/search?q=tim+hortons&l=toronto%2C+on http://www.localmint.com/ie/search?q=tim+hortons&l=toronto%2... http://www.localmint.com/ie/search?q=starbucks&l=toronto%2C+on http://www.localmint.com/ie/search?q=starbucks&l=toronto%2C+... http://www.localmint.com/ie/search?q=starbucks&l=new+york+city http://www.localmint.com/ie/search?q=starbucks&l=new+york+ci... http://www.localmint.com/ie/search?q=winners&l=new+york+city http://www.localmint.com/ie/search?q=winners&l=new+york+city Now there is def Tim Hortons and Star Bucks in Toronto. There is at least 4000 of them.
- irishbabu 12y ago
  I can found starbucks, http://www.localmint.com/us/search?q=starbucks&l=new+york http://www.localmint.com/us/search?q=starbucks&l=new+york
  - dubcanada 12y ago
    Hrm it seems to be working for me now. It wasn't before. Must just be slow or something.
    - cpayne624 12y ago
      They've just gotta do better at normalizing the location. 'new york' vs 'new york city'
DontBeADick 12y ago
Gave it a try on a chain of sporting goods store with several locations in my area. Google: Correct hours Yelp: Correct hours Localmint: No stores found Looks like you've got a long road ahead if you want any chance of making this work. I personally don't see any need for such a website since Yelp and Google have pretty much got it covered.
- rangav 12y ago
  Hi DontBeADick, We have most of the data for top retail stores in US, But we are adding more stores to our site every week. But here is Dick's Sporting Goods http://www.localmint.com/us/search?q=sporting+goods&l=san+francisco http://www.localmint.com/us/search?q=sporting+goods&l=san+fr... Thanks for feedback.
- bhouston 12y ago
  Competing with Google's built-in search results with a separate application is highly challenging and I wouldn't recommend it unless you can add tremendous value and even then I think it is a tough sell for the large majority of users.
  - mbesto 12y ago
    Also, Yelp has this pretty much cornered. (4sq as well maybe?)
Meltdown 12y ago
Unlikely to visit very often if it's just opening times...what I want is to be able to give feedback! Two things that annoy me about SuperValu, Deansgrange...over-charging (I only bought one punnet of blueberries Mr SuperValu, not TWO!)...and constant out-of-stocks of products I want to buy. There... I feel better after that.
- deejaybog 12y ago
  Meltdown, you should get on our early adopters list, you'll be able to give feedback to any local business. See www.tipnik.com
kolencherry 12y ago
Interesting application. Is there a way to recommend merchants/stores to add? (e.g. there are no entries for HEB, a grocery store, in Austin)
- oisin 12y ago
  HEB is on our list kolencherry. You can use the http://www.localmint.com/home/addbusiness http://www.localmint.com/home/addbusiness link to add individual stores, or just contact us on info@localmint.com and we will add the chain.
thecodemonkey 12y ago
This is awesome! I built something similar as a side project a few years ago [1]. Our approach is a little bit different since we're focusing on crawling updated opening hours weekly (when available), so our data will never be stale. It's currently very popular in Denmark, but we have a US version as well. We have been looking into opening up our dataset for anyone to use, shoot me an email if this is something you would be interested in: me@codemonkey.io [1] https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/whats-open-nearby-find-hours/id492301344?mt=8 https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/whats-open-nearby-find-hours...
whymsicalburito 12y ago
I've found google maps to be very reliable for store hours around southern California. Google maps has become my go-to app for business location, phone number, and hours
beachstartup 12y ago
i live in santa monica / los angeles. these searches failed to produce any results: 'burgers', 'ramen', 'sushi', 'citibank', 'chicken', 'bar' so like... if i can't find a burger at a weird hour when i'm craving one, or the hours of my local bank, i'm not really sure what i would use this for. japanese restaurants always have infuriatingly weird hours and they don't show up here either.
philipod 12y ago
Comment on the app. nice interface, works well in Dublin, nice quick reference if you are unsure of the name of chemist or shop. Good for emergencies when you need the nearest open chemist. Could do with more suburban shops. Probably useful for students or visitors to a new city, is it multi lingual?

34 points by oisin 12y ago

oisin 12y ago

We have built Localmint to help consumers avoid the tedious task of browsing store locators, which typically offer terrible user experience, especially on smartphones. Would love to hear any feedback you have. Oisin Ryan - Co-Founder

buckbova 12y ago
Tedious? Open google maps, search on phrase, and note closest search results.

rangav 12y ago

Hello, I am one of the co-founder of Localmint. Localmint site helps users to find local store opening hours fast and convenient way from any device. We love to take feedback from the community on how we can improve our service. Thanks Ranga Vadhineni

bhousel 12y ago
Are you trying to build a business off this service, or will it just be an open dataset that anybody can use for whatever they want (along the same idea as openstreetmap)? I'm just asking because I've toyed with the idea of building the latter, and I strongly believe it's something that will exist eventually, whether I build it or someone else does.
- rangav 12y ago
  We are trying to build business on this idea, So we have no plans to open data for others.

deleted 12y ago

[deleted]

grimtrigger 12y ago

Pretty cool. How are you getting the data?

oisin 12y ago
Hi grimtrigger, some retailers submit and manage their own data, but mostly we get it from their websites.

chuinard 12y ago

I would go to Yelp for this info (usually the store hours). The site looks good but just throwing that out there, I don't think you have any info that Yelp doesn't.

oisin 12y ago
Hi Chuinard, we have made the Localmint website and apps as simple and clean as possible. We see having less info than Yelp as a positive. Thanks for commenting!
- Lambdanaut 12y ago
  Less information doesn't necessarily correlate with simplicity. Now that you've got a clean product, figure out a way to segment the market so that there's more reason to use localmint. Maybe adding more information (in a clean way) is the answer. As I see it, to use your site there's still the extra steps of 1. Having to remember the "localmint.com" name and 2. Having to type it in the browser every time I need to look up store hours. When I open a new tab I'm already at a Google search engine. Why not just use it instead? You'll need to build a compelling enough reason to visit localmint, because right now it's not the easiest solution.

LarryMade2 12y ago

Looks and works great! Here are a couple things: Have some sort of indication of what's currently open or not. Many folks would look for whats "available now" if they are on mobile... . When you select a category it doesn't give you an option to search an area - especially when you are already looking in an area. I've been developing something similar for a small area doplaces.com

oisin 12y ago
Hi Larry, we have considered the "open now" feature and it is in the pipeline. Really keeping it simple to start with. Search by area option should always be available? Doplaces looks great. Best of luck!
- LarryMade2 12y ago
  Say you are looking at grcery stores in SF and pop open categories and select bookstores, instead of seeing bookstores in SF you see a list of all the bookstores... Categories in area view I think would work better as a filter. or at least have a way to pop back to your last map view with that category from the businesses page.

bhouston 12y ago

If I ask Google it usually works. They seem to have added some support for this, probably via their Google Maps for Businesses or something like that. So it is a challenging market to enter.

bithive123 12y ago
Siri also answers these kinds of questions.

dubcanada 12y ago

That is a very targeted market. And I'm not sure what you are using, but nothing is turning up for me. For example... http://www.localmint.com/ie/search?q=tim+hortons&l=toronto%2C+on http://www.localmint.com/ie/search?q=tim+hortons&l=toronto%2... http://www.localmint.com/ie/search?q=starbucks&l=toronto%2C+on http://www.localmint.com/ie/search?q=starbucks&l=toronto%2C+... http://www.localmint.com/ie/search?q=starbucks&l=new+york+city http://www.localmint.com/ie/search?q=starbucks&l=new+york+ci... http://www.localmint.com/ie/search?q=winners&l=new+york+city http://www.localmint.com/ie/search?q=winners&l=new+york+city Now there is def Tim Hortons and Star Bucks in Toronto. There is at least 4000 of them.

irishbabu 12y ago
I can found starbucks, http://www.localmint.com/us/search?q=starbucks&l=new+york http://www.localmint.com/us/search?q=starbucks&l=new+york
- dubcanada 12y ago
  Hrm it seems to be working for me now. It wasn't before. Must just be slow or something.
  - cpayne624 12y ago
    They've just gotta do better at normalizing the location. 'new york' vs 'new york city'

DontBeADick 12y ago

Gave it a try on a chain of sporting goods store with several locations in my area. Google: Correct hours Yelp: Correct hours Localmint: No stores found Looks like you've got a long road ahead if you want any chance of making this work. I personally don't see any need for such a website since Yelp and Google have pretty much got it covered.

rangav 12y ago
Hi DontBeADick, We have most of the data for top retail stores in US, But we are adding more stores to our site every week. But here is Dick's Sporting Goods http://www.localmint.com/us/search?q=sporting+goods&l=san+francisco http://www.localmint.com/us/search?q=sporting+goods&l=san+fr... Thanks for feedback.
bhouston 12y ago
Competing with Google's built-in search results with a separate application is highly challenging and I wouldn't recommend it unless you can add tremendous value and even then I think it is a tough sell for the large majority of users.
- mbesto 12y ago
  Also, Yelp has this pretty much cornered. (4sq as well maybe?)

Meltdown 12y ago

Unlikely to visit very often if it's just opening times...what I want is to be able to give feedback! Two things that annoy me about SuperValu, Deansgrange...over-charging (I only bought one punnet of blueberries Mr SuperValu, not TWO!)...and constant out-of-stocks of products I want to buy. There... I feel better after that.

deejaybog 12y ago
Meltdown, you should get on our early adopters list, you'll be able to give feedback to any local business. See www.tipnik.com

kolencherry 12y ago

Interesting application. Is there a way to recommend merchants/stores to add? (e.g. there are no entries for HEB, a grocery store, in Austin)

oisin 12y ago
HEB is on our list kolencherry. You can use the http://www.localmint.com/home/addbusiness http://www.localmint.com/home/addbusiness link to add individual stores, or just contact us on info@localmint.com and we will add the chain.

thecodemonkey 12y ago

This is awesome! I built something similar as a side project a few years ago [1]. Our approach is a little bit different since we're focusing on crawling updated opening hours weekly (when available), so our data will never be stale. It's currently very popular in Denmark, but we have a US version as well. We have been looking into opening up our dataset for anyone to use, shoot me an email if this is something you would be interested in: me@codemonkey.io [1] https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/whats-open-nearby-find-hours/id492301344?mt=8 https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/whats-open-nearby-find-hours...

whymsicalburito 12y ago

I've found google maps to be very reliable for store hours around southern California. Google maps has become my go-to app for business location, phone number, and hours

beachstartup 12y ago

i live in santa monica / los angeles. these searches failed to produce any results: 'burgers', 'ramen', 'sushi', 'citibank', 'chicken', 'bar' so like... if i can't find a burger at a weird hour when i'm craving one, or the hours of my local bank, i'm not really sure what i would use this for. japanese restaurants always have infuriatingly weird hours and they don't show up here either.

philipod 12y ago

Comment on the app. nice interface, works well in Dublin, nice quick reference if you are unsure of the name of chemist or shop. Good for emergencies when you need the nearest open chemist. Could do with more suburban shops. Probably useful for students or visitors to a new city, is it multi lingual?