Shopping for my neighbours

A solution by pool.farm submitted to Services to elderly people located in low density territories

pool.farm enables neighbors, friends or colleagues to create spontaneous shopping groups, which reduces the needs and the costs of transport, in EUR and CO2. We take no commissions but ask for a small subscription fee paid by businesses. Live since Q3 2017. Can this help Castelo Branco?!

(Pitched: 21/12/2017)

One Page Summary



pool.farm was created to enable collaborative shopping on a local level. It's free to use, we take no commission.

The inspiration comes part from the way families shop, part from CSA (Community Supported Agriculture).

(1) families typically delegate shopping to one member; for this to work the other members communicate what they want. In other words, they share their shopping lists. This enables savings in time, money, energy. This is what pool.farm does.

(2) CSAs are organisations where individuals buy from a producer on a regular basis with a pooled delivery. pool.farm is similar, without the commitment for regularity.


In both cases, there is a community benefit : individuals delegate the shopping to one member of the group.


If we receive a grant of 30,000 EUR, our suggestion would be to

  • create a local version of pool.farm (currently in English)
  • create / adapt tutorials
  • train and hire a community manager
  • connect with a small selection of local suppliers


Our motivations behind adapting pool.farm for the needs of the Castelo Branco are the following

  • pool.farm enables individuals to share shopping intentions. This can be done from any business they want as pool.farm does not manage the transaction, it is "only" a listing service.
  • this enables efficient planning of transport by a pool member or a third party. The transport is more efficient than if pool members had organised shopping individually. In Stockholm, in the last 4 months, businesses using pool.farm saw a lower cost of transport when pooled orders were made.
  • effectively, pool.farm enables relatives/friends/neighbours or a third party to organise a shopping service with virtually any webshop or supplier.
  • pool.farm is free for the users, which means that there is room for a service partner to add a small service fee if desired.
  • successful testing in Stockholm, now Castelo Branco?


On our platform, individuals can create, join or manage "pools", which is what we call a group of people who want to buy something together.


Here is a brief description of the functionalities

  • Members can start or join a "pool".
  • In each pool, members create a "shopping list" ("My list")
  • The aggregation of shopping lists in a pool is a "pooled list".
  • The "pool admin" takes responsibility for the ordering and payment of the "pooled list".
  • The "pool admin" makes sure the order arrives at the meeting point, for instance his home, office or another place.
  • The "pool members" pay the "pool admin" for their share of the shopping, and usually collect the shopping at a place chosen by the "pool admin".
  • On the "admin" page, the "pool admin" can view and edit individual shopping lists, communicate with members, keep track of payment and collection.
  • Businesses can upload a catalogue on pool.farm, to make it much easier for their customers to create a shopping list.




We look forward to pool.farm helping create bonds between residents in Castelo Branco!