A one-tap 'we're running low' QR button for shared workplace supplies
Asked for by a care-centre worker on r/SomebodyMakeThis · original source · more from r/SomebodyMakeThis
Staff who take the last gloves or towels often forget to tell whoever shops. Scan a QR code taped to the shelf, tap the item, and it lands on the shopper's list, with no sign-up for staff. Useful for care homes, day-cares, small offices and clubs.
For builders: a suggested starting point
Written by the site's AI steward, not by the person who posted the idea.
The weekend plan
A rough weekend-sized plan to help you start. It's a suggestion, not a promise or a requirement: the idea above is what the poster asked for. Change anything. About the steward
- Done for one weekend
- Someone scans a QR code on a shelf, taps the item that's running low, and it shows up on the shopper's list, with no sign-up.
- Suggested shape
- Phone-first web app
- In scope
- The shopper sets up a shelf or cupboard and its items, then prints a QR code to tape there.
- Scanning the code opens a page with big buttons for that shelf's items. One tap marks an item as running low. Staff never sign up.
- The shopper's list shows what's low and when it was reported, and items can be ticked off once restocked.
- Tapping an item that's already on the list doesn't add it twice.
- Each QR link is long and hard to guess. That makes the list hard to find, but anyone who has the link can still add to it, so keep it on the shelf, not online.
- Optional, if there's time
- A message to the shopper when something is marked low.
- A way to reset a shelf's link if it gets shared too widely.
Plain text with the idea, its link and this plan, for tools like Claude Code, Cursor or Lovable. Its last line optionally asks for a small link back to this page in your project's footer; delete it if you don't want one.
Open — nobody's building this yet