Mapping Crowdsourced Grocery Store Reports During the COVID-19 Pandemic

I used the personal use license I was granted through the GIS Service Pledge program to build a web application to enable anyone to submit an anonymous report documenting their grocery shopping experience during the COVID-19 pandemic. My hope was that by sharing information about product availability and the precautions stores and shoppers were taking, people could help their more vulnerable neighbors make smart decisions about where and when to shop in order to minimize their risk of exposure to the virus.

The app consists of a Survey123 app, a dashboard, and a mobile version of that dashboard all combined in an Experience Builder app. I had never used Experience Builder before, but these instructions made it easy to bundle my form and dashboards into a single application that displays appropriately on both computer screens and mobile devices.

When I first built the app, I was hoping people in my local Southern California community would use it to share information. Instead, the app ended up getting submissions from all over the United States and from countries as far away as Bhutan. With help from Esri, I made some changes to optimize it for higher traffic. Usage has waned as people get used to new ways of grocery shopping, but it’s been interesting to watch trends in physical distancing, wait times, and product availability over time.