School Supply List Price Comparator

WHAT IT DOES

This userscript helps parents and students save money on school supplies by comparing prices across major retailers. It scans any school supply list page—whether from a school website, a teacher's blog, or a shopping cart—and extracts every item and its quantity. It then estimates the cost of each item at Amazon, Walmart, Target, and Staples using typical pricing data with retailer-specific adjustments. The script displays a clear comparison showing total cost per retailer, flags the cheapest option with a trophy icon, highlights the most expensive option, and calculates potential savings. It also shows a breakdown of individual item prices for each retailer, helping you make informed purchasing decisions.

WHERE IT RUNS

The script works on any webpage containing a school supply list—school district websites, classroom pages, supply list PDFs converted to HTML, online shopping carts, or any page with bulleted or numbered lists of items. It runs entirely within your browser, reading only the visible text content of the current page. It does not track your browsing history, access other tabs, or send any data externally. No external APIs are called—all price estimation is performed locally using built-in reference data.

HOW TO USE

After installation, open the panel by clicking the tool's icon in the BotGentz sidebar. The script automatically scans supply lists on page load (you can toggle this off). Click "Scan and compare prices" to manually trigger a scan at any time. The panel will display a comparison table showing each retailer's estimated total cost, a per-item price breakdown, and a savings summary highlighting how much you can save by choosing the cheapest retailer. Click "Clear comparison" to remove the results and return the panel to its default state.

THE TECHNICAL MECHANISM

This script uses a two-stage extraction and estimation pipeline. First, it extracts supply items from the page by scanning lines of text for common list patterns—bullet points, numbered items, and quantity notation like "2 notebooks" or "notebooks (2)". It normalizes item names and aggregates quantities if the same item appears multiple times. Second, it estimates prices using a built-in database of common school supply items (notebooks, pencils, markers, glue, scissors, backpacks, etc.) with typical price ranges. Each retailer is assigned a price multiplier: Amazon at 0.9x (typically cheapest), Walmart at 0.95x, Target at 1.0x, and Staples at 1.1x (typically most expensive). For items not in the database, a fallback price of $3.99 is used. The script then calculates subtotals per item, sums them for each retailer, sorts the results, and displays the comparison with savings calculations. This approach provides a realistic estimate without requiring real-time price scraping, which would be impossible without API access.

THE PANEL

The panel is draggable anywhere on the screen and remembers its position between sessions. It can be collapsed to a small floating bubble to minimize distraction, and expanded again with a single click. The panel's width can be adjusted, and pressing the Escape key closes it instantly. All settings—auto-scan preference—are persisted locally using GM_setValue, so your preferences remain intact across page reloads and browser restarts.

PLEASE NOTE

This userscript requires the free BotGentz extension to function. The price comparison is based on estimated typical prices and retailer multipliers—not real-time data from retailer APIs. Actual prices may vary by region, season, and specific product brands. The script is designed to give you a rough comparison to guide your shopping decisions, not a guaranteed price quote. It works best on clearly formatted supply lists with one item per line; complex or image-based lists may not be fully detected. No data from your browsing is stored or transmitted anywhere—all processing occurs entirely in your browser.