Idea for a mobile app: scan barcodes with the phone’s camera to see where the resources used in the product are from, where the production takes place and a percentage breakdown of the retail price by resource distribution to each country/region. This will be a tool for politically and socially-minded consumers. By knowing which country their hard-earned money is going to, they can boycott countries that they do not agree with politically. It will empower the consumer.
Users can create a profile to track their spending habits on a main website. The site will keep a running tally of all products scanned and user will be able to toggle which products have been purchased — to which they have ‘committed’ their patronage. Data breakdown for each profile will include geographic and corporate mapping on personal expenditure.
Scanned products will also provide product feedback from other users of the app. Feedback can be entered into the mobile app at the time of scan if desired (voice recording transcribed to text?) or feedback can be entered via the website profile.
Information for products will need to be surrendered by manufacturers or farmed from existing data sources if possible.
Possibly pitch to Consumer Reports and integrate with their product data and cross-market.