We comparison shoppers, the bane of big-box retailers, have some new resources at the other end of our cell phone to call upon in our war for value.

Recently my wife and I were in the market for a new television. I made use of a new service, Frucall. We visited our local Costco Wholesale (NASDAQ:COST) and picked the model we wanted. While on the showroom floor, I then dialed up the Frucall price comparison service on my cell phone and punched in the universal produce code of the television from the label on the side of its box. Frucall responded by reading me the price internet vendors would charge for the same unit.

The search confirmed that the Costco price was a fair one, and we bought said unit.
A reporter for the Dallas Morning News recently did much the same thing for a CD he was considering. By entering the UPC, he found that Amazon offered the same item for quite a bit less.

Frucall and Scanbuy Shopper are two sites that offer this service. They work differently.

For Frucall, one need not register or have internet access. One simply calls their number (1-888-FRU-CALL DO-FRUCALL, i.e. 1-888-363-7822), and at the prompt, keys in the UPC. It reads back the product sale price on other sites, and offers to connect the shopper to each.

Scanbuy works through an internet-enabled phone. The customer downloads Scanbuy's software, then enters the UPC in a browser screen. Scanbuy responds with visual data about best prices and vendors.

If these services becomes popular, expect big-box vendors to take steps to conceal the UPC from the customer until time of purchase. Until then, these and similar services can provide some peace of mind for major purchases.