The Weiser Cabinet

Instruction Manual

How The Weiser Cabinet Works

Most grocery apps ask you to track what you have. The Weiser Cabinet works differently — it tracks what you use up.

Here's the idea: when you finish something and you're about to throw away the packaging, that's when you scan it. That moment — the throw-away moment — is when the app learns that you've run out of something.

Every scan goes into the system. Every night at 2 AM, the app looks at everything you've scanned and figures out what you're running low on. By morning, your shopping list is ready.

You don't build the list manually. The app builds it for you, based on what you actually use.

The more you scan, the better it gets. Over time, the app learns your household's rhythms — what you go through fast, what you go through slow, and what you use every Thanksgiving — and your list reflects that.

What gets logged

Anything with a barcode — canned goods, packaged foods, cleaning supplies, toiletries, beverages. If it has a barcode and you used it up, scan it. The app confirms each scan with a simple Item Logged. That's it. That's the record.

What about fresh food

The Weiser Cabinet is designed around a simple idea: let the app handle the routine part of shopping, so the intentional part stays intentional.

Think about how people shop in Europe. You don't do one giant weekly haul. You stop at the market for fresh bread, pick up what looks good at the butcher, grab produce that's in season. It's a pleasure, not a chore.

That's what we're going for. Your pantry staples — the packaged goods, the things you run out of and reorder without thinking — move toward delivery or a quick targeted run. Your fresh food shopping stays exactly what it should be.

Fresh items work a little differently. On the scan screen, switch to the FRESH tab and choose your category. For produce, say the name — the app hears you and logs it. For everything else, point your camera at the label, take a photo, and the app reads it.

Fresh items run through the same nightly process as everything else. By morning they appear at the top of your list. When you approve them, they move to the Fresh tab on your Order screen. Fresh is deliberately kept loose — the app surfaces it, you decide what to do with it.

Getting Started

Everything happens in the app. Install it, open it, and you're two minutes from your first scan. There is no website step.

The first screen

The app opens with one question: do you have a household code?

A household is the unit The Weiser Cabinet is built around. Everyone in a household shares one inventory and one shopping list. If someone in your home is already using the app, you join theirs. If nobody is, you start one.

The Terms of Service are linked at the bottom of this screen. The Terms reference our Privacy Policy — both are worth a look before you begin.

Joining a household

If someone sent you a Key Code, tap I have a household code.

Enter the code, and the name you go by at home — Phil, Erik, whatever people call you. That name appears on the home screen and identifies you within the household.

That's the whole join. No login, no password. Your place in the household is tied to your device, and the app opens straight to the scan screen from then on.

Starting a household

If you don't have a code, tap Set up a New Household here. Three things to fill in:

• Household name — anything you like. "Sherry's House," "The Johnson Place," whatever fits.
• Handle — a short unique identifier for your household. The app suggests one based on the name you entered and checks that it's available; change it if you'd rather have something else. It's how your household is identified inside The Weiser Cabinet.
• Email address — where your shopping list is sent when you choose Send List to Email. It's also where your setup emails arrive.

Tap create, and the Household Created screen shows you two codes.

Your two codes

They do different jobs and they are not interchangeable.

The Key Code is the one you hand out. It's eight characters, and anyone who enters it joins your household — sharing your inventory and your shopping list. Tap SHARE beside it to send it however you like. It can only be used by one person at a time, so if two people are joining, they go one after the other.

Below it is a second, separate action: SHARE THE APP. That sends a link to the app and nothing else — no code, and nothing about your household. Use it when you want to tell someone about The Weiser Cabinet who should have a household of their own rather than join yours. Recommending the app and letting someone into your home are two different things, and these are the two different buttons.

The Master Recovery Code is not for sharing. It's longer, and it's how you get back in as the master user of your household if you lose your phone or replace it. Anyone holding it has that same access, so treat it the way you'd treat a spare key to the house. Tap COPY and put it somewhere that isn't your phone — a password manager, a note in a drawer, anywhere you'll still have it if the phone is gone.

The two emails

Two emails arrive at the address you entered.

The first is private. It holds your Master Recovery Code, and it is not meant to leave your inbox.

The second is written to be forwarded exactly as it is. It carries your Key Code, the install link and a QR code, and explains what the app does for someone who's never heard of it. There is no recovery code anywhere in it. That's the one to send to anyone joining your household.

Check that the first email arrived before you move on. If it didn't, the address has a typo in it — and if the setup email can't reach you, neither can your shopping list. You can correct the address in Settings.

When your recovery code is somewhere safe, tap I'VE SAVED MY RECOVERY CODE. That takes you to your stores.

Adding your stores

Start typing a store name and it appears in a list. Tap it to add.

Your first store becomes your primary — the default that every product is assigned to when you scan it. You can have up to five. If your store doesn't appear in the list, add it as a custom store using any name you like.

Each store shows how you order from it — Guided Shopping for stores with a direct web connection, or Email List for stores where you send yourself a list. Tap What's this? on that screen for the short version.

If something interrupted you during setup and you landed in the app without any stores, nothing is broken — your shopping list just has nowhere to go yet. Open Settings and add them there. You can change stores at any time and you're never locked into what you picked at the start.

If you get a new phone

Your household lives on our servers, not on your phone. A new device just needs to be pointed at it.

If you're the master user, open the app on the new phone and use your Master Recovery Code — that restores you as master, with everything intact.

If you're a member rather than the master, use the household's Key Code, the same way you joined the first time.

Nothing you scanned is lost in either case. The inventory belongs to the household, not the device.

The Daily Habit

We've kept this as simple as possible. There's really just one thing: when you throw something away, scan the barcode first.

That moment at the trash can — that's the one. You're already there. Quick point and scan, and you're done. The app confirms with Item Logged and you move on.

The more consistently you do this, the smarter your shopping list gets. Scan everything and within a couple of weeks the app starts to feel like it knows your kitchen.

That's the whole habit. Everything else in the app flows from that one moment.

The Scan Screen

The heart of the app. Three tabs run across the top, and the one you'll use most is already selected when the screen opens.

• DEPLETE — throwing out. The default, and the habit the whole app is built on.
• FRESH — logging produce, bakery, deli and meat, which have no barcode to scan.
• STOCK — putting away. Scanning something into your inventory rather than out of it.

The camera sits below the tabs, and the panel underneath it shows what happened on your last scan.

Deplete — the throw-away scan

Point at the barcode and scan. The app confirms with Item Logged, and that item is now one step closer to appearing on your list.

This is the one that matters. Everything the nightly engine knows about your household comes from these scans.

Stock — putting away

STOCK is there when you want it. You don't need it for groceries you've brought home — those come into the flow the first time you use one up, without you doing anything. But if you'd rather put something in your inventory right now, this is how. It's useful when you're stocking up for a recipe, so the Recipes screen can see what you already have on hand.

Fresh — items without a barcode

Switch to FRESH and choose your category. For produce, say the name and the app transcribes it. For deli, bakery and meat, photograph the printed label and the app reads it.

What happens when you scan

The app looks for the product in three places, in order:

1. Your own household inventory. If you've scanned it before, it's found instantly.
2. Open Food Facts, a large open product database.
3. A general UPC lookup, as a backup.

If all three come up empty, the app asks you to enter the item by hand. Type in the name and it's yours from then on.

Manually entered items are not second-class. Because the app checks your own inventory first, a hand-typed item is found on every future scan even though no database ever had it. And if that product later turns up in Open Food Facts, the app quietly upgrades your record with the better data. You don't have to do anything. If you notice an item you typed in has picked up a fuller product name, that's what happened.

The recycle indicator

When you scan, look at the upper right of the result:

• A blue or green recycle symbol — the packaging is recyclable.
• A recycle symbol with a red line through it — it isn't; it goes in the trash.
• Nothing at all — we don't have recycling data for that product.

Recycling data is spotty across the product world, so expect this to be present on some items and absent on many others. When it's there, it's a small bonus at exactly the moment it's useful — you're standing at the bin with the package in your hand.

Log Leftover

At the bottom of the scan screen is LOG LEFTOVER, for recording something you've put away in the fridge.

1. The camera opens. Line it up over the container with the lid open so the food is visible, and tap Take Photo.
2. A microphone appears. Say what it is — "chicken soup" — and the app transcribes it to text.
3. The transcription is editable, and there's an optional note field for anything else you want to remember. "This'll last three days." "Erik's."
4. Tap Save.

That's the capture. Reviewing and clearing leftovers is explained in the Extras hub section below.

Your Shopping List

Every night at 2 AM, the app goes to work. It looks at what you've scanned and builds your pending items list from what you've used — while you sleep. By morning, it's ready for you.

Reviewing your list

At your convenience — morning, evening, once a week, whenever works for you — open the list. Fresh items appear at the top. Everything else follows, built from what you've scanned and what the app has learned you're likely to need.

Go through each item and tell the app what you want to do with it. Approve it and it moves to your order. Delay it and it steps aside and comes back later. Mark it seasonal, or take it out of the flow.

Taking an item out of the flow doesn't remove it from anything. It stays in your inventory — the nightly engine simply stops putting it on your list. Scan it again and it resumes normal flow, and you can put it on a list by hand from the Stock tab whenever you want it. Nothing you've ever scanned is deleted.

When you approve an item for the first time, take a moment to check which store it's assigned to. Everything defaults to your primary store, but if you buy something at a different store, change it when you review it. Once you've set it, the app remembers — you won't need to do it again.

How many to buy

Tap a pending item and you'll see a count at the top. That's how many times you've scanned that item since the last order was placed carrying it — not since the order arrived, and not since you closed it out. Since it was placed.

So if you went through six bottles of something in a stretch, the list asks for six.

The count is editable. Tap it and set whatever number you want. That creates an override, and the override sticks until you turn it off.

Say you had guests, they went through six, and you know next week is back to normal. Set it to two. The app stops guessing and does what you told it.

The next time you scan that item, the pending entry shows you three things:

• The override you set.
• A Turn Off Override button — it only appears when an override is in place.
• The actual scanned count at the bottom, for reference.

You always see both numbers: the one you forced, and the one that really happened. Turn the override off and the item goes back to automatic.

Whatever number is standing when you approve the item is the quantity that lands on the Order screen.

Stock

Your current inventory. The tab is labeled Stock; the screen inside reads Inventory. They're the same place.

The inventory is searchable — start typing part of a product name to find it.

Tap any item to open it. You can edit the quantity on hand, the reorder quantity, and other product details. The UPC is locked — that's the item's identity and the app won't let you change it.

The philosophy here is that you're in charge. One on the shelf, put one. The app works with what you tell it rather than dictating what must be true.

At the bottom of each item you'll see one of three states:

• Add to Pending List — the item isn't on any list right now.
• Already on Pending List — it's waiting for your approval.
• Already on Order — it's on an order that hasn't been closed yet.

This is also how you buy something you've taken out of the flow. Find it, tap Add to Pending List, and it goes onto your list for this trip without rejoining the nightly cycle. It stays out of the flow until you scan it again.

Extras

The fifth tab at the bottom of the screen. On first launch it's labeled Extra Goods. After that, it renames itself to whichever feature you used last — Leftovers or Recipes.

The hub itself never changes. Both cards are always inside, under the header Extras. Only the tab's name follows your habit — it always shows whichever you used last.

Extras is also where new features will appear as they're added. Right now it holds Leftovers and Recipes.

Leftovers

Open the Leftovers card and you'll see everything you've put away, each one showing:

• The photo you took
• How old it is and when you put it there — "two days old, placed July 28"
• What you said it was
• Any comment you added

When a leftover is gone, tap Done. The app asks you to confirm, because this can't be undone. Confirm, and the photo, the description, the note, all of it is deleted completely. We don't keep a copy of any of it.

Recipes

This isn't a recipe collection. It's a live answer to what can I make right now with what's in the house.

Every household receives four recipes donated by The Weiser Cabinet — simple, familiar things like a hamburger and fries. They arrive already built, with a specific product chosen for each ingredient. Some brand of waffle fries. Some brand of buns.

Those are yours now. Make them your own.

Tap any ingredient and search your own inventory for the item you actually buy. Pick it, and from then on that's the product the recipe watches. Your fries. Your buns. Your ketchup. The choice sticks to your household permanently — set it once and it's done. And once a recipe is delivered to your household, we never touch it again. It's yours.

The list is live. An ingredient counts as on hand when you have at least one of it in stock. Recipes sort by how close you are:

• At the top, the recipes you can make right now.
• Below that, the recipes you're missing one ingredient for.
• Below that, missing two — and so on down.

Tap a recipe and it opens up with the ingredients, the amounts, and the full instructions.

Some ingredients aren't tracked. Onions, carrots, celery — things you probably have but the app has no way to count. Those show up as a note telling you to check, and they don't count against the missing tally. A recipe that needs three things you have plus an onion still reads as ready to make.

If an ingredient reads as missing and you know perfectly well it's in the freezer, that usually means the item you mapped is no longer the one you're buying. Tap it and pick again.

You can't add your own recipes yet. That's a bigger piece of work and it isn't in this release. For now the four you have are yours to shape.

Placing Your Order

The Weiser Cabinet tells you what your household needs. You decide how, when, and where to buy it.

When you're ready to act on your list, tap the List tab at the bottom of the screen, then Order along the top. The List tab holds two screens: Pending Items, which is where it opens by default, and Order, right beside it.

On the Order screen you'll see your approved items organized by store, with a tab for each store and a separate Fresh tab for any fresh items you've approved.

Ordering through Guided Shopping

For stores that support Guided Shopping, you'll see a Shop Now button at the bottom of that store's tab. Tap it and the store's own website opens inside the app, taken directly to a search for your first item. Add it to your cart, then tap Added to Cart to move to the next item. The app walks you through your order one item at a time.

You're on the store's real site the whole time, so you log in, review the cart, and check out there exactly as you normally would. The Cabinet fills the cart; you complete the purchase.

When you've gone through everything, the button changes to Done — Return to Cabinet. Before returning, the app asks you to confirm that you've finished checkout. Tap Continue Shopping if you still need to check out or want to keep browsing.

The growing list of stores with Guided Shopping currently includes Albertsons, Sam's Club, Wegmans, Amazon, and Target.

Stores without a working web portal won't show the Shop Now button. Use the Send List to Email option for those.

Ordering by email list

For any store — including stores without the Shop Now button — tap Send List to Email from any store tab or the Fresh tab. Toggle Include All Stores to get a single email that covers everything, organized by store, with a note for any store where you don't need a thing.

Take that list to the store yourself, place a delivery order, or hand it off to whoever's making the run.

Closing out an order

However you placed it — Guided Shopping or Send List to Email — you close the loop the same way.

At the top of the Order screen you'll find a prominent Close Out Order button. It's there whenever you have an order that hasn't been closed yet. Tap it and you'll see everything that was on that order.

Look over the list. Next to each item is a Didn't Get This button — out of stock, substituted, you changed your mind, doesn't matter why. Tap it on anything that didn't come home, and that item goes back to your pending items list.

Then tap Done — Got Everything Else at the top.

Everything you didn't flag comes off order status and goes into your inventory. Your stock is updated, the order is closed, and the circle is complete. Your groceries are in the flow.

Settings

Reach Settings from the gear icon on the home screen.

Household

Your household's Key Code sits at the top with a COPY button, so you can pass it to someone joining you later without hunting for the original email.

Two actions below it do different jobs:

• INVITE TO MY HOUSEHOLD — sends the Key Code along with the app link. The person who receives it joins your household and shares your inventory and list.
• SHARE THE APP — sends only a link to the app. No code, nothing about your household. This is the one for recommending the Cabinet to someone who should have a household of their own.

Below that is everyone in the household, with your own name marked (you) and the master user marked MASTER.

The master is whoever created the household. The only thing the master can do that other members can't is remove a member. In every other respect all members are equal.

Shopping list email

The address your shopping list is sent to. It's shown greyed out until you tap it, so checking it is quiet and changing it is deliberate. Tap it, edit, and save. Tap What's this? beside the heading for the explanation.

Worth checking early. If the address has a typo in it, your emailed lists go nowhere and nothing tells you — the app has no way to know a message wasn't delivered.

Stores, Appearance and Background

These three sections are collapsed; tap any header to expand it.

Stores — add a new store, remove one you no longer use, or change which store is your primary. Up to five at a time. You're never locked in to what you chose at setup.

Appearance — the app ships with four built-in background themes. Ember & Fern features the Weiser Cabinet owl.

Background — to set a custom home screen background: Change Background Image → pick a photo from your gallery → use the crop tool to frame the section you want → tap CROP to apply.

RETURN is always visible at the bottom of the Settings screen.

Your Subscription

The Weiser Cabinet is a subscription service, billed through Google Play. Everything about billing — payment, renewal, cancellation, refunds — is handled by Google, on your Google account. We never see or store your payment information.

To manage a subscription, open the Play Store app, tap your profile picture, and go to Payments and subscriptions.

If you're part of our early access group, your household has been set up with full access and there's nothing for you to do.

The Screens

• Home — Your household dashboard. Overall household status and a quick view of the last item scanned. The gear icon here opens Settings.
• Scan — The heart of the app. Three tabs: DEPLETE for throwing out, FRESH for items without a barcode, STOCK for putting away. The recycle indicator appears on scan results, and LOG LEFTOVER sits at the bottom.
• List — Holds two screens, reached by the tabs across the top:
  • Pending Items — Where the List tab opens by default. Built while you sleep. Approve, delay, mark seasonal, take out of the flow, or set the count.
  • Order — Everything you've approved, organized by store tab, with a Fresh tab for fresh items. Shop Now for Guided Shopping stores, Send List to Email for any store, and Close Out Order at the top when an order is open.
• Stock — Your current inventory, searchable by product name. Tap any item to add it to your pending list, check if it's already on order, or edit quantity, category, and product details.
• Extra Goods / Leftovers / Recipes — The Extras hub. Both features always live here; the tab name follows whichever you used last.
• Settings — Household and Key Code, shopping list email, stores, appearance, background.

What This App Is For

The Weiser Cabinet isn't trying to replace your shopping. It's trying to take the thinking out of the part that doesn't need thinking.

You already know what you buy. The same pantry staples, the same household supplies, the same things you run out of and reorder without much thought. That's what this app handles. Scan it when you throw it out, and it finds its way back to you. That's the loop.

Your fresh food shopping — produce, meat, the things worth choosing in person — stays exactly what it should be. A trip to the store, on your terms.

And when you do place an order, don't feel limited to what's on your list. Once your cart is loaded, browse around. Add whatever looks good. Anything you bring home and scan the next time you run out enters the cycle — and from that point on, the app knows you use it and makes sure it finds its way back to you every time.

— The Weiser Cabinet Team