No reason to second-guess store prices with these apps

My mom adores Vera Bradley bags.

So, while holiday shopping this week, I stood in a local boutique pondering price tags on bags. Truly, I love my mom. But I wondered. Could I get a better price someplace else? Perhaps online?

She'd appreciate a good bargain, too. I suspect many people have similar questions shopping for gifts this holiday season.

What if some magic gizmo could scan that Vera Bradley bag, go "bleep," and display a list of 10 places online with cheaper prices. Say 50 percent off?

Ta-dah! That magic device has arrived, if you have a smart phone.

A wave of new cell phone apps are now coming on the market that can scan shoes, blenders, vacuums -- virtually anything with a bar code, and tell you the best price available, at a store down the street, or online.

The best apps are pure magic and will truly become your best friend shopping. Like TiVo or wireless car locks, you'll wonder how you endured life before they came along.

The most popular version now is the $1.99 RedLaser app that uses an iPhone's camera to scan bar codes.

One example: We went to Lowes and scanned a Hoover "Wind Tunnel" bagless vacuum with a price on the shelf of $239. With a bleep, RedLaser found $249 on HSN.com, $215 on TigerDirect.com and $199 on (of all places) Hoover.com. A $50 variation among merchants.

Lowes also had the Euro-Pro stainless steel deep fryer for $49.84. The RedLaser app found it at BedBathAndBeyond.com for $49.99, and Sears.com for $59.99. So we knew Lowes had a good deal.

For the ladies, we trolled the first floor at Macy's and found shocking bargains. A bottle of Clinique Clarifying Lotion had a $20 price tag. RedLaser found it online for $11. A Jessica Simpson, leopard-print purse had a tag of $108. With one bleep on my phone, I found the same purse on eBags.com for $86.40. That single bargain would pay for the app 10 times over.

At Finish Line, we found some funky Nikes were $10 more expensive than through my phone. At the AT&T store, we found a Jawbone wireless earpiece priced at $130, but my phone found it for $90 online.

With books, the price disparity shocks the senses.

The "Luxe" romance novel of Manhattan socialites by Anna Godbersen has a cover price of $9.99. RedLaser found it for half that at Alibris and other online retailers.

For those curious about RedLaser's background, it was launched in May by Occipital LLC, a startup founded last year by University of Michigan alumni Jeffrey Powers and Vikas Reddy. You'll see versions of the system in grocery price apps and even apps that manage your grocery list by section of the store.

RedLaser has topped the No. 1 most purchased list on iTunes, though there's lots of other good apps lately. We tried SnapTell, ShopSavvy, pic2shop, and found them more limited than RedLaser, but occasionally offered better deals.

The SnapTell app has the almost spooky ability to use the phone's camera to recognize book covers, and accurately find them on Amazon.com, plus offer entries about the book or author on Wikipedia, shopping info on Google, auctions on eBay, and on and on.

BlackBerry and Droid-based phones are also getting more shopping apps too.

While you're getting into the mobile price game, it's worth getting the alter ego breed of apps that find local coupons.

CouponSherpa, Valpak and Yowza will identify your location based on your phone's GPS, and display current coupons at stores near you. For instance, last weekend's coupon at Stein Mart for 20 percent off anything. So you can price shop on your phone, then use a coupon in the store at the same time.

These new scanning apps have some drawbacks. Private label products often won't work through the systems, because stores like Target only carry those items through their stores.

Also, the apps often don't link directly to a merchant's own Web site, so if you stand in Ann Taylor looking for bargains on pants, it may not find the cheaper price on AnnTaylor.com (though you could do that yourself with your phone's Web browser.)

Apps like RedLaser and others also rely on a product having the same bar code online as in the store. When we scanned clothes at Macy's, the system didn't work, because Macy's has its own internal bar codes. (But packaged goods, like makeup, have codes printed on the bottles that the apps could scan well.)

We also found food products don't always show up. So you'll have to price-shop that bottle of wine at Publix and ABC Liquor yourself. Also, there can be a lag time before products appear in the databases that fuel the apps.

For now, these apps are a great deal.

But we suspect that if these apps really become commonplace among shoppers, the brick-and-mortar stores will make counter moves to protect themselves - and use more internal bar codes the apps can't compare.

For me, one of the best features wasn't finding a better deal. It was knowing I was already getting one. That Vera Bradley item (that will remain nameless until after Christmas) had a standard price in stores and online. So I bought it.

Here's a sample of cell phone apps to help you find the best deal while you're out shopping. Most are for iPhones, though versions are coming for Blackberry and Droid operating systems.

• RedLaser - Uses phone camera to scan bar codes on virtually any product. Currently the No. 1 most popular paid app for the iPhone. Price: $1.99.

• SnapTell - Uses phone camera to recognize covers of books, DVDs and movies. Locates them on Amazon and other merchant Web sites. Price: Free.

• ShopSavvy - Scans bar codes, helps you create wish lists, price alerts and more. Price: Free.

• Coupon Sherpa, Yowza: - Identifies your location, seeks out coupons for stores near you, then presents the coupon on the phone screen. Price: Free.

• Edocrab -- (barcode spelled backwards) for the BlackBerry will scan barcodes and find online price comparisons, user reviews, product images, video clips, etc. Price: Free. Note, in beta testing.

• Google Goggles - Android app that takes photos, recognizes landmarks, books, contact info, artwork, places, wine, logos, as well as barcodes. Price: Free. Note, in development.

• Compare Everywhere - Android app that recognizes bar codes, displays rival prices and plots stores nearby on map. Price: Free.