Bramble

Shop wild, shop local

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Bramble

Inspiration

I heard a co-host on the WAN Show mention wanting a browser extension that helps you avoid mega-corporations and find local alternatives. I thought it sounded like a fun hackathon project, so I built it.

What it does

Bramble is a Chrome extension that works when you're shopping on Amazon, Walmart, Target, or Best Buy. It identifies who actually owns the brand you're looking at, shows you local stores nearby that might carry the item, and suggests small online retailers as alternatives. You can set which brands you want to avoid and see everything on a map with directions.

How I built it

It's a Chrome extension using Claude API to analyze products and identify parent companies, Google Places API to find local stores, Brave Search API to find small online retailers, and Leaflet for the interactive map. The background service worker handles all the API calls to avoid CORS issues. I used Claude Code to speed up development during the 24-hour time crunch.

Challenges

Google and Bing both deprecated their web search APIs right when I needed them, so I had to switch to Brave Search API. Getting the extension to work across different retail sites was tricky since they all use different page structures. The biggest challenge was keeping it honest. Early versions just showed nearby stores without knowing if they had the product, which felt misleading. I changed it to say "call to confirm" instead of pretending to have data I don't have.

What I learned

I learned how Chrome extensions actually work, how to handle API calls in browser extensions without CORS errors, and how to integrate multiple APIs into one project. I also learned that building something mission-driven means saying no to shortcuts, like suggesting Target as an "alternative" to Amazon when they're both mega-corporations.

What's next

Add real inventory data where possible, let users submit their own local store recommendations, and maybe expand to other browsers. The goal is to make it actually easier to shop locally instead of just telling people they should.

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