1 · A neighborhood
To software, these stores are dark.
Every one of them is stocked and selling. Almost none of what happens inside reaches the apps people use to find things.
The live network for physical commerce
Put every shelf on the map.
Canter plugs in at the register and turns what’s moving through independent stores into a live signal, built for marketplaces, brands, distributors and the AI agents coming next. Stores keep the POS they have.
At the corner store, every app is guessing.
Software understands warehouses because warehouses were built to be understood. Independent stores were built to serve the people around them. What they sell, and when, rarely makes it online.
An example search: sparkling water, 12 oz, near me
- Fulfillment center, 1,900 miles away
- In stock. Ships Thursday.
- Corner market, three blocks away
- No reliable answer.
- A delivery app takes the order, then finds out at the shelf that the product is gone.
- A distributor learns a store ran short when the rep walks in and sees the gap.
- A brand knows what it shipped into independent retail, and little about what sold.
- An AI agent can’t buy something nearby if nothing can tell it where nearby is.
Start where the product already gets scanned.
Replacing a store’s register is slow, and it stops at every store that says no. So we don’t ask. Our hardware connects to the barcode scanner a store already has, and works alongside the register it already runs.
No new register
The store keeps its point-of-sale system. Designed so the cashier’s job doesn’t change.
Evidence, not a count
A scan says a product was read at this counter at this time. It takes more than that to estimate a shelf. Here’s how we think about it.
Already in real stores
Running in independent liquor and convenience stores. Not every register or scanner is proven yet, so we check fit first.
In use todayWhat one store can’t show, a neighborhood can.
Marketplaces
In use todayRetailers
In use todayBrands
Ahead of usDistributors
Ahead of usAI agents
Ahead of us
Illustration, not real data.
2 · One store
One connection creates a signal.
A barcode is scanned at the counter of a connected store. The sale goes on as normal, and for the first time something about it leaves the building.
3 · One observation
A signal becomes information.
The barcode resolves to a product. The scan gets a place and a time. It is evidence that a product moved here, not a count of what is left.
4 · Many stores
Many connections create a picture.
As nearby stores connect, patterns appear that no single store can show: what is moving, where, how fast, and how recently it was seen.
5 · The network
The picture becomes useful to many.
One connection to a store can answer different questions for different people. That is what makes the network worth building.
- MarketplacesIn use today
- RetailersIn use today
- BrandsAhead of us
- DistributorsAhead of us
- AI agentsAhead of us
The same signal answers different questions.
Most of this is still ahead of us, and we’d rather say so. Here’s who we think the network serves, what they’re asking, and how far along each answer is.
Marketplaces
Should we show this item at this store right now?
Recent evidence that an item is moving at a store, to help keep listings honest.
In use todayRetailers
How do I sell online without a second job?
A catalog built from what the store actually sells, with no new register.
In use todayBrands
Where is my new product actually moving?
A clearer view of movement across independent stores, in the aggregate.
Ahead of usDistributors
Which stores are about to run short?
Earlier demand signals, before the rep’s next visit.
Ahead of usAI agents
Where can this be bought nearby, and how sure are you?
A way for software to ask about physical goods and get an honest answer.
Ahead of usThe physical economy should be as accessible to software as the digital one.
Money, maps and shipping were each a mess of disconnected systems until someone gave software one way to ask. What’s on the shelf around the corner hasn’t had that moment. Barcode scanners aren’t the point. They’re how we start.
Now
Independent liquor and convenience stores
A pragmatic start: high-velocity barcoded goods, and owners who can say yes in one conversation.
Next
Dense local networks
Neighborhood by neighborhood, because the picture only gets useful when nearby stores connect.
Later
More of physical commerce
More kinds of store, and a common way for software and agents to ask what’s available nearby.