Midwest retail giant Meijer Super Center has launched an iPhone Web application called Meijer Mealbox, to help consumers save money during the current economic crisis.

Meijer tapped widget-based advertising network Qponix to develop the Meijer Mealbox web application. Meijer Mealbox helps consumers plan meals, find recipes and save money.

“The big deal is this application allows the shopper to build a meal plan and the planning process helps you organize for when you go to the store,” said Corbin DeRubertis, president of Qponix, Seattle, WA. “The application is tied to the store’s inventory and sales and actually finds recipes based on ingredients that are on sale.”

The Mealbox application is affiliated solely with Meijer, a Grand Rapids, MI-based retailer that operates 181 supercenters throughout Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and Kentucky.

The new iPhone version will allow consumers to enjoy all the meal planning, recipe finding, saving money capabilities of Mealbox, in the palm of their hands. Mid West retail giant uses mobile to help consumer

In addition, the iPhone version will actually allow the user to save a list of coupons on their iPhone and the customer can scan their phone at the cash register to receive savings.

In other words, a customer can walk into a Meijer store with their iPhone without much of a shopping plan, build a list of recipes for the week while cruising the aisles, and then use their phone to save on various items otherwise not on sale.

This is the first time a grocery shopping experience on the iPhone has actually been connected to a store. Mid West retail giant uses mobile to help consumer

Qponix was built to save shoppers time and money. The company’s widgets and mobile applications help people with everyday tasks.

For example, users can find a quick recipe for dinner, shop store specials and coupons and building shopping lists on a budget.

Because Qponix widgets are truly useful, they're a great place for retailers, manufacturers and publishers to deliver content and promotions to their customers.

“We help people with their shopping planning via an application that is optimized for the features of the iPhone,” Mr. DeRubertis said. “The overall thing is it closes the loop because it is connected to the retailer.”