Shopping with Claude: How to find quality brands, automate returns, and buy things that last 100 years | Nicole Ruiz

Nicole Ruiz is a writer and parent who has built a comprehensive AI-powered shopping system to help her family buy high-quality, long-lasting items while avoiding the noise of drop-shipping brands, paid ads, and poorly made products. She writes an interview series on Substack about how technology is changing the household. What you’ll learn: - How to build a Claude Project with custom instructions for vetting brands based on heritage, craftsmanship, and return policies - The shopping criteria that help surface century-old manufacturers over trendy direct-to-consumer brands - How to use Claude to search through trusted vendor websites that have terrible UX - Why AI actually helps small artisans and heritage brands compete against Amazon’s infrastructure - How to use Claude Cowork to automate returns by finding receipts in your email and drafting refund requests - The technique for getting Claude to analyze whether a brand is legitimate or just a drop-shipping operation - How to shop within a specific budget or with gift cards using AI assistance — Brought to you by: Orkes—The enterprise platform for reliable applications and agentic workflows Metaview—The agentic recruiting platform for winning teams — In this episode, we cover: (00:00) Introduction to Nicole and AI-powered shopping (02:29) The problem (04:55) Building a Claude Project for household purchasing (07:44) The “anti-to-do list” concept for reducing mental overhead (10:30) Shopping for a can opener: the system in action (15:53) How AI helps century-old brands with terrible websites (18:45) Processing returns with Claude Cowork (25:06) Using gift cards strategically (26:33) Vetting brands (29:40) Recap, lightning round, and final thoughts — Tools referenced: • Claude: https://claude.ai/ • Claude Cowork: https://www.anthropic.com/product/claude-cowork — Other references: • Boston General Store: https://bostongeneralstore.com/ • L.L.Bean: https://www.llbean.com/ • Manufactum: https://www.manufactum.com/ • 5 OpenClaw agents run my home, finances, and code | Jesse Genet: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/5-openclaw-agents-run-my-home-finances • From a $6.90 newsletter to $3M API: How a non-coder built Memelord | Jason Levin: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/from-a-690-newsletter-to-3m-api-how — Where to find Nicole Ruiz: X: https://x.com/nwilliams030 Substack (The Third Oikos): https://www.thirdoikos.com/ — Where to find Claire Vo: ChatPRD: https://www.chatprd.ai/ Website: https://clairevo.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/clairevo/ X: https://x.com/clairevo — Production and marketing by https://penname.co/. For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email [redacted email].