Those current products are supplied by New Orleans Roast Coffee and Buttermilk Drop Bakery. Two local businesses, a sector hit equally hard by the pandemic these past few years and those with a partnership with Louisiana Hospital Foundation. Equally important to their brand of purpose is to lift the New Orleans community. White has worked in the New Orleans hospitality world for 20 years and brings tremendous experience and the necessary relationships to make this a successful launch. Everyone and their mother in Louisiana know who Deuce McAllister is. That dual influence is invaluable to the small businesses their platform helps support.
“A lot of times it may be, ‘Hey, look, we don’t have the reach, we don’t have the marking ability,’” McAllister explained. “To be able to help them with that reach, maybe get in front of a different group that normally would not see or feature them, that’s exactly what it’s about. At some point, we’ll go regional. At some point, we will be national, but we want to stay local right now. But from a shipping standpoint, we’ve shipped to Florida, Detroit, and Mississippi. People want New Orleans or Louisiana products. Now, they have a way to support an organization and get the product that they want. That’s how it’s unfolding for us.”
Here’s how it works: you download the app (which I did before our conversation and found it immediately intuitive) or visit their website. Caffeine lovers can select from an array of coffee bags, and those with a sweet tooth pick up some donut drops. In one simple purchase, you’re supporting three entities at once. FRYP handles everything as the middleman, organizations and local businesses receive those funds, and the consumer receives a fresh product they can order across the country.
While the long-term vision is to expand nationally and have various products, McAllister and White want to ensure they launch their platform carefully and correctly. Perishable items are shipped across the country regularly, but typically from national entities. Logistics that local businesses would normally find insurmountable are all handled by McAllister and White. They take care of the packaging, ensuring the freshness of perishable products, shipping, and most importantly – the cost of all those burdens.
“We handle it one hundred percent – and you have to get creative with it. If it says it will get there the next day, it will get there the next day regardless of price. We pride ourselves on that, and it’s always a challenge. The biggest thing for us is if we’re going to have perishable products, we want to make sure it’s fresh so that people enjoy them and don’t have a bad experience. That’s what we want to sell as well. So once that product gets there, not only are they going to enjoy it that time, but they know they’ll enjoy it again if they place that order once more.”
