A busy mother built her own app to help foodies locate delicious food trucks they might not even know are nearby.
Ashley Reese, a mother and a registered nurse, had a challenge, finding an easy solution to meal problems. She was able to solve that dilemma, with zero tech experience she built POP/up, a user friendly food truck finder app.
POP/up is a free app available for download on the Google Play Store and Apple App Store that helps food truck enthusiasts and vendors locate food trucks near them, and it’s gaining traction with over 2 million views. With compelling visuals and a user-friendly interface, POP/up is designed to help you find the good eats you never knew existed.
How Vendors Can Use POP/up
Food truck vendors can list their location on the POP/up app for users to discover their meals and drop by. This location can be a precise pin, aiming to eliminate confusion about the exact location. Not only that, but vendors can list multiple locations for the same business and multiple trucks if they possess them, helping them drum up the business they need. Lastly, they can provide customers with instructions on how to get to the location through Apple or Google Maps.
Vendors who use the app are able to link a variety of information about their business to their listing, including delivery services, catering menus, and order-ahead menus. Information sharing for better experiences is the goal, with vendors able to provide all their socials, websites, and contact info in the app. They can also promote any farmers’ market or vendor event on the POP/up Events page, so food truck rallies or gatherings can be noted for customer convenience and vendor support.
In addition to linking the event, organizers can link ticket purchases and other event information so users can access it all in one place and readily participate if they choose, streamlining the process.
User Benefits with POP/up
Users will even be able to save the date to their smartphone calendar and share the event via a link to include friends or family outside the app in on the fun. The interconnectivity of the application is a standout positive addition, with the map access and calendar access integrated into the app, so that users may readily include POP/up into their phone ecosystem. This ease of use is a strong method for retaining returning users and driving engagement.
Driving the Food of the Future
In the future, Reese would like to take POP/up worldwide, outside of its home country, the United States. In her words, “Everybody’s gotta eat, and [every] city, town, and country has food vendors! This would be such a great travel app!”
She envisions customers traveling the world, wanting to know what the locals eat, and using the POP/up app to explore new food options in a unique setting.
With the event option, she especially sees this as an opportunity to promote localized gatherings of food trucks for exploration of new food and flavors. She says, “A traveler going to see what local markets and vendors offer can open up the POP/up app, go to the events page, and explore the different cultural experiences in that area — whether it is food, handcrafted, or handmade — POP/up will have it listed!”
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