Mardi Gras may be over, but crawfish season is only beginning.
After recent temperatures slowed the start of the 2018 crawfish season, Lent observers and seafood lovers alike will now be on the hunt for deals on live and boiled crawfish. With one lengthy crawfish season under its belt, The Crawfish App is ready to deliver up-to-date prices and reviews for all your favorite seafood vendors and maybe a few you haven’t tried.
Co-founders Laney and Ryan King celebrated The Crawfish App’s first-year anniversary on Tuesday, Feb. 6. With a current tally of almost 65,000 app users, they say their first year has far exceeded their initial expectations.
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“We love crawfish, and we knew we would use the app if somebody created it,” Ryan says. “We just weren’t sure how many other people would use it and how often.”
The app features live and boiled prices from a growing list of more than 1,100 crawfish vendors from all across Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Texas, as well as a few outliers in places like Las Vegas, London and Thailand. Though the Kings started the app with a list of 140 vendors they personally called each week, they now have a paid call team that gets up-to-date prices from every vendor each Thursday. For crawfish vendors that change their prices more than once per week, the app now features a vendor portal, where the seller can update their pricing information and check customer reviews.
When vendors don’t sell all their crawfish over the weekend, they may want to lower the price on Monday and Tuesday, Ryan says. “[The portal] is great for [the vendor], because they don’t have to wait for Thursday to update their price.”
Another change users may notice these days is The Crawfish App’s partnership with Zatarain’s, whose graphic designers created the app’s new look that rolled out just last week. Zatarain’s is also helping The Crawfish App reach new users with advertising tools like digital billboards and signage.
“We were planning to approach crawfish-related sponsors, such as seasoning companies or beer companies … just things that you think of when you’re going to eat boiled crawfish,” Laney says. “Zatarain’s is the perfect fit.”
As The Crawfish App enters its second season, the Kings say they’re most looking forward to increasing the number of app downloads, improving the user experience and, of course, finding new vendors from all over the map.
“A lot of the stands on the side of the road, who have some of the best crawfish, had no way of letting people know they existed,” Laney says. “Some have told us stories about how they were about to shut down, but now that [people can find those vendors through] the app, they have lines so long that they run out on the weekends.”
In addition to the app’s exciting first year, the couple is also expecting their third child this spring. We recently featured Laney in our February issue’s maternity fashion shoot.
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The Crawfish App is free to download and available through the Apple App Store and Google Play.
What to expect this crawfish season
Although crawfish farmers have been battling the freezing temperatures of late, this has definitely not slowed the local demand for crawfish. But what is the forecast for the 2018 season after all that nasty weather? According to Greg Lutz with LSU AgCenter’s Aquaculture Research Station, consumers will have to wait a just a bit longer for the supply they usually expect.
“The crawfish are out there, but they are still smaller than we would like to see,” Lutz says. “As the water begins to warm up, that encourages the crawfish to molt and start growing again. So if we can get more mild temperatures, [the crawfish] should get back on track and may even be able to make up some of that lost time.”