The founder of SackTrackr, a new boiled crawfish price tracking app out of Lafayette, doesn’t even eat crawfish.
Ben Powers, the founder of Developing Lafayette and a self-professed “data nerd,” starting working on the project because he loves the community around crawfish — even if the crustacean’s gustatory appeal is a bit mystifying to him.
“Crawfish is just an amazing part of this area, and I was like ‘you know what? I just want to be a part of it somehow,'” said Powers, who released SackTrackr with a stock tracker-style interface where vendors can directly list their live and boiled crawfish prices.
“Crawfish prices have been a topic of conversation for years, and they move like a market. We built SackTrackr to provide a real-time pulse on where prices stand.”
People can use the interface to see prices for individual vendors, as well as the market average price, top movers, and price trends. Vendors can join for free to update their business information and prices, or join a monthly paid plan for increased promotional services — such as the ability to share information about size grading or spice levels — through SackTrackr.
Powers’ goal is to grow SackTrackr to the point where it reflects live price changes, with vendors logging in daily to post their prices, with each update timestamped so users know if they’re are looking at a current price. The site also calculates estimated prices for three or five pound purchases, or whole sacks of live crawfish.
“I’m just hoping that it makes it easier and almost more intuitive and fun to check out crawfish prices, and see who’s got the best price out there, or if you’re just looking for an average price — or if you’re like me, and like to nerd out on crawfish stuff,” he said.
Powers’ fellow crawfish nerds can view historical pricing graphs on the app that show when prices typically start to drop in a season. At this point in the year, many crawfish restaurants are hovering around $7 to $9 per pound, but with yields increasing as the weather warms, prices can change rapidly.
“Our goal is to build transparency, accuracy, and trust in crawfish pricing,” said Powers. “We want to create a unifying regional platform that supports the industry and the customers who follow it.”
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