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Coastal Cupcakes – Everyday Cupcakes

WILMINGTON, NC (WECT) – Coastal Cupcakes and The Fuzzy Peach are teaming up to offer a new twist on their desserts.

Starting Thursday, Coastal Cupcakes will offer a “Fuzzy Peach” cupcake, while The Fuzzy Peach will offer a “Coastal Cupcake Batter” among their yogurt flavors.

Both businesses are locally owned and were started by graduates of UNCW.

Kristen Beckmeyer and Meredith Sullivan opened their first Coastal Cupcakes location in downtown Wilmington in 2008.

Jason Nista, Rocco Quaranto and Wells Struble opened the Fuzzy Peach after graduation and currently have three locations in Wilmington.

By Marissa Jasek

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — While everyone in our area hunkers down for Irene, a Wilmington dessert store is looking at the sweeter side of things.

While riding out the storm, you can sink your teeth into hurri-cakes. Both Coastal Cupcakes locations in Wilmington will offer the sweet treats decorated with familiar hurricane icons through the weekend.

They come in two flavors: chocolate and red velvet, matching the colors of the hurricane warning flag. By mid afternoon the stores had already sold about four dozen hurri-cakes.

by Amy Elliott

July 17, 2011

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WILMINGTON—UNCW alumni have found major success in their former college town despite a struggling economy.

Rocco Quaranto never imagined he would own a frozen yogurt bar. Two years after graduating from UNCW, he and two other alumni own three Fuzzy Peach stores in the Port City. The popular pay-by-the-ounce frozen yogurt shop was the first of its kind in the area.

The uniqueness is one of the reasons they decided to set up shop in their former college town.

“We weren’t naive to think this project had to go in Wilmington,” said Rocco. “So we looked at other markets. But it just so happened that with our ties in Wilmington, with our professors at UNCW that we worked with that we could bounce ideas off [of them] and use as mentors.”

The owners of Coastal Cupcakes are also UNCW alumni. They said the secret to their cupcake success is good old-fashioned hard work.

“In the beginning, it was just Meredith and I working open to close, baking everything, working the front counter, shutting the store down, and doing that six days a week. Just figuring everything out,” said Kristen Beckmeyer, one of the co-owners of Coastal Cupcakes.

The duo now has two locations and bakes up to 900 cupcakes a day. It is a long ways away from three years ago when they met resistance to the idea of a cupcake shop.

“When you are coming up with an original idea, everyone is going to doubt you and say it can’t be done,” said Beckmeyer. “You have to believe in yourself and say it can be done.”

The Fuzzy Peach recently celebrated one year of business on July 15 while Coastal Cupcakes has been in business for three years.

by Casey Roman

July 6, 2011

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WILMINGTON, NC (WECT) – Need help running your small business? There’s an app for that!

Kristen Beckmeyer and Meredith Sullivan, the owners of Coastal Cupcakes have traded in their expensive register equipment for Apple iPad.

When the company hit the 2 ½ year mark, they realized their register computer and software was outdated. Point-of-sale equipment can run thousands of dollars and the small business needed a more affordable solution that wouldn’t be as costly to upgrade.

That’s when they discovered a software company called Pos LAVU (www.poslavu.com). For a $895 licensing fee and $59.95 monthly maintenance charge, the firm designed custom cupcake software for the bakery.

Kristen and Meredith found refurbished iPads for $350. They bought two, one for each store.

“It definitely has the cool factor going that’s for sure,” said Kristen. “But it was definitely a business decision for us.”

Not only does the iPad save them equipment costs, it also saves on paper. Customers can chose not to receive a receipt, have it emailed or have it printed. Kristen says that at least 75 percent of customers chose to leave with only their cupcake in hand.

The change has freed up counter space and left many outlets free of clutter.

Customers can still use credit cards thanks to a USB device that attaches to the side of the iPad. In the future, they hope to make the swiping technology portable on their iPhones when making deliveries.

Their iPad is mounted to the wall, encased by a homemade wooden frame. The owners did not want to leave their investment on the counter but they also wanted to make sure they could flip it over so customers could sign the screen.

Signing for a debit/credit transaction is done by drawing your finger across the screen to write out your name.

While technology can sometimes fail, Kristen says the biggest hassle has been the wireless connection. Thankfully Pos LAVU has designed the software so that even without service, the iPad can store the credit card date and process the transaction once service is restored.

Copyright 2011 WECT.  All rights reserved.

by Christina Haley

June 24, 2011

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Coastal Cupcakes, self-proclaimed “Wilmington’s premier cupcakery,” has recently found an affordable new way to sell their treats with the latest technology.

As of June 1, owners Kristen Beckmeyer and Meredith Sullivan made the switch from PCs and touch screens to the technology of Apple’s iPads to operate their point-of-sales system.

“It was a business decision,” said Beckmeyer. Not only does the system provide an entertaining way for custumers to buy their edibles, it has also helped this business-savvy duo save space on the counter while cutting down the costs of having a regular PC system.

“Its cheaper to replace an iPad than for the monitor or computer itself,” Beckmeyer said. Previously, the owner’s costs for a monitor, touch screens, keyboard, mouse, and hard-drive for their two stores, was $2000.

A single refurbished iPad cost the company about $350 apiece, less expensive than any of the major components of the old system.

“We had so much equipment to purchase but now we have managed to clean it up, no wires,” said Sullivan. The new technology, provided by POSLavu, consists of an iPad and a single application bought from POSLavu for an up-front license fee of $895.

With the new system, one iPad has the power to clock-in and clock-out employees, maintain scheduling, keep up with inventory, ring up purchases and e-mail a receipt. It displays  picture icons for each piece of inventory as a way to navigate through the system and stores all data digitally in the cloud. “All wirelessly, just iPad to receipt printer,” Beckmeyer said.

For $29.95 a month, the application updates its own software and provides technical support. All this happens in real time and Coastal Cupcakes’ iPad may communicate with any other iPad, iPhone, or iPod. Credit card swipes help manage payments made outside the store. If the owners have to make a delivery, their customers can pay for their order on Sullivan’s mobile phone.

The company has also saved on buying paper for receipts. “About  80 percent of our customers choose not to have a receipt,” said Beckmeyer. At the end of each Coastal Cupcake purchase, the customer signs the receipt with their finger instead of a pen, and has the option of having a receipt sent to them via email. After the transaction, there is literally a “ring” that often leaves customers smiling.

“The biggest problem with this was how to display it,” said Sullivan. The company had a specially-built case and wall mount for their iPad that turns to both sides of  the register.

This allows for a costumer to sign the iPad after a purchase. However, POSLavu does offer iPad stands and cases online for a moderate price.

News 14 Carolina – by Ashley White

WILMINGTON – A little over a year ago a group of business and government leaders came together to make a change. The Cape Fear Future Commission is working to promote economic prosperity by attracting new businesses and maintaining a professional workforce.

Kristen Beckmeyer and her business partner opened up Coastal Cupcakes three years ago. As UNC Wilmington graduates, the pair said they knew they wanted to stay in the area and be their own bosses.

“We started it was just the two of us. We opened and closed the store every day for the first nine months and have slowly added employees and progressed to adding a full-time employee and we will see where is goes from here,” said Beckmeyer.

But all that success didn’t come without a little guidance and support, organizations like the Cape Fear Future Commission provides mentors for new business owners.

“It has just really been priceless for us just to have that experience of an entrepreneur in town that someone can help on things that you just could not figure out any other way,” said Beckmeyer.

More than 60 community leaders form Cape Fear Future and they are focusing on three task forces. The first is the Quality of Life Task Force, the second is the Entrepreneurship Action Team and the third is the Education Task Force.

Just recently, they did a lot of the behind the scenes leg work to get police officers downtown and it worked. Now they are hoping this helps with nightlife issues.

“I think more importantly is their ability to go into a bar at night when there are issues, and they don’t have to be invited in. There are two policemen that can go in a bar,” said Connie Majure-Rhett, Greater Wilmington Chamber of Commerce.

For the group, it’s all about attracting new business and keeping people here.

“Make sure we have enough knowledge workers in this community to attract companies here and it will build a more prosperous community. Knowledge workers make more money, pay bigger taxes, things like that,” said Majure-Rhett.

For people like Beckmeyer, it’s worth that leap of faith to be successful.

“We wanted to be in Wilmington and jobs are hard to come by so we had to make our own,” said Beckmeyer.

Cape Fear Future will meet again in June. At that meeting they will be giving an update on the three task forces and their progress. Leaders said the first year was about establishing themselves and educating the community on how they can help.