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Fishbox: Success Through Transparency


Napoleon Suarez’s story resonates with many of today’s online shoppers. He, like so many before and after him, saw a web purchase completely derailed by the workings of a shipping company like FedEx. His order was sent back after multiple delivery attempts during the work day, costing him time, money, and a good deal of patience.

But while most of us fall into the bitter platitudes of grudging acceptance, thinking, “oh, they’ll get it right next time,” Suarez believes he can single-handedly pioneer the missing link between online retailers and delivery companies—and eliminate customer disappointment along the way.

Residents of the 19125 and 19123 zip codes should be able to subscribe to Fishbox, an on-demand package delivery service, before we reach the midway point of 2015. The premise is simple: send your packages to Fishbox’s secure holding location rather than your personal address and pick them up at your leisure. Or, better yet, have them personally ushered into your care no matter where you are in the neighborhood.

“Logistics” is a droll business, sure, but Suarez embraces the precarious position of middleman with an honest agenda—he truly believes he can provide people with a dash of good service that they are, in his opinion, sorely lacking. A current Fishtown resident, the former University of Notre Dame graduate has dabbled in just about every industry there is: he’s been an athlete, musician, search engine optimizer, salesman, and cab driver. In fact, his time spent as an Uber driver served as one of the biggest inspirations for Fishbox.

When I met Napoleon at Bottle Bar East, his arrival was preceded by a text message: “Hello Jake Detwiler! Your delivery from Fishbox is heading your way. Track it in real time here.” The clickable URL at the bottom took me to a map that allowed me to see a line between a roving dot (Suarez) and an end point (me). It’s the same system that allows subscribers to track their packages in real-time.

“It’s 2015. You wanna get a cab? You can just open your phone and order an Uber, order a Lyft. You don’t have to talk to anybody, negotiate anything, make anyone uncomfortable,” Suarez said with fervor. “Everything is really transparent.”

Regardless of recent criticisms brought against Uber, they present an undeniably attractive model of business when held up against traditional cab companies: clean, quick, and non-unionized. Suarez recounts his days as a driver with fondness and a sense of duty.

“I’d be that driver that opens up the door for you…shows up in the rain with an umbrella, you know?” he says. “It’s a real service and it’s good service, and people appreciate it when you give it to them. They want it when they don’t have it.”

He hopes to parallel the same level of gratification with his own company. The crux of Fishbox, Suarez emphasizes, is constant communication. Subscribers will be kept in the loop from start to finish with a text message or email upon the arrival of their package, and several notifications following. Just like with Uber, customers will have the ability to rate and write reviews of their delivery-folks.

“If I’m not delivering well, or if I keep showing up late, people will let me know,” Suarez laughs, “and I guess I won’t be delivering packages anymore!”

Currently, Suarez is both the employee and the employer. He’ll be making the first runs of deliveries by himself, until the company model proves to be sustainable. This is the biggest reason why Fishbox will only be available to select areas, rather than citywide (Fishtown, Northern Liberties, and Olde Kensington all included), but he still anticipates a challenge in finding a foothold.

“I’m a neighborhood guy,” Suarez said. “I think people will be accepting of that, and hopefully forgiving of that, if the system doesn’t always work out like I plan. I’ll be able to make changes and adjustments to improve it along the way.”

Along with transparency, Suarez places tremendous value in the ethics of small business. Fishtown might be a powerfully resurgent center of commerce of late, but its storied roots also lay the groundwork for a strict warning: businesses will live or die by the first impressions they forge. As CEO, founder, and primary workforce, Suarez wants to do nothing more than contribute to his community, steering attention away from the national companies; he’s banking on the fact that every consumer is as dissatisfied as he has been, and will be more trusting of a grassroots operation.

Only time will tell if his brand-averse attitude will work against him — retail titan Amazon has recently rolled out their Amazon Locker system, which is remarkably similar to Fishbox, without the on-foot delivery (packages go from a warehouse to a locked deposit box, accessible with a unique code). The 7-11 at Front and Girard has a Locker ready and available, but Suarez hopes that their size restrictions and his entrepreneurial charm will be able to win over more clients than the big guns of Amazon.

Anyone who is interested in the future of Fishbox can sign up for the beta testing phase, which will kick off by the end of March. During this trial run, testers will be asked to fill out an occasional survey and provide feedback in the interest of streamlining the delivery process.

“I’m eager to get feedback. I’m grateful to talk about this with people,” Suarez said. “It’s important because it makes me consider situations that I might not have come up with on my own.”

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