Cork lads create perfect app for men who are sick of shopping with their partner

Do you hate walking around shops with your partner? Then you’ll love this app…

Wayne Mullins and Paul Sheehan are the two Corkonians behind this novel little app called ‘Give a Man a Seat’ and it aims to help those who hate shopping with their partners. The idea is simple: The app tells you what shops have seats that you can sit and relax while your partner tries all the clothes on sale. That’ll give you time to check Facebook, flick through Sky Sports News and have a gander at JOE.ie… ahem. Recently, JOE had a brief chat with Wayne Mullins to find out more about ‘Give a Man a Seat’. JOE: So, Wayne, is the app just for Cork? Are you planning on rolling it out to other places too?  Wayne Mullins: Right now it is just Cork, we wanted to see how this would work before we went too crazy, but its seems to be taking off as RedFM got wind of it in Cork and since then it has been a crazy few days. Dublin is the big plan as it was Dublin where the idea actually came about. We would hope to hit all the major cities in Ireland eventually but Cork and Dublin are priority at the minute. JOE: So when did you come up with the idea and why?  WM: I was in Dundrum Shopping Centre two weeks ago with my girlfriend and after about four or five shops I was getting tired and tetchy, as they say. The next shop we went into was Zara and low and behold they had three seats down the back. For the next 20 minutes I sat down and watched Sky Sports News on my phone as herself found the perfect outfit. While I was there I posted on my Facebook page about the need for an app to tell us which shops had seats for us men instead of having to ‘pillar prop’. My friends reacted really well to the idea and so I spoke to my friend Paul about it. We both decided we have to do this. A week later we launched the app on Super Bowl Sunday and it has taken off since. JOE: How exactly does it work? WM: Basically, lets says you’re in a shopping area - say Cork City as our example - after a few shops it’s normal that us lads get tired, tetchy and moany about how long more we have to wait. Anyone can simply download our FREE app and it will tell you where the nearest "Shop with a Seat" is so your partner can find the perfect outfit. Today we have started getting emails and tweets from shops in Cork telling us about their ability to "seat the tired man" so its great that they are on board too. JOE: Any plans to bring it to the Apple App Store?  WM: Yes, the iPhone app should be ready to be launched this week but there is a longer waiting time for Apple to approve any new app to their App Store. Google Play only takes a few hours to approve, so that’s why it was there first. As soon as we can we will have the iPhone version up and running but in the mean time our website www.giveamanaseat.com is fully iOS compatible and users can save the website to their home screen. JOE: How have people taken to the app in its first week on the market?  WM: People are taking this in good humour, Red FM and the Irish Daily Mail have all been very supportive. KC and Jason gave us a massive plug on the KC show last week and since then our app has been trending on the Google Play Store. The app is free to download and we really think it is something every man needs. JOE: Thanks for the chat, Wayne. WM: Cheers lads. For more info on the ‘Give a Man a Seat’ app, click the links below… Website: www.giveamanaseat.com Twitter: @giveamanaseat Facebook: www.facebook.com/giveamanaseat Google App Store