'I do this for everybody': Fayetteville's Carl Pringle expands Flip Flop sauce to Food Lion

A Fayetteville man's "everything" sauce business will expand into 20 area Food Lion grocery stores.

Carl Pringle, commonly known in the Fayetteville community as Uncle Carl, said his popular Flip Flop sauce will be in the stores starting June 1. Each store will receive 24 bottles of the sauce to start, he said.

Pringle's Flip Flop sauce gained popularity through his Lunch On Us events where he would feed members of the homeless community in Fayetteville. Pringle said he first created the sauce as a barbecue sauce and would add it to a variety of grilled meats, but it became more of an "everything sauce" as members of the community started using it beyond a grill.

He received the official news about his sauce being in the stores about seven months after putting in an application. Through a community effort and many advocating for his sauce, Pringle said he's grateful that it's finally happening. With the managers of two Food Lion locations sending emails to corporate about his application, Pringle got the official confirmation while celebrating his birthday at the end of last month.

"The community is the one who pushed me to do it, kept encouraging me to do it, supported me," he said. "People bought it to support what I was doing then they came back the second time because they actually liked it."

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There are three flavors of the Flip Flop sauce: original, lite and fire. Pringle said lite is a "nice even blend of spices that goes with everything." He said the original "has that sweet on the front and a nice gentle kick of heat on the back. The fire sauce, he said, "has an even bigger burst."

Pringle said the attention that the sauce has received has also pushed him to be better within his community work.

"Everybody has their own gift, and doing the sauce has been my 'it'," he said. "It introduced me to people, it's helped me reach people, it's helped me connect with the homeless population that I take care of."

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With the community as the foundation of his business, Pringle said it's important to him that the community benefits from the sauce as well.

"It's not about being rich, I'm not a dollar-driven guy," he said. "The better it sells, the more I can do for the community."

Pringle said that if he made a million dollars from the sauce, $100,000 would be put back into the community. From coat drives to community feedings, he said it's important to bring it back to where it all came from.

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Being a Washington, D.C. native, Pringle said he would also like to have his sauce in Giant grocery stores that populate the northeast.

"My thinking is a lot of times nobody wants you 'til somebody else has you," he said. "So with Food Lion on my record, well that's going to open up the doors."

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Pringle said he is also aiming to expand his Flip Flop Sauce with more flavors including a diabetic-friendly version, a vegan version and an even spicier version.

"I do this for everybody," he said. "I'm trying to help everybody. The more I do in the city, the better it is for everybody because I'm building relationships and trying to soften people's hearts."

Staff writer Akira Kyles can be reached at [email protected].

This article originally appeared on The Fayetteville Observer: Flip Flop sauce expands to Fayetteville Food Lion locations