Driving from Mount Rushmore to the Badlands through the prairie in South Dakota, we were not expecting anything exciting except for some hayfields or abandoned tractors along the road. And that’s what we saw for about 30 miles before noticing all these peculiar road signs advertising “Wall Drug”.
Now, the following should be in all marketing textbooks (and maybe it is). When you see a road sign every mile advertising a store for more than 50 miles, you get curious, very curious... so much so, that you actually want to stop and see what all the fuss is about. And that was exactly what the owners, Mr. and Mrs. Hustead, had in mind.
In 1931, they opened a little drug store in their little "in the middle of nowhere" town. Not surprisingly, their business didn't take off very well. But then, one hot summer day, Mrs. Hustead saw all the tourist cars passing by on the highway next to Wall and wondered how she could make them stop at their little store. Tourists driving through the hot prairies? Well, why not offer them free ice water... The Husteads started putting up road signs advertising their store and the free ice water... and it worked! All these years later, Wall Drug store is still a very popular stop for tourists and the road signs have only multiplied in number. The store itself is huge (think Walmart size) and offers everything from food to jewelry to cowboy boots. These days, anyone can ask for a free road sign advertising Wall Drug as long as they promise to put it up near a road. And that's why South Dakota's Wall Drug even has advertising signs at the Taj Mahal and in the London tube.
So yes, the road signs did make us stop at Wall Drug. And they did make us buy stuff we absolutely had no need for... but we also had a cup of free ice water!
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