How Free Cups of Ice Water Generated $100M for a Dying Business

8 min readNov 21, 2020

Source: Pic purchased via Adobe Images

Ted Hustead planted his feet and surveyed the nothingness.

The howl of the dust-filled wind was the only thing filling the silence. On the opposing sidewalk, an older man walked his dog. To Ted’s left and right were little more than ghosts.

The town he’d grown up in was dying. That much was apparent. Those who’d succeeded were already gone. Those who’d stayed had no money.

Ted was barely an exception. Behind him, his convenience store, Wall Drug Store, was emptier than a nest in a snakepit.

They hadn’t seen a single customer that day. His wife had just given birth. As a man of his time, he’d been expected to provide for his family. He was plagued by fear.

But things got worse.

Five Years of Hardship

With the exception of drilling holes in the ground, the desolate plains of South Dakota are far from the place one usually starts a business. It was akin to planting a flower in concrete.

The wrath of the elements was unrelenting. It was the wake of the Great Depression. It was also “the Dust Bowl,” a period of exceptional dryness in the midwest.

As farms died, they detonated into huge sandstorms that consumed entire towns.

Source: Pic via gannett-cdn

Ted started his business more out of necessity than desire. Nobody was hiring. He had children to feed.

Yet his solution to one problem had created another. He was barely solvent. If he went out of business, he’d not only be unemployed but also in debt. Their town was no more than a highway gas stop in the desert. They’d need to adapt, much like an animal, or face extinction.

The Solution to His Problems

Ted’s wife came up with a simple, life-changing idea in 1936. She was out running errands and picking up groceries.

She was standing in a parking lot near Route 16, the main highway near town. She’d heard cars flying by, headed for Mount Rushmore. She was also desperately thirsty at that moment. Then, she looked at the highway and realized what they could do.

Cars didn’t have air conditioning until the mid-1940s. Driving through a desert legitimately felt like driving through a desert. Most people kept the windows down and often forgot to bring water.

The following day, Ted and his wife stood along Route 16, hammering signs in the ground. On each of them, it said, “Free ice water! Walden Drugs.”

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“Soda! Beer! And — Free Ice Water. Walden Drugs.”

The next day, it was like a dam had broken. They couldn’t keep up with the flood of customers. Ted’s wife came in to help him work the register, while he handed out free ice waters and people bought impulse items in their store.

Sensing the opportunity, they added more signs to the road. A month later, a police officer showed up at their store.

He gave Ted a hard time for violating advertising laws. If he was going to advertise, he’d have to do it legally. Fortunately, Ted had built up enough revenue to buy an actual billboard. Things only got better and better from there.

Today? Business is booming. You’ll see billboards for hundreds of miles out. You won’t find many people in the surrounding states who haven’t heard of Wall Drug Store. They are the Ron Jon Surfshop of the midwest.

It’s become a full-on mall:

Wall Drug Store

The store gets more than 15,000 customers a day. They’ve made hundreds of millions in revenue. But they damn near went extinct.

The Secret Sauce You Can Use

This might be an unusual example of excellent marketing. But, as a writer, I’ve always admired those who can make something from nothing. It takes intuition, creativity, and resourcefulness, which you often find in extremes.

If your budget is low, hone in on what people desire and don’t have. Then prioritize what you can cheaply provide.

Customers and readers are impatient:

Source: Alittlebitmoe pic

Always remember the acronym “WIIFM” (what’s in it for me), when dealing with people.

You don’t always have to give them what they need. Simply provide what they want. Most customers can’t tell the difference anyway.

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