Wall Drug South Dakota: An Original Tourist Trap - travel industry, South Dakota

Parks & Recreation, Sept, 2001 by Daniel L. Dustin

When Ted Hustead bought a small drugstore in 1931 on the edge of the Badlands in Wall, South Dakota (population 800), no one anticipated what he and his wife, Dorothy, would make of it. Today, Wall Drug is a multi-million dollar tourism enterprise and a tribute to American ingenuity and marketing skill.

Driving west on Interstate 90 across South Dakota, one is struck by the increasingly parched nature of the landscape. East of the Missouri River crossing at Chamberlain are irrigated fields. West of Chamberlain are open ranges. The transition, however subtle, is for real. As John Steinbeck observed in his 1962 best seller Travels With Charley, the two sides of the river might well be a thousand miles apart. The effect is magnified during the summer months when temperatures soar above 90 degrees Fahrenheit. It is the season when wave upon wave of travelers make their way across the sweltering Great Plains to and from the American West.

Long before the advent of air-conditioned automobiles, and long before the construction of Interstate 90, Ted and Dorothy Hustead were struggling to make a go of it in Wall, South Dakota, a little speck on the map just north of the Badlands in the westernmost part of the state. Ted had bought the town's lone drugstore in 1931 with a $3,000 inheritance from his father, and the first five years had been touch and go. But on a particularly hot summer's day in 1936, Dorothy was struck with an idea that would soon make the drugstore and the town of Wall legendary.

As the Hustead's grandson, Ted, now tells the story, "Looking back, what she did was lay out a complete marketing plan for the future of the drugstore that still works today. She said, `We have to let these people traveling to Mount Rushmore and Yellowstone know that we are here (target customers). We will put up some signs (promotion) and advertise free ice water (product). After all,' she said, `it's 105 degrees outside. This will get people into our store. We have this great big beautiful soda fountain and drugstore with no customers (place-distribution channel)."'

Ted took his wife's advice and put up a few roadside signs the following day advertising "free ice water" at Wall Drug. Before he returned home, passersby were already stopping by their place of business. Indeed, the signs worked so well that Ted erected scores of them throughout South Dakota, Wyoming to the west, and Minnesota to the east. Business boomed, and what started out as a shaky enterprise in the middle of the Depression blossomed into an internationally renowned tourist attraction, with annual revenues now topping $10 million, and annual visitation approaching 2 million -- this in a community whose population has never exceeded 800.

On the surface, the Wall Drug story seems improbable, if not impossible. If "location, location, location" is the mantra of successful businesses, this drugstore would seem to fail on all counts. Located in the middle of "nowhere," with little to offer passing motorists save free ice water and an assortment of Western kitsch and down home hospitality, the drugstore's 65-year prosperity defies easy explanation. Nonetheless, there are several factors that may help account for this curious tourist attraction's enduring popularity.

"See the USA in your Chevrolet ... Dinah Shore

Although Wall Drug has been profitable since the 1930s, its huge success must be attributed, in part, to the boom in outdoor recreation following the Second World War. During the Depression, many Americans were out of work, and many more still were without transportation. The nation was largely sedentary, and people stayed put. The economic boost brought about by the engines of war made it possible for masses of Americans to own automobiles. They also were better informed about the recreational opportunities awaiting them across the land, and they had more disposable income and free time to spend on those opportunities.

This explosion in vacation travel was also sparked by the construction of the interstate highway system, brought about by Cold War concerns for making it possible to move large numbers of troops and civilians quickly away from densely populated areas. In the absence of war, the interstate highway system made it possible for large numbers of vacationers to escape the city as well. Wall Drug was a direct beneficiary of this 1950s Eisenhower era initiative.

Lessons From Burma Shave

The particular genius of Ted and Dorothy Hustead, however, was in their marketing skills. They put up clever individual signs to advertise Wall Drug, and inspired by the popular Burma Shave slogans of the day, they came up with their own jingle. Passing motorists were treated to a series of signs proclaiming: "Get a soda/Get root beer/Turn next comer/just as near/To Highway 16 and 14/Free Ice Water/ Wall Drug." The jingle would linger in travelers' heads long after the town of Wall had receded in the distance.

The Husteads also made a wise decision early on to give Wall Drug signs to anyone who promised to display them upon their return home. Over the decades, this simple ploy resulted in signs being put up all over the world, and in Wall Drug being marketed globally. GI's in World War II, Korea, Vietnam, and most recently, the Gulf War, sent back photos of their Wall Drug signs displayed under combat conditions. Other Wall Drug aficionados have traveled to the ends of the Earth with the signs, photographed them, and then sent them back to the Husteads just for the fun of it. Today, visitors to Wall Drug can see an array of photos on display throughout the store from places as far away as the North and South Poles, the Great Wall of China, the Taj Mahal, and the former Soviet Union. The photos convey the impression, warranted or not, that Wall Drug is known and beloved internationally.