��ֱ����

In this episode of “The Yellow & Blue Podcast,” we hit the road to explore the story behind Wall Drug — the legendary roadside stop just 8 miles north of Badlands National Park. What began nearly 95 years ago as a small pharmacy has become a world-famous destination known for free ice water, homemade donuts and classic Americana charm. Joining the conversation are Rick Hustead, SDSU alum and chairman of Wall Drug, and Sarah Hustead, vice president of the family-run business. We’ll talk about the Hustead family’s vision, the store’s deep South ��ֱ���� roots and Wall Drug’s strong ties to SDSU.

Transcript:

[Rick]

We want the town to be proud of us. We want the state to be proud of us. And one thing we try to do, Sarah and I try to do every year, is push the envelope. We don't want to be as good as we were last year. We want to be better.

[Heidi]

Hello, Jackrabbits Nation. My name is Heidi Bushong, and this is “The Yellow & Blue Podcast.” Today we have taken the podcast on the road to one of the most recognizable places in South ��ֱ����, Wall Drug. Known as the “window to the west,” Wall Drug is a must-see pit stop 8 miles north of Badlands National Park.

[Heidi]

What began as a small pharmacy nearly 95 years ago has grown into a world-famous destination thanks to free ice water, homemade donuts and some nostalgic Americana all rooted in the vision of the Hustead family, the founders of Wall Drug. Joining me today are Rick Hustead, chairman of Wall Drug, and Sarah Hustead, vice president of Wall Drug.

[Heidi]

Thank you both so much for having us today. Beautiful day outside. Beautiful place. I'm just so glad that we're doing this.

[Sarah]

Absolutely. Thank you for having us.

[Heidi]

Yes. So, for people who don't know what Wall Drug is, obviously it's located in Wall, South ��ֱ����, but how would you describe this place that your family has built?

[Rick]

I would describe it as the “best loved roadside attraction in America.”

[Rick]

Wall Drug.

[Heidi]

Yeah, absolutely. What? How would you describe it, Sarah, to people who don't know what it is?

[Sarah]

You know, I had a customer coming through the other day, and they go, “This is our first time here. And it's really hard to describe it. Like, I couldn't describe it as someone asked me,” and, but my shortened version would be we have a restaurant that seats 430.

[Sarah]

We have 27 different shopping departments. We have a lot of free attractions for photo props, our giant jackalope, our roaring T-Rex, and of course our homemade donuts.

[Heidi]

Yes, homemade donuts. Free ice water. If you've ever seen the signs, they live up to the place. Let's talk about the origin story of Wall Drug. Obviously, this is a family-run business very close to you guys.

[Heidi]

Please tell me how Wall Drug came to be.

[Rick]

Wall Drug started in 1931 when my grandparents, Ted and Dorothy Hustead, purchased a patent medicine store in Wall, and it was on the west side of Main Street. And it was 1931, the Dirty ’30s, the Dust Bowl era. One man said it was the worst possible time to start anything.

[Heidi]

I believe it.

[Rick]

The original store was 24 by 60, and Ted and Dorothy were living in the back 20 feet of the store with their 4-year-old son, Billy. My dad. And there was a lot of talk about going broke. Billy was scared. He thought maybe he'd be given up for adoption. The first five years were really tough.

[Rick]

Twenty five percent unemployment in America. People didn't have much money. They were giving it five years, and they were in the fifth year, 1936. Dorothy was across town over by the old school in a rented room, giving Billy a nap and trying to get a little rest herself.

[Heidi]

Yeah, as mothers need.

[Rick]

They do. And she couldn't sleep because of the tourist cars coming out of the Badlands on U.S. 16 and 14. U.S. 16 and 14 wasn't paved then.

[Rick]

It wasn't even gravel. It was a packed dirt road. Dusty. And it was hot. And the cars didn't have air conditioners. So, people are driving with their windows down. Dorothy thought how hot and thirsty these travelers must be. Here we sit with a great big soda fountain, all the ice in the world and no customers. She had an idea.

[Rick]

She asked the lady, “Would you watch Billy? I need to go down to the store and talk to Ted.” When she got down to the store, she said, “Ted, we've got to let people know we're here. We should put up a sign, ‘Get a soda, get a beer. Turn next corner, just as near to highway 16 and 14.

[Rick]

Free ice water. Wall Drug.’” Ted thought it was a little corny, but it just might work. He hired a high school boy. They lettered the sign and went out and put it up before Ted got back to the store. The first customers had already stopped. They were given out glasses of free ice water. Selling ice cream cones, Coca-Cola, knick knacks and snacks.

[Rick]

And almost instantly, they weren't going broke anymore. And when Dorothy pitched it and had the idea of calling the business “Wall Drug.” That was the moment we became Wall Drug. Before that, we were Hustead Drugstore. But Dorothy thought Wall Drug, named after the town of Wall that sits on the 20-mile wall of the Badlands, was catchier.

[Rick]

So did Ted. And also, Ted thought if one sign worked, what would 20 or 30 Wall Drug signs do? And we have a few more than that today.

[Heidi]

A few more, to say the least. It's start. So, as you said, you know, it started as a pharmacy. You guys still stick to your roots. You still have the free ice water, and you still have a pharmacy here today.

[Rick]

Oh, absolutely. We couldn't be Wall Drug without being a drugstore.

[Heidi]

Exactly. And tell me about the pharmacy. Like what? What does that look like? Because when people come here, I don't know that they necessarily know like that it exists.

[Rick]

Well, they can find it in. And that's on our map. And it used to be upstairs, but it wasn't very, you know, with our offices wasn't very convenient for our customers.

[Rick]

We moved it to the mall where the storefront is a replica of the original storefront as it was across the street in 1931.

[Heidi]

Very cool, very cool. And what does the pharmacy part kind of look like? You know, obviously you serve the town of Wall. Tell me a little bit about that.

[Rick]

Well, yes. And, Cindy Dinger, is an SDSU graduate and our main pharmacist, and she takes care of getting relief pharmacists in and does an amazing job.

[Rick]

It's a big asset to the community. We have a museum there, is a part of it. A lot of Ted's dad, C.D. Hustead, who was a doctor in Aurora, Nebraska. A lot of his memorabilia, a lot of pharmacy artifacts and things.

[Heidi]

And so your dad and your grandpa, he was a pharmacist. He came to SDSU for pharmacy, and he kind of kept continuing.

[Heidi]

That helped grow Wall Drug?

[Rick]

Bill is an interesting story. My dad. Well, they did so well. We moved to this side of Main Street in 1942. OK. And Bill went to a Catholic boys boarding school in Sioux City, Iowa. So, he would hitchhike to Sioux City, Iowa. To high school was about 370 miles away. And it was during the war years; you couldn't buy a new car.

[Rick]

Tires were rationed. Gas was rationed. He would hitchhike and people would ask him, “Where are you from, young man?” And he'd say, “I'm from Wall.” They say, “Oh, that's where that little drug store is with all those signs.” And as a teenager, he found that embarrassing. So, he started saying he was from Wasta, which is 11 miles down the road.

[Rick]

Didn't have the Wall Drug conversation, but it did make an impression on him. He thought, if I ever come back into the family business, I would like to expand it, to make it something spectacular that the family would be proud of. Our customers would enjoy. That would be amazing. And when he came back in 51, he started on that.

[Rick]

When Bill and Marjorie, my mother, myself and my baby brother Teddy hit Wall in 51, Bill started on the expansion. And over his 48-year career, he took Wall Drug. We were about 4,000 square feet over here when he started to 76,000 square feet.

[Heidi]

That's crazy.

[Rick]

Which we are today. He had a big vision, huge vision, and down to the detail, the wall paneling in the dining rooms.

[Rick]

Black walnut, I mean, just on and on.

[Heidi]

The paintings.

[Rick]

All our over, our collection of over 300 illustrator artists paintings and Western art. He had a great vision.

[Heidi]

Yes. And you guys continue that. You know, you stick to your roots, you stick to, you know, kind of what made you grow. But, you know, while adapting as well, you guys also take really profound care, and your hospitality and pay attention to every detail.

[Heidi]

What is it? Tell me, Sarah, like, what is it like, being part of this family business and keeping things running?

[Sarah]

Well, it's such an incredible thing to be a part of. You know, it's really unique. And I feel so blessed to be a part of this legacy. And what I want to do with my time here and with my dad is really learn as much as I can from him.

[Heidi]

Yeah.

[Sarah]

And keep doing what we do best and try and do it better, and then also preserve everything that we have made, which is a big task.

[Heidi]

76,000 square feet of a big task.

[Sarah]

Yes.

[Heidi]

But it's all full of amazing stuff. With that being said, both of you have continued this family business. Do you guys remember kind of your first job or your first task working as part of Wall Drug?

[Rick]

My first job was clearing tables when I was 8 or 9 years old. In our souvenir department. We had a hot dog stand and a number of tables, and I would keep them clean and maintained. And that was my first job.

[Heidi]

How about you?

[Sarah]

And my first unofficial job was I came in and helped my grandma Marjorie, his mother.

[Sarah]

She taught me how to mark jewelry. And so I kind of learned a little bit about the jewelry side of things. And then my first official job was bussing tables as almost everyone. If you're starting out as a young person, they start you bussing tables.

[Heidi]

Gotta start somewhere, right?

[Rick]

Absolutely.

[Heidi]

Let's talk about these Wall Drug signs.

[Heidi]

You know, it started with the one. People have spotted Wall Drug signs all over the world. Can you tell us about some of the most surprising of places those have appeared?

[Sarah]

Yeah. In some of the those signs that, like, say, how many miles to Wall Drug, a lot of those are totally volunteer signs and just kind of like fans of Wall Drug.

[Heidi]

And my favorite one is there's a, like, a nuclear attack sub and they've got it. They're down below the ocean. So, they say so many so far up and then over

[Rick]

With the crew?

[Sarah]

With the crew and in the sub.

[Heidi]

Yes. That's crazy. Yeah. Yeah. The people, it's just so iconic. We're like, you know, on our drive here, coming from Brookings. We’re on Interstate 90. I was like, you don't even need to see how far away you are from Wall Drug.

[Heidi]

These signs are just like telling me along the way. We're close. We're close. What are your favorite signs, Rick?

[Rick]

We had Wall Drug signs on the double decker red busses in London. That was fun. We had signs in the Paris subway. We had one sign. A famous sign at the dock in Amsterdam. Wow. That was really cool.

[Rick]

And then we maintained that until it just got prohibitively expensive. Yeah, we thought we're going to put more of our sign money into local signs. And, our signs are all hand-painted. They're beautiful. We change them out. To keep them up. And we take great, great pride in our sign program. Yeah.

[Heidi]

And they're all hand-painted, right?

[Rick]

All hand-painted.

[Heidi]

That's amazing. What are some, other than the signs, you know, obviously, that's a pretty iconic part. Ice water, donuts. What are some other sought-after items or attractions that are a part of Wall Drug that people can look forward to when they visit?

[Sarah]

I think they bring your phone, bring a camera because you're really going to make a lot of memories.

[Sarah]

I think that's one super cool thing about where we're a multigenerational family business, and we're also welcoming multi-generations of families back. You know, third, fourth generations are coming to visit, and we've maintained the same look and feel so they can recreate a picture from 50 years ago, which is kind of wild.

[Heidi]

That is so sweet. One might be print, one might be digital, but hey, they're recreating it.

[Heidi]

What are some other things that you noticed that people look for it, too?

[Rick]

Well, one thing they look for if they've been here before, my dad always said 50% of our business at Wall Drug is repeat business. They've come to Wall Drug. They've enjoyed their stop, and they're coming back. And one of the things they most enjoy that Wall Drug is how our staff treats them.

[Rick]

And we really emphasize that, you know, we have our donuts. There's a lot of things to do and see at Wall Drug. But by far what we get the most compliments on, from our customers, is how well our employees treat them. And we think that's Midwest hospitality, but we want to do as good as anybody in tourism.

[Rick]

That and better.

[Heidi]

Absolutely. It feels like home, right? Like the instant I walked in today, I was, you know, kind of looking around, seeing where we were going to film today. And someone walked up to me and greeted me and they're like, “Hey, are you hungry? Like, here's a menu.” And I looked at that menu later to order.

[Heidi]

And then, you know, we have all of these nice people here helping us, making sure things are clean. You guys have such a well-oiled machine. It's very impressive. Very impressive. What are some other things that stand out to you about Wall Drug? Do you have any personal favorites?

[Rick]

Well, I like the Hustead pictorial. And the in the mall was all the family photos, and,

[Rick]

Oh. Go through the pictorial every now and then, and somebody will be looking at one of the pictures and then I'll say, “Well, that's my grandparents, Ted and Dorothy. And over here is my dad and mother. And here's Sarah when she graduated from high school.” And it's, I really enjoy that.

[Heidi]

That's fun. Yeah. What's your favorite part?

[Sarah]

I think my favorite part is our customers and the coworkers. The, just the interactions with people and even our international employees. We had one year where we had a kid from Romania working, and then somehow one of his teachers from Romania walks through the store.

[Heidi]

That's amazing.

[Sarah]

And just there's things like that happening, connections being made at Wall Drug all the time that are really special.

[Heidi]

Rick, when you were talking about your family pictorial earlier, I had to take a look over by the dinosaurs because your guys's family pictures and, one of my favorite things about Wall Drug is, I call him Uncle Walt, but my great Uncle Walt. He is on the wall over by the dinosaur. Kind of in your guys' family pictures in one of the pictures.

[Heidi]

Because he used to go hunting with Ted. My parents. And he always told me about it. Yeah, they're hunting down in Rochford, so that's kind of really cool, but I don't know how much hunting they actually got done. And I'm sure they met from Ted's Nebraska days because they're from Nebraska.

[Rick]

They did a lot of hunting, my dad, on and out of the ranch for deer camp, and one season when he was growing up, he spent a month hunting, so they really liked that.

[Heidi]

It just shows that, you know, sometimes people always say about South ��ֱ����, you know, no matter where you go, you have some, like, connection or, you know, some someone knows the same person, you know, mutual person in common. And I just love that. And I definitely feel that when I'm here. With that being said, Wall Drug, obviously you guys play major parts within your community and within the state.

[Heidi]

How does a place like this support the community and South ��ֱ����?

[Rick]

Well, we try to represent the community of Wall. Absolutely, the best way we can and the state of South ��ֱ����. And we want the town to be proud of us. We want the state to be proud of us. And one thing we try to do, Sarah and I try to do every year, is push the envelope.

[Rick]

We don't want to be as good as we were last year. We want to be better. We want to keep improving. We want our traditional experience, and we want to improve on that.

[Heidi]

Absolutely. Sarah, you serve the state in many ways. How do you look to continue, to make a difference through what you do here?

[Sarah]

I think part of, like, making a difference is also reporting back to the state and whatever the chamber on how things are going for the tourism industry specifically and letting them know, like, this is happening if you can do anything about, you know, like the H-2b program, things like that, the giving feedback on how things are down on the ground is, I think it's pretty helpful.

[Heidi]

Tourism obviously is a really large industry in the state, and you guys have really big involvement in that. What, how have things kind of looked here in the last few years?

[Rick]

Well, I think things have looked very well. You know, we always compare to the season before year and year to date, we're up 2.6% over last year, and that's a positive.

[Rick]

We're excited about that. It doesn't mean the season's all going to go that way, but it's a pretty good indicator.

[Heidi]

And part of your guys' service to the community and to the state, you guys have a really good relationship with SDSU. Rick, you're an alum. Bill was an alum. I'm sure there are others within your family as well.

[Heidi]

Why does the Hustead family look to kind of maintain a relationship with SDSU?

[Rick]

Well, we do have a big connection. All our pharmacists over the years came from SDSU, except Ted, my grandfather. All our other pharmacists came from SDSU. And so big connection there. Huge. And we are a drug store. I mean, that's our core business.

[Rick]

Obviously, we do a lot of other things, but we identify as a drug store.

[Heidi]

It's in the name, right?

[Rick]

It's in the name. Yeah. We couldn't be a Wall Drug without our pharmacists and pharmacy.

[Heidi]

Perfect. To kind of end, what can people expect when they come to Wall Drug? There truly is so much to offer here. I feel like everywhere I look, I see something different, right?

[Sarah]

I think they can expect to kind of be transported back in time somewhat. I think they're coming for a slice of Americana, and I hope that they are leaving with some souvenirs and some really happy memories and some donuts.

[Heidi]

Yes. How about you, Rick? What can people expect when they come to Wall Drug?

[Rick]

Well, we want them to have a great experience. We want them to have fun. We want them treated very well. Sarah and I are in the restaurant a lot, because we wanted it to be a good, positive experience for our customers. I worked with my dad, for 18 years, and he told me one time, I remember this.

[Rick]

“Rick, if you want the restaurant to run well.” I said, “Yeah, Dad.” He says, “Be in it.” And so I try. I'm in there, I can it makes a difference.

[Heidi]

I saw. It is not very often that you see the CEO of a place getting down and taking orders and serving with people and cleaning off tables, and Rick, you’re that guy.

[Rick]

Well, I like doing it. And I know and Sarah's in there all the time. And I know it ensures ... and we get, we have a great staff and they want to, but the owners really care and have a vision, and we want people's good Wall Drug experience to really start in the restaurant and then, go shopping.

[Heidi]

Absolutely. Anything else you want to add?

[Sarah]

Rick being in the restaurant, he really is. And last year he decided to every time someone asked, “What kind of donut should I get?” He just defaulted to going “Maple's the best,” and said it every single time he was selling a donut. And so then we have, you know, students that are watching and they're repeating back what Rick is saying.

[Sarah]

And typically, well, I on every record I have, chocolate outsells maple, even though if you're a South ��ֱ���� native, you think maple is the best. Last year was the first year maple outsold the chocolate.

[Heidi]

And just because it just really shows word of mouth work sometimes, right?

[Rick]

Well, yeah. Yeah. And you're talking to the customers, you're engaging them, and we've got great donuts and just throw that in there that, because maple is the most unique anyway.

[Rick]

It did have an impact.

[Heidi]

Always making an impact. Thank you so much, Rick and Sarah, for sharing your time and the incredible story about Wall Drug. Speaking of donuts, I think I hear some calling my name. Until next time, see you later, Jackrabbits.