‘Ice Cold Beer’ Sign Goes Viral, Draws Business For Kid’s Root Beer Stand
Jul 18, 2019, 7:38 PM | Updated: Oct 10, 2022, 11:20 am
BRIGHAM CITY, Utah – It was supposed to be a simple joke. 11 year-old Seth Parker thought advertising “ICE COLD BEER,” might be a fun way to sell root beer, on the corner of 200 east and 500 south. He came up with the idea while his family was out, stocking up on the beverage.
“We were in the beer section, and then I thought of the joke,” Seth said.
His mom, Alexis Parker says it was meant to be a way to help him keep busy, and hopefully meet new friends.
“We moved here from Georgia a little over a year ago, and it’s been hard to meet new people,” Alexis said. “We’re always trying to instill just daily life activities, life-lessons, and to encourage him to do things.”
At first, Seth’s root beer stand was running rather slow. Something changed however, after a number of passers-by called police, concerned about his sign. Police officers were busy with calls at the time, so Animal Control Officer, Levi Tarver responded.
“I decided to take a suspicious call of a kid selling ice cold beer,” Tarver said. “When I arrived, I found a kid, who had a cooler in his hand, and I asked him if he was selling ice cold beer.”
“What the heck,” Seth said, recalling his reaction at the time. “Why are they here?”
Tarver offered a suggestion.
“I said, ‘well, you might wanna change your sign to say maybe ‘root beer’ on there, so we stop getting so many phone calls on this,'” Tarver said.
Seth did just that, writing in the word ‘root,’ in tiny green letters. Learning of what had happened, a staff member at the Brigham City Police Department went to Parker’s corner and took a picture. They thought it was funny. Thousands of other people did too. A Facebook post on the department’s page has since gone viral, even garnering the attention of NBC’s Today Show.
“We did not expect anything to get this much attention, really, we did not,” Alexis Parker said.
Seth plans to keep selling his IBC root beer on that same corner, every Wednesday through Saturday, from noon until 4pm, until the summer ends. Nowadays, he tends to sell out well before closing time. Several people came to see him, and take pictures of him with his sign, as well as buy some cold root beer Thursday.
“I just said, ‘look, we have to go up here and buy a root beer, because somebody in Brigham City is finally famous,'” Claudia Bigler said, laughing. She later Seth’s hand. “I just want you to know, I’ve been laughing about this for two days. I think you’re amazing. Good job, buddy,” she told him.
