The summer is just picking up and everyone is trying to find something interesting to do in their free time. For most kids, hanging out and playing with their friends is the ideal choice.
However, some may opt for a summer job doing something like mowing lawns or pet sitting. It’s nothing out of the ordinary.
One 11-year old may have taken it too far. He chose to sell what appeared to be ice-cold beer.
Not too many people were happy about it.
Young entrepreneur
On a street corner near one of the many four-way stops in Brigham City, Utah, Seth Parker set up a makeshift sign to sell his beverages. He wasn’t breaking any laws. Kids put up lemonade stands all the time there, especially in the summer.
Seth’s sign, however, wasn’t for a lemonade stand. His sign, in bold letters, said
“ICE COLD BEER”
To put that in perspective, he’s in the sixth grade. Kids at that age shouldn’t be selling beer, should they?
Naturally, some of residents of the area were a bit concerned. They called the cops multiple times to report an underage boy selling beer in their neighborhood. What started with a single call to the Brigham City Police Department quickly escalated into multiple calls over a few days.
Four uniformed officers were quickly dispatched to investigate a case of potential child endangerment.
When the officers got to where Seth was they could see the sign that caused a bit of a stir. But Seth wasn’t selling cold beer, he was selling cold root beer, a very non-alcoholic drink.
In case you thought that he’d have to take the sign down for false advertising, you’d be wrong. He had the word “root” inscribed on the sign as well, but in small letters so it was invisible from a distance.
The response
Seth wasn’t trying to upset anyone. In an interview with FOX13 Salt Lake City, he said it was meant to be a joke. He thought it would be funny for people once they found the beer was root beer and not the alcohol.
It worked.
The cops who responded to the incident all laughed and had a good time once he explained his side of the story.
They even posed for a few pictures with Seth and shared them on their official Facebook page, giving a bit of free advertising for the root beer stand. The post has more than 9,000 likes, 1,000 comments, and 7,500 shares. Those numbers still appear to be still growing.
Brigham’s Mayor, the police chief, and a state representative were so impressed by the story that they visited Seth’s stand to see for themselves and to take a few pictures with Seth.
As if that wasn’t enough marketing, Fox 13 did a feature story on Seth and interviewed him and his parents.
In another interview with Today, Seth’s dad, Alan, said that he and his wife thought it would be a great way for him to get out of the the house and meet people. They felt that Seth was shy and stayed indoors too much. But none of them anticipated how much traction the whole stunt would get.
After the Facebook post by the BCPD, Seth would have people drive from far off neighborhoods just to take a picture with him. He even had to buy a second cooler to meet the demand for his root beer.
As far as his parents are concerned, they’re just happy to see him make new friends. Who knows, maybe Seth has a bright future in marketing.
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