A couple of weeks ago, I went to some specialty beer shop here in the Netherlands and bought me some Hefeweizen. I really love that kind of beer. It goes really well in winter, you’ll see it a lot around German, Austrian, Swiss and Italian ski slopes but it’s also great in summer!
As it’s quite pricy here in the Netherlands (2,50 per bottle, in store. On terrace it’s more like 5 bucks a pop) and the Germans drink a lot of it, I figured: maybe it’s a good idea to go there and buy some. So I looked up where Germans go to buy their beer as not every country sells it in supermarkets. So I found some shop called Trinkgut, which is just across the border near Arnhem.
I jumped in my car and drove there, to buy myself a couple of crates of that splendid beer. Arriving at that particular vendor, I was happily surprised that you’d only pay 1 euro per bottle! Really cheap! So even for 1 crate of beer, it’s cheaper to go to Germany than to buy it here.
The funny thing is that I mentioned to a couple of friends that I went over to Germany to buy some beer and raveled how cheap it was. They, too, seemed to love this kind of beer so wanted to get themselves a bunch of it too. A couple of days later, I had learned that some of them already went there. A week later, some people went to the store twice even!
Back at work, I shared this experience with some collegues and they too seemed to be really fond of the stuff and some of them were living quite close to the border but hadn’t thought of going there to buy their beers.
And it’s not only about the price of course. For me, it’s a nice trip through one of the prettiest parts of the country, the Veluwe. It’s just a nice trip overall. Especially when taking friends along. Just enjoying the ride, picking up some nice beers for a great price and it also helps that I can have people taste several of these wonderful beers when they come over. You’re just not able to get all of these brands here in the Netherlands so to me, it’s worth it.
All in all, I had learned that it takes almost no effort to make something to viral as long as you’re able to find value for people and tell them about it. I guess it helps if you’re honest and enthousiastic about it, but that’s pretty much all it took. I didn’t set out to go all the way to Germany to make waves, I just went there to get myself some nice beers and share the experience with others. And just because of doing so, tens of people have already found their way to that particular store. And as I’ve written before, ten is all we need. To me, that’s really interesting! So go out and share whatever it is you’re learning! You might hit something viral just because you cared enough to share what you’ve learned!
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