Son’s Viral Tweet About His Dad’s Empty Donut Shop Results in Lines Out the Door

There are plenty of arguments to be made about how Twitter has made it easier than ever for people to behave like vile jerks from behind the cloak of a keyboard. But every once in a while it redeems itself like it did this weekend, when a tweet about a family's empty new donut shop went viral and ultimately sent so many customers flocking there that the baked goods sold out.

Over the weekend, Billy By tweeted out a few photos from inside his father's brand new donut shop in Missouri City, Texas, including one of his dad looking disappointed standing behind the counter because customers weren't showing up. The thoughtful message clearly resonated with other users, because the tweet quickly spread, and has been retweeted nearly 280,000 times as of this writing.

The deluge of fresh attention also drummed up a ton of new customers, who rushed to the store and waited in a line out the door to buy something. People were raving about the donuts (as well as the bold yellow interior).

By periodically tweeted out updates about the huge turnout from the community, while thanking folks for stopping by and acknowledging that the shop completely sold out of donuts and kolaches on Sunday. He also shared a photo of himself with his dad looking a whole lot happier than before.

Evidently, a bunch of the folks who stopped in over the weekend were attending the nearby SXSW festival in Austin and made a point to swing by after seeing it on Twitter. In fact, Twitter itself even got involved and visited the donut shop on Monday morning to announce that it would cover the tab for any visitors who stopped in for the rest of the day.

Kudos to you, Twitter. You've redeemed yourself... for now.

h/tABC7

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