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Buford, Wyoming becomes Vietnamese coffee town

The man who owns America’s smallest town wants to launch a national coffee business there.

Vietnamese businessman Ngyen Dinh Pham bought Buford at auction last year for 900-thousand dollars. Today he announced plans to start selling coffee imported from Vietnam at the town’s lone convenience store. His goal is to eventually distribute the coffee nation-wide.

With a population of one, Buford might seem like an odd place to get a foothold into a major American market. But Business Development Consultant Kip Cheroutes says it just might work.

“As odd and as ironic as it sounds, I see sense in this,” Cheroutes said. “Yes, this is Buford, Wyoming, population one.  … But there’s the Internet.”

The sale and rebranding of Buford has attracted international media attention, and Cheroutes says with a good social media campaign, Buford could be a good place to start a coffee business just because it’s so quirky.

Dinh Pham is changing the name of the town to PhinDeli Town Buford, in an effort to promote the coffee. 

Despite the rebranding, former owner Don Sammons, who is coming back part time to manage the store and gas station, says the character of Buford won’t change much.

“We’ll be carrying a few more products than what I carried, but in general hopefully people find it just as happy and go-lucky as they did before,” Sammons said.

Sammons had planned to retire after selling Buford. But Dinh Pham, who will be staying in Vietnam for most of the year, talked him into helping run the business, with the honorary title of co-mayor.

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