N. Dak. Buys Into Sunday Shopping

Cleone Jensen is among thousands of North Dakotans who made history just by going shopping.

Jensen and his wife drove 250 miles from their Turtle Lake home to spend Sunday at Fargo’s West Acres, the state’s biggest shopping mall, to try out a new law permitting Sunday shopping in this state for the first time.

“It’s about time we got into the 20th Century,” Jensen said. “There are nine years left, and we just made it.”

Gov. George Sinner signed a bill last Wednesday repealing the state’s 100-year-old blue laws. North Dakota was the last state in the nation to prohibit Sunday shopping.

Although stores couldn’t open their doors until noon, the Fargo mall’s parking lot started to fill by 11:30 a.m. Fifteen minutes later, dozens of people were milling in the mall.

By 1 p.m., the parking lot was nearly full, traffic was congested and business was brisk.

Sunday shopping means progress and economic prosperity to its supporters. But others say it will ruin small towns and family time--and they are not ready to give up their battle.

In Mayville, 50 miles north of Fargo, Mayor John Freije called Sunday shopping one of the dumbest things the people of North Dakota have done.

“There’s only so much money to go around,” Freije said. “If people can’t spend it in six days, they sure aren’t going to spend it in seven.”