A sign along a city street welcomes us to Fargo, North Dakota, from Moorhead, Minnesota, just across the Red River.
LET’S PRETEND FOR A MOMENT that you are me. You’ve traveled nearly 300 miles from southeastern Minnesota to Fargo, North Dakota, with your husband to visit your son at North Dakota State University in mid-October.
Your son needs basic supplies like laundry detergent and deodorizing powder to sprinkle into his smelly athletic shoes. He also needs long-sleeved shirts, sweaters, socks and a warm scarf to wrap around his neck. Winter, after all, is waiting on flat and windy Fargo’s doorstep.
Being the nice parent that you are, you offer to take your boy shopping. And even though your son detests shopping, he agrees. He is no dummy. He would rather spend Mom and Dad’s money than his own.
So you plan a shopping trip to Target in West Fargo for 10 a.m. Sunday because that will allow the teen to sleep in. Afterward you’ll grab lunch around 11 a.m., then proceed to J.C. Penney (you checked online and Penneys does not open until noon) and leave town by 1 p.m. That is the plan. You have 300 miles to drive yet today.
But the entire plan is tossed out the window when you arrive at Target around 10:30 a.m. Sunday to find the doors locked. This big box retailer does not open until noon.
You suggest heading to Walmart. Your son gets on his smart phone, which he’s recently purchased quite successfully without your assistance or money, thank you. The three of you are soon winding your way around West Fargo, aiming for the discount retailer many love to hate.
Pulling into the parking lot, you notice that the place appears mostly deserted of cars and certainly of customers. As you draw nearer to the front doors, you spot signs stationed at the entrances:
The sign posted in front of the West Fargo Walmart on a Sunday morning.
OK, then.
Now what? Change of plans. Again.
Time to proceed with Plan C, which would be to check if Moorhead, Minnesota, just across the Red River, has a Target. It does. So you aim west for the border, driving five-plus miles, burning up gas because you don’t have time to wait for North Dakota’s stores to open.
You arrive at the Minnesota Target to find the parking lot packed with vehicles bearing mostly North Dakota license plates.
If only you had known about the Sunday morning shopping ban in NoDak, you would have planned differently and squeezed in a Saturday evening shopping outing. You would not be a now unhappy and grumpy Fargo visitor.
But you’ve heard/read nothing of this Blue Law (which you can read about in detail by clicking here)…
How are you supposed to know this stuff? You live in southeastern Minnesota.
And why is such a seemingly antiquated law still on the books?
FYI: I DID NOT REALIZE until I later spoke with a friend, a Minnesotan who grew up in North Dakota and whose son lives and works in Fargo, that the Blue Law not all that long ago prohibited retailers from any Sunday sales. So I suppose I should consider it progress that North Dakota retailers can now open their doors at noon on Sunday.
Secondly, this same friend told me that North Dakota has a five percent sales tax on clothing, of which I was unaware. The trip back across the river to the Target store in Moorhead thus saved us some tax dollars. However, according to information I found online, some North Dakota legislators want to repeal that tax. You can read about those efforts by some Fargo Democrats by clicking here.
Finally, can anyone explain the origin of the Blue Law in North Dakota? I expect it dates back to Sunday as a day of rest, as the Lord’s Day. I respect that and hope that most would choose worship over shopping. Yet, times have changed and church services are held on Saturdays too and, well, you know…
© Copyright 2012 Audrey Kletscher Helbling
Minnesota Prairie Roots 
Years ago, Minnesota had such ordinances in place, also. Sunday shopping was ‘taboo’ in many areas and states. Snopes has an interesting theory on the origins of this phrase at this link: http://www.snopes.com/language/colors/bluelaws.asp As much as we like the “shopping thing”….this was not a good day for you!!!! Hugs, D
Oh, yeah, you know how much I like shopping. Not.
Thanks for doing the research I didn’t do. I expect many states had blue laws at one time or another. Is that why car dealers are closed on Sundays in Minnesota?
Yup, leftover from a bygone era. My dad worked for several dealerships over his working years…..D
Well, at least they open! Here in Sicily there is NOTHING open on Sundays! If you forgot to buy groceries you can’t just go out and buy some. Not only that, but here in Trapani there is NO public transportation on Sunday. They have eliminated it last month. We got a new mayor and that’s the first action he took. Luckily the city is very compact so you could practically walk from one end of the city to the other but if you are young and healthy. I have fibromyalgia and cannot walk a lot, it would take me two hours to go to the “centro” on foot, because I would have to stop and rest at every cafè I found…if they are opened! Even newspaper stands and shops are closed, and most cafès. I feel sorry for the tourists who come on the weekend, they look totally lost!
Oh, wow, nothing open. The elimination of public transportation seems especially detrimental to the residents of Siciliy and the tourists I would imagine. We do have one grocery store that is closed on Sundays and the downtown small businesses are not open. But nothing like in your city.
But I think the liquor stores are open on Sundays?! 🙂
Hmmmm. That I don’t know. Anyone from North Dakota know if the liquor stores there are open on Sundays.
yes, liquor stores are open on Sundays in ND (They’re also open until at least midnight!).
I grew up in Fargo. It was around the time I graduated from HS in ’86 that ND started changing its Blue Laws. Previously, only gas stations and convenience stores that sold “essentials” were allowed to be open on Sundays (possibly grocery stores, but I’m a bit hazy on that).
The noon opening was the compromise struck to allow Sunday openings of other stores.
It’s interesting that there’s a push in ND to repeal the sales tax on clothing. In MN, the perennial push is to expand the sales tax to include it.
(in the future, if you need to buy your son clothing again while up there, you might consider the Herberger’s in Moorhead Center Mall, if that’s at all his style).
Yes, that thought did cross my mind that Minnesota has been contemplating a sales tax on clothing.
The Moorhead Center Mall certainly would have been a closer shopping venue given it’s just across the Red River. The son’s never shopped there, so I’m not sure whether it would suit him, but likely.
What a bummer for you…and a surprise to see things closed on Sunday morning. We are definitely spoiled with the convenience of 24 hour shopping at “Wally World”. I’m glad Moorhead was close
by and you were still able to get the shopping done without the tax burden.
Yes, I was glad we had an option as our shopping time was limited.
In 1965 the State of Minnesota, in one of those weird spams of legislation that occur every now and then, outlawed the Sunday sale of things like hardware but legalized the sale of alcohol. The blue law did not last long here. But it was fun to contemplate. And at the same time we could not agree on the beginning of DST and left it up to each city. Such fun we had.
You apparently know your Minnesota blue law trivia. That part about DST is especially interesting.
Maybe I’m just old.
Spring of 65 was a banner year in MN: very late snow storm, severe flooding (one of the very worst years), north side of Cities got ripped by tornadoes, legislature did the laws I mentioned, and every city in MN started DST at a different time, including the suburbs being on different schedules (and I think Mpls and St. Paul on different dates), and my wife and I got married. Morey Amsterdam was doing a gig in MN at the time I quipped that a Minnesota has snow in his driveway, has a flooded basement, is missing the roof on his house, spends Sunday drunk instead of fixing his house, and doesn’t know what time it is.
Nice blog by the way; been reading it on and off for awhile.
You not only possess a wealth of info, but you have a sense of humor too. Time to check out your blog. Thanks for joining Minnesota Prairie Roots readership, Clyde of Mankato. Did you see my recent piece on Mutch Northside Hardware in North Mankato? If not, check my November 2 post. I also posted about the business on June 27, 2011. Great small town business.
I used to live three blocks from the business and five blocks from Dave’s house. How many stories do you want? I will check out the posts,
Did you ever listen to the MPR Morning Show, JE Poole and Dale Connelly?
Ah, so you know Dave, and Mutch Hardware, well. No, I don’t listen to the MPR Morning Show. Typically I’m writing like crazy in the morning, my best time for writing.
BTW, I attended college in Mankato, Bethany Lutheran for the first two years and then Mankato State for my final two. I also worked as a news reporter for The Free Press, based in the St. James news bureau. That would have been in the early 1980s.
I have lived in the Kato area since 1997. Most of the rest of my life I lived in the Two Harbors. I was a regular at the hardware store, took my share of the small abuse which is a key part of his charm. But I am no longer a home owner and live up near the mall.
I mention Dale Connelly because of a fun blog, by way of which I get the name Clyde of Mankato. Dale and Tom Keith (AKA Jim Ed Poole) were much beloved on the radio. Then Tom retired. then Dale started a new kind of morning show (acoustic music was the staple of both is MPR shows) which included a blog called Trial Balloon. Then MPR kicked Dale out. His blog family went with him when he changed the name to The Baboon Trail. A fun group of smart, funny, accepting people. Only rule is always be nice. If you want to check it out, feel free. And we love new folks.
http://daleconnelly.com/
I just checked out your Birchwood Hill blog. You’re a thinker, a real thinker, aren’t you? I’m also quite curious about your book.
Now I’ll check out Dale’s blog.
Audrey, I was looking around for blogs about Minnesota and found yours, and then a couple others. I was looking to see who else was writing about MN, looking to see what people said, what was uniquely Minnesota. I have been looking in off and on for a few months. All of this is linked to my novel writing. If you are interested in the novel: I just put up the opening on a second blog for some relatives and friends who are interested in it.
http://beneathaquiltedsky.wordpress.com/
Will most definitely check out your novel blog. Readers, you are welcome to do so also. I got the OK to publish this comment with the link.
Growing up I wasn’t allowed to play cards on a Sunday – my mom’s Scottish upbringing went deep!!
Oh, wow. I’ve heard of the “no dancing” ever, but not the card playing ban, not that I like playing cards. I don’t.
I never learned cards at all – Mom barely allowed them in the house!
I’m on the opposite side of this whole discussion. While it is the shopper’s choice whether or not to go to a store on a Sunday morning or Thanksgiving Day, it’s not the employee’s choice whether or not to work those times. Increasingly our family holidays, and those of countless other families, have had to be radically rearranged because stores want to sells at all hours and anyone who works in retail and wants to keep a job dare not say “no.” Bravo to Blue Laws!
Yours are excellent points and I do feel for the employees. I most certainly agree that retailers open for shopping on holidays like Thanksgiving take away from family celebrations and the meaning of Thanksgiving. I suppose it may seem like I’m talking out of both sides of my mouth, supporting Sunday morning shopping and not Thanksgiving shopping.
In today’s society, so many employees have to work weekends and holidays and hours they’d rather not. My second daughter works as a Spanish medical interpreter in northeastern Wisconsin and has missed many family holidays back in Minnesota because she was on call, and not paid unless she was called in to work. I suppose one would argue that the difference is that she is an essential employee and it is not essential for a retail store to be open.
Thank you for voicing your opinion. I always appreciate the insights of readers, whether we agree or disagree or meet somewhere in the middle.
Well, if you were in North Dakota and decided to drive WEST to Minnesota, then you went the long way around!!!
And, why on Earth do you think this law is antiquated???
I guess since you are too enlightened for religion, then everyone should be.
Ah, Jimmy, you are correct. That should be east, not west. My error. Thank you for pointing that out.
If you follow my blog at all, you will know that I am a Christian and do not at all consider myself “too enlightened for religion.” Please do not judge me when you do not know me. I very much value Sunday mornings, or Saturday evenings, or now, Wednesdays during Lent, as a time to worship.
I get your point. Thank you for sharing your opinion.
When a state or government, makes & enforces laws contrary to the Law of God. Peroules times are coming.