Zandbroz Variety
Downtown Store, With A Lake-Country Tourist Feel
BY EMMA JEAN VATNSDAL
Set near the end of Broadway’s run of one-of-a-kind stores lies the granddaddy of them all. Inside and out, it’s reminiscent of tourist-town shops in Minnesota’s lake country.
Zandbroz Variety store in downtown Fargo is not your average bookstore. Brothers Greg and Jeff Danz opened the doors of their first store in May 1989 in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Shortly after, in December 1991, Greg, and his wife Renee, opened their doors at 420 N. Broadway in Fargo.
Walking into the former soda fountain, customers are greeted by rows upon rows of greeting cards, paper and other small trinkets and toys. What seems like a kitschy little gift shop turns out to be so much more.
“We really wanted to find stuff that we would want to buy.” says Greg Danz, “We try bring in different items that we think the local community will like. When we first started, there was nowhere in this area that sold fancy pens or soaps and dishes. Now we have toys, games, body care, kitchenware and a lot more. We try to keep evolving and changing with the times. It truly is a variety store.”
Browsing through the body care section of Zandbroz, first-time customers out for a girls day in Fargo, Nicole Paulo, Tangueray Neely and Sierra Robinson, this store was nothing like they have seen before.
“This store is super cute,” says Paulo, “I really love the atmosphere in here. I feel like I could find a lot of different, fun things for different people here.”
“It almost feels like a fancier Bath and Body Works,” says Robinson.
“It feels almost bohemian chic,” Neely says, “I really like that it isn’t just one specific thing that is here. There is so much more.”
Along with the multitudes of gifts, customers have the opportunity to shop the wide variety of books that this store has to offer.
“I am a huge book nerd,” says Danz, “so we have a lot of different types of books here.”
In its 25th year in downtown Fargo, this family-owned business has brought fun, whimsy and, yes, variety to Broadway Street. With no plans to leave the Fargo area any time soon, Greg and Renee’s daughter, Josie, has been working hard to take on the family business as her parents are transitioning to retirement
(Emma Jean Vatnsdal is a junior majoring in multimedia journalism at MSUM. She is from Roseau, Minnesota, and is a producer for MSUM’s Campus News program. Contact her at vatnsdalem@mnstate.edu)
