Exclusive: Details on South Fargo retail business closing after 40 years

(Fargo, ND) -- WDAY Radio has found out more details after a business entrenched in the Fargo-Moorhead community announced it is closing up shop next month.

In an exclusive conversation, Laurie's owner Kristi Larson sat down with WDAY Radio to talk about her decision to wrap up the women's clothing business 40 years after it began.

"It's just time for a new chapter," said Larson while talking with News Director Kyle Cornell. "It's been a great run and I always said it wouldn't be my last chapter, so it's just in reassessing kind of where I'm at and where everything right now is in retail I just said is the best time for me to make a change."

So, why the change now? Larson says it may not be what you think.

There have been no staffing issues, no monetary problems since the COVID-19 pandemic raged across the country, but rather just a time for Kristi, who has owned the shop for 14 years herself, to move on.

"Obviously retail is a challenging environment and always has been, and the landscape has changed a lot but I haven't had staffing issues and we recovered from the pandemic, " said Larson. "But I'm looking at where I'm at age wise, as I tell my customers I'm not an old dog but I'm not a young dog. I just don't have the energy to want to take it online."

Larson says with the online aspect of the business coming to the forefront, the time commitment and issues that come with it were just too much to bear.

While missing employees and staff will be true, Kristi says more than anything she'll miss the relationships with customers across the area that she has built over the past number of years.

Laurie's officially closes on August 31st. For more information on the store, click here.