So after Zima, the founder of the highly successful Detroit Lakes boutique, The Nines, started considering a Fargo location for a second shop, she couldn’t help but notice the name of the most prominent skyscraper project in the city’s downtown.
Block 9. Future home of The Nines. It just seemed to add up.
On Nov. 19, despite the usual supply delays and workforce shortages, the Fargo version of The Nines finally opened on the ground floor of the RDO Tower, formerly known as Block 9.
And, like most other projects Zima tackles, the shop may be proof that “nine” really is her lucky number. Even at 10:30 a.m. in the middle of the week, the Broadway shop bustles with busyness — attracting everyone from young girls seeking the latest in shredded mom jeans to grandmothers looking for a sparkly holiday top.
The youthful 40-year-old, looking effortlessly on-trend in tweedy blazer and oatmeal, wide-brimmed hat, says response to the new store has been “amazing. We send a van down (from Detroit Lakes) every day with clothes just to keep the store stocked right now.”
She’s quick to point out that the shop isn’t 100% done yet. She and husband/business partner, Steve, are still awaiting permanent signage and a light-wood baffled ceiling, featuring white clouds from which gold chandeliers will hang.
Even so, the 3,490-square-foot space is impressive, with soft-pink walls, midcentury-modern furnishings, white marble, arched doorways and brushed-gold fixtures.
The Nines, the exclusive women’s clothing store that built a big following in Detroit Lakes has now added a second store in Fargo. The dressing rooms and backside of the store is pictures on Tuesday, Dec. 7, 2021, in Fargo.
Alyssa Goelzer / The Forum
Located right beside the posh Hotel Jasper, the effect is that of a high-end women’s boutique. But Zima quickly clarifies: “It feels high-end, but the prices are extremely reasonable,” she says. “Everyone can come here and find something they love.”
Here, sizes run from small to 3X and from trendy junior styles to traditional classics. Prices range from $24 for a top to $59 for a jacket. Jeans range from $49 to $89; shoes start at $39 and run up to $250 for brands like Dolce Vita.
Clothing, accessories, and decor are seen on Tuesday, Dec. 7, 2021, at The Nines in Fargo.
Alyssa Goelzer / The Forum
The Nines also places lots of emphasis on personalized service, which means free personal-shopping appointments for someone seeking the perfect outfit, text updates to repeat customers suggesting looks they might like and even Facetime appointments with customers who live in other parts of the country.
And that, in a nutshell, is Zima’s aim: a shopping experience that is fun and collaborative, and where sales associates greet customers as if they are dinner-party guests.
“Part of my vision is to create a store where friends and family members can shop together. It’s really fun to see families making memories, enjoying the process, trying on clothes and laughing, giving each other outfit ideas,” she says.
“So many times, whether someone is curvy or just needs business clothing, they just shop at one store. And here, we see three generations coming to shop. I really, really love to celebrate every woman for who they are.”
The entrance of The Nines, an exclusive women’s clothing store new to Fargo, is pictured on Tuesday, Dec. 7, 2021.
Alyssa Goelzer / The Forum
Zima’s own trajectory wasn’t led so much by rigid goals and intensive planning as it was by heart, talent and fortuitous connections.
Born in San Diego as Lauren Radtke, her family moved to Fargo-Moorhead when she was 5. Curious and energetic, she describes herself as the type of kid who told her mom she couldn’t take naps “because I have too many ideas.”
At age 18, she entered the military, then spent her early adult years in Dallas. While there, Zima invented a product that protects bras in the washing machine. After patenting it, she traveled the country, selling her invention at apparel shows.
“That’s how I learned the back side of the business and I fell in love with it,” she says.
The interior of The Nines, an exclusive women’s clothing store is seen lined with clothes and accessories on Tuesday, Dec. 7, 2021, in Fargo.
Alyssa Goelzer / The Forum
Along the way, she met John Denver’s former lead guitarist, Steve Weisberg, who ran a clothing showroom at a Dallas market center. He invited Zima to sell her invention there, but when she saw how much the rent was, she had to turn him down.
“If you help me sell my clothing lines here, I’ll let you be here rent-free,” he told her.
Zima started working with buyers — all seeking inventory for their stores. She realized she liked helping boutiques find clothes more than she liked selling her invention. Even so, she never imagined she would someday be buying inventory at these same markets for her own successful store. “I’ve always loved to help people shop and I guess I didn’t realize it was a gift,” she says.
Drained by the stress of city life, she returned to the Midwest 13 years ago. Her goal was to someday purchase her “happy place” — her grandparents’ cabin on Lake Sallie where she spent many weekends fishing and swimming.
While she was staying at their cabin, she met Steve, who was there to help with an upholstery job on her grandparents’ boat. They fell in love and got married.
Hanging clothing items are seen next to some holiday decor at The Nines’ new Fargo location on Tuesday, Dec. 7, 2021.
Alyssa Goelzer / The Forum
A few years later, Zima set up her first store in a small space in Detroit Lakes. They didn’t have much money back then: They had three little boys under 36 months old and Zima was a stay-at-home dad at the time. “But I felt with every ounce of my being that this was the right time,” Zima says, adding that she never forgot how her husband supported her dream.
When she opened the doors to The Nines, Zima was the only employee. “I wanted to spread joy,” she says. “I wanted to have fun and just help people shop and it grew from there.”
Within weeks, people were lining up at the door to shop there, and Zima knew she needed more room. They bought an old theater along Detroit Lakes’ Washington Avenue and spent a year and a half renovating it.
The store continued to thrive, attracting a loyal following. By 2019, The Nines was rated as one of 5,000 most successful American companies by Inc. magazine. The boutique’s dramatic revenue growth from 2015 to 2018 helped rank them 2,924 out of 5,000 US businesses and 38 out of 81 in Minnesota alone.
The Nines reported a revenue of $2.7 million in 2018, representing a 128% growth over three years.
For years, Zima’s customers had urged her to open a shop in Fargo. She resisted, as they now had four boys and had opened another store, Lit Decor & Gift, in Detroit Lakes.
But after 2020, Zima changed her mind. “We received so many emails and letters from people thanking us for the retail therapy,” she says. “The year was so hard on them and just being around our positive staff and that extra touch we give — they really needed it. I thought maybe spreading more joy is what we needed to be doing, so that’s why we started opening more stores.”
Rows and rows of clothing lines the walls of The Nines, a new exclusive women’s clothing store that made its name in Detroit Lakes, on Tuesday, Dec. 7, 2021, in Fargo.
Alyssa Goelzer / The Forum
The Zimas spent months working with contractors and designers at Design 360 Studio to achieve her vision. The store was originally slated to open in September, but was delayed by two months by COVID-related delays. During that time, Steve’s carpentry background proved indispensable.. When the couple learned that the brushed gold, hanging U-racks, which were meant as clothes racks for window displays, could be delayed for months, Steve collaborated with a metal worker so they could design their own. “None of this would have happened without him,” she says, as he busily dusts a shoe and hat display in the background.
Although Zima undoubtedly has a shrewd business mind, her emphasis on the heart of The Nines seems to be its real strength. She appears to believe so fiercely in her mission — that shopping should be fun and social, that everyone should feel welcome there, that regular customers should be treated like friends — that her entire staff has absorbed it.
A case in point is Brenda Radloff, manager of the Fargo store. Radloff was actually one of The Nines’ first customers at the Detroit Lakes shop and the two women hit it off immediately. “She was one of our curvy shoppers and we had so much fun together,” Zima says, adding that Radloff also sometimes modeled curvy fashions when her show held events.
Then Radloff started working out and losing weight. “I got her in her first skinny jeans,” Zima says. “We were both in tears.”
“She gave me the confidence to keep shining in my weight loss journey,” says Radloff, a bubbly and upbeat woman who drives the mechanical equivalent to a smile emoji: a yellow Pontiac Sunfire with “Smile” written on the license plate.
The two used to say that if Zima ever opened a Fargo store, Radloff would be one of the first hires. Radloff already had many years of retail experience, primarily working in the cosmetics field.
But she also had a warm and personable nature — the type of personality in which she would treat customers like old friends, while instinctively understanding the style of clothes they liked.
“We’ve always had the same vision,” Radloff says. “Making people feel good. We don’t judge people. It’s amazing to smile coming to work. Customers feel that.
“Lauren’s philosophy is to welcome them as if you’re having a dinner party at your house. That’s how she’s been able to have so much success in eight years.”
Zima reiterates that, telling of complete strangers who enter the store and start bonding as they all try on clothes. “They don’t even know each other, but they start helping each other,” she says, smiling. “It’s just like a Girl’s Day with friends you never knew you had.”