Glik's to open trendy clothing with options for men and women in Prairie Hills Mall

Jan. 19—DICKINSON — Men and women will soon have a new store to shop for trendy clothing, shoes and accessories. Glik's is planning a grand opening in the Prairie Hills Mall on March 9, CEO Jeff Glik said.

The products the store carries attract customers of all ages, he added.

"We've been in business for 126 years and our target market — really it's an attitude not an age," Glik said. "So we really appeal to the teenager up to the 60-year-old. We handle a wide spectrum of guests."

Each store location is personally selected by a member of the Glik family. Jeff Glik, who is from Collinsville, Ill., visited the Prairie Hills Mall in December and thought it was a perfect fit. The space Glik's plans to move into was previously occupied by Vanity, he said.

"We are so excited to bring Glik's to Dickinson and the surrounding community to meet the needs of our customers," Mall Manager Peggy Thomas O'Brien said in an email to The Dickinson Press. "Glik's will also be filling a market void in Dickinson by offering a selection of men's clothing along with their line of stylish women's fashions."

More than 70 Glik's stores can be found in 11 states across the midwest. The store has had success in Bismarck and Minot over the last three years, Glik said.

"We clearly know that Dickinson is a unique community, but we have a very good sense of what the North Dakota consumer likes," he said. "I think the one thing that really makes us unique is that we really tailor our fashion assortment to the communities that we serve. We work very, very hard to tailor each of our fashion assortments directly to the community because each community where we have stores is uniquely different."

This also means there are no two Glik's stores that are exactly the same. Each store is updated with new fashion arrivals almost daily. The company is currently hiring employees for the Dickinson location.

Five generations of the Glik family have built a family-owned retail company since the first Glik's store opened in 1897, Glik said. The first location in St. Louis, Mo. began as a menswear store. The second location opened in Madison, Ill. and expanded into a full-blown department store. Gliks has been recognized as the 14th oldest retailer in the United States, he said.

"I fell in love with the business at an early age at the dining room table," Glik said. "So my father ran the company for over 60 years and his passion for the business really aligned with Jim, my brother, and myself. And so when we went to college, we knew what we wanted to do when we got out of college."

However, Glik's requires the family to work at a different retailer for at least two years, to help ensure the company's success, he said.

"The success rate of a family business in the fourth generation is less than 3%," Glik said. "So even though we were in love with the business, we had to work for another retailer for two years before coming into the business."

Some of the brand names Glik's carries include Patagonia, The North Face, Elan, Thread & Supply, Patagonia, Billabong, 1897, Quiksilver and more.

"I am incredibly excited about the Dickinson community," Glik said.