About Us
In 1988, Jeff and Greg Danz had a dream: to open a store that they would want to shop. So they bought an empty turn of the century building in the heart of downtown Sioux Falls, South Dakota. (Yes, Sioux Falls, South Dakota.) The brothers spent a year restoring the building and developing the concept for what would become Zandbroz Variety.
When the doors opened in May of 1989, Zandbroz was mostly a bookstore with some gifts, and an old fashioned soda fountain and coffee bar, Soda Falls. Barnes and Noble had yet to arrive on the scene, and no one else was serving coffee drinks or making malts and shakes with hard ice cream. A dream come true for the Danz brothers! It was a hit with Sioux Falls, and a Fargo, North Dakota location was opened in 1992 with the same formula for success. (Yes, Fargo, North Dakota.)
With the rise of coffee franchises, big box stores, and the internet in the mid-1990’s, the stores’ selection evolved into a wide variety of gifts: bath and body, fine pens, toys, cards and stationery, jewelry, novelty, handmade papers, kitchen gadgets, tea, coffee, home decor ... and we’re probably forgetting something. Oh yeah, books. Why dig through the piles of a clearance dumping ground that the big box bookstores have become, when every book on our shelves has been selected for a good reason? Truly, something for everyone on your list, including yourself. (Always include yourself!) Our latest obsession to find it’s way onto the sales floor and the internet is vintage. Old games, toys, taxidermy, globes and oddities are as much fun for us to find and share with you as the new. But, one thing that hasn’t changed, is a passion to celebrate the little things in life. We delight in finding ways to inspire, engage, educate, humor, and intrigue you. Remember, variety is the spice of life--enjoy!
P.S. You get a gold star if you have surmised the origin of the name, Zandbroz, from reading the above “about us” text.
P.P.S. Please do not whine about the loss of the soda fountains anymore, after all, we remember how rad it was, but times change, nothing lasts forever, that”s the way the cookie crumbles, the writing was on the wall, etc. Evolution or denial? Zandbroz chooses to evolve.