Tollefson’s Retail Group, a company that first began in Minot and has stayed in the family through three generations, celebrated 90 years in business on April 30, 2015.

The company first started back in 1925 when Ole T. Tollefson, a farmer during the warmer season, was looking for something to do in North Dakota’s colder months. He purchased a used furniture store in the basement of the Zelvor Block in Minot and called it Furniture Exchange. Two employees and himself ran the store.

“It was just kind of something to keep him busy at the time,” said Mark Tollefson, grandson of Ole Tollefson and third generation owner of Tollefson’s Retail Group. “Little did he know what it would grow into today.”

Soon after a fire burned the building to the ground in the winter of 1942, Ole Tollefson purchased a building that had been a bus depot at the location of the Minot Fire Station on Third Street Southeast and moved from downtown. Because the store was three blocks away from Main Street, he started using the slogan, “Walk a Block and Save.” The store at the time consisted of three floors and a warehouse.

Now, the original business has expanded to Tollefson’s Retail Group, which consists of four partner companies with around 200 employees, including Slumberland Furniture, The Carpet Garage Flooring Center, Tollefson’s Carpetland and Tollefson’s Contract Flooring. And through the impressive 90 years of business, the company has stayed within the Tollefson family.

Ole Tollefson’s sons Orlan and Duane Tollefson purchased Furniture Exchange in 1953, which Ole Tollefson had then changed the name to Tollefson’s Furniture, eventually becoming Tollefson’s Carpetland. While there were still only three employees at the store, the inventory was expanded to include drapery, floor covering and an enlarged appliance department. Under their ownership, the Carpet Garage was opened in the fall of 1973 in a downtown Minot garage and in 1978 expanded to Bismarck.

Roger Tollefson, Orlan Tollefson’s son and a current owner of Tollefson’s Retail Group, joined the company in 1976 and Mark Tollefson, son of Duane Tollefson and current owner and manager of Tollefson’s Retail Group, joined the firm in 1984.

In the years following, the first contract flooring division opened in Minot, Roger and Mark Tollefson purchased the company from Orlan and Duane Tollefson, new Carpet Garages were opened in Montana, North Dakota and Minnesota, making the company’s total eight carpet garages, Tollefson’s Furniture converted its operation to a franchise store and changed its name to Slumberland Furniture, Carpetland in Minot moved to its current location at 2100 S. Broadway St. and there were multiple other areas of growth in the company. Slumberland Furniture expanded to North Dakota and Minnesota while the headquarters of Tollefson’s Retail Group have and, according to Mark Tollefson, always will remain in Minot.

The four partner companies of Tollefson’s Retail Group each have different purposes and abilities. Within Slumberland Furniture stores, trendy home furnishings and mattresses can be purchased. In the Carpet Garage Flooring Centers, famous brand flooring is stocked and value priced. Tollefson’s Carpetland offers full-service sales and installation in flooring, and Tollefson’s Contract Division is the commercial flooring division.

While the company has changed and grown exponentially since 1925, Mark Tollefson said the values and goals of the company have stayed the same.

“My grandfather was a good, stoic Norwegian and his parents immigrated to North Dakota,” said Mark Tollefson. “He was a hard workera real hard workerand people loved him.”

Mark Tollefson told the story of when newly married customers came into his grandfather’s store when the company was in its early years. The couple had very little, and Ole Tollefson did what he could to help them out.

“My grandfather said to them, ‘Get what you want and you can make monthly payments,'” said Mark Tollefson. “He helped them get their start, and that same couple is still our customer today.”

Since the beginning, the Tollefson family has taken pride in the characteristics of honesty, integrity and professionalism for customers and employees alike. Because it is a family business, Mark Tollefson said the employees are like family and they strive to treat them as such.

Mark Tollefson said there is a lot to live up to in a company with such a deep history of shoes to fill. While the pressure to continue displaying the company’s values and mission is there, he is proud to be the manager of his grandfather’s original dream.

“Both Roger and I have a lot of pride to be standing where we are today,” said Mark Tollefson. “I think my grandfather would be proud of his two grandsons.”

Though 90 years in business has passed, Mark Tollefson said it feels like they are just getting started. Tollefson’s Retail Group plans to stay on top of things, continue to grow and expand and “keep the ball rolling,” as he put it, in the future.

And the business will not stop after them. Mark Tollefson’s son and Roger Tollefson’s daughter and son-in-law plan to take over Tollefson’s Retail Group in 2017.

“It makes us proud to be able to say that we’ve been in business in Minot for 90 years,” said Mark Tollefson. “I’m sure we’ll be in Minot for another one hundred. We wouldn’t want to have it any other way.”