Shopping Fargo With Alicia Ciak
Fargo Baddies creator Alicia Ciak takes Meet Fargo through five of her favorite stores, then shares how one TikTok in a Cash Wise parking lot changed her career.
At Buckle, Alicia Ciak reaches a rack of black clothing and says, “We are home. This is my rack. This is the Fargo Baddies rack.”
It is one of several moments during a shopping outing with Meet Fargo when Ciak’s personal style does the guiding. She recognizes handbags she already owns, points out sweatpants she wears regularly and stops to admire boots she has been considering for several visits.
With the holidays approaching, Ciak took Meet Fargo through five of her favorite places to shop around town. Along the way, she shared ideas for gifts, cold-weather outfits and making a shopping budget go further.
Uptown Cheapskate
Ciak’s introduction to Uptown Cheapskate gets straight to the appeal.
And if you are a baddie on a budget, man, this is the place for you.
The resale store buys and sells used clothing, shoes and accessories, giving shoppers a way to refresh their wardrobes and find gifts through secondhand shopping. Ciak appreciates how the clothing is organized. The rows of denim give her plenty to browse, with different colors, styles and sizes. Uptown has it all, from sweaters to shoes, to an outstanding vintage section, and, of course, activewear that includes Lululemon at prices as low as $34.
For holiday shoppers, she encourages reconsidering the pressure to buy everything new or spend heavily. The condition of the pieces she finds at Uptown is a large part of what makes her comfortable recommending the store for gifts. She also has a suggestion for getting started before leaving home: Uptown offers cash or store credit for items it accepts, and Ciak likes the idea of putting those unworn clothes toward holiday purchases.
2815 13th Ave. S., Fargo • Facebook • Instagram: @uptownfargo
Drift Clothing Co.
Some of Ciak’s recommendations at Drift Clothing Co. come directly from her own closet. “I just got these camo sweatpants here, and I absolutely love them. I wear them all the time,” she says.
The mother-and-daughter-owned boutique offers plenty for her to consider beyond that familiar pair. Ciak points out Happy Camp3r, a brand she particularly likes, along with matching pieces, bright colors, denim, and tops for going out. As she browses, she moves between comfortable clothes and more dressed-up options. Sweaters and jackets make sense for the colder months ahead, and lace-trimmed shorts catch her attention for their Nashville-inspired look.
She says she tends toward either all black or full pink. At Drift, both sides of that wardrobe have room to work.
West Acres, 3902 13th Ave. S., Fargo • Instagram: @drift.clothingco
JQ Clothing Co.
JQ’s North Dakota roots stretch back to Oakes, where the business began in 2013. Its Fargo boutique opened at West Acres in June 2026, bringing its clothing and gift selection to the mall.
Ciak is quick to find ideas for both a wardrobe and a gift list here. HydroJug drinkware is an option for Christmas, birthdays, or another gift-giving occasion, and coffee cups and other accessories give her more to browse between the racks. Hats are a particular draw. Wearing a bright pink trucker hat herself, she stops to read the sayings on several others.
I don’t know what it is about North Dakota, but we love our flannels. We love our hats.
West Acres, 3902 13th Ave. S., Fargo • jqclothingco.com • Instagram: @jqclothingco
Buckle
The rack of black clothing is only one familiar corner of Buckle for Ciak. As she looks through the accessories, she recognizes handbags she owns in other colors and says she has bought plenty of hats there, too. She gravitates toward pieces with a little attitude, like an unusual flannel, leather looks, and an animal print that catches her attention. The denim brings a moment of nostalgia for Rock Revival jeans, while the shoes make her wish she had stopped in before a recent Nashville trip.
Buckle’s Fargo location offers men’s and women’s clothing, along with free hemming and personal shopping services.
Boot Barn
Ciak admits she once had a narrow idea of what she would find at Boot Barn. She doesn’t consider herself a traditional western dresser, but the clothing and jewelry have given her plenty of reasons to return. During the visit, she browses dresses, sweaters, lace, and statement jackets, and notes that her brother is a fan of the store, too.
Then come the boots. Ciak is especially drawn to taller styles and a little sparkle, and one pair has been on her mind for a while. “I’ve looked at these the last three times I’ve been in here,” she says, adding them to her Christmas list.
1615 38th St. S., Fargo
Meet the Fargo Baddie
Alicia Ciak was sitting in a Cash Wise parking lot when she asked Fargo to give her something new to do. She had fallen into a familiar routine: the same restaurants, the same bars, the same people. After spending time in Nashville, she was struggling to imagine what anyone would find interesting about her life back in Fargo.
“Why would anyone want to watch my content? I live in Fargo,” she remembers thinking.
So she pulled out her phone and recorded a TikTok asking people in the area for recommendations. Three days after she posted it, she says, the video took off. Suggestions poured in, and Ciak began following them, visiting restaurants and clothing stores and sharing her experiences. As those videos gained attention, businesses started reaching out about visits and help with their own social media.
When I switched to the Fargo content, like that was the best my content has ever done.
Today, across TikTok, Instagram and Facebook, she has more than 165,000 followers, and exploring the community is a central part of her work.
The Years Behind the Videos
Ciak started posting workout videos in her parents’ living room when she was 16. “I’ve been posting online for 10 years now,” she said. Her early career included working as a trainer and manager at Anytime Fitness before becoming an independent personal trainer. Online coaching offered a way to reach more clients than she could see in a day.
Learning how to make that work required an investment. At 18, she hired a mentor. To help pay for that guidance, she worked long days that stretched from the gym to the kitchen at Wild Bill’s: training clients from about 5 a.m., then a line-cook shift from about 7:30 p.m. until midnight, followed by closing duties. After a few hours of sleep, she would do it again.
When she moved to Nashville in 2022, her coaching business was already online. She packed what would fit in her car and signed a lease without seeing the apartment in person. During her time there, she says, she built a six-figure fitness brand and worked with assistant coaches, and she began recognizing that the part of the business she enjoyed most was creating content and marketing it.
Beyond Fitness
Fitness had shaped her life for years. At 21, she remembers thinking, “I found my passion, I found my purpose.” Letting that go wasn’t easy. “It was such a big part of my identity for a really long time. So I had a really hard time letting that go,” she said.
There were personal changes, too. Ciak returned to the area from Nashville when family members became seriously ill, and she helped her mother care for her grandparents at home before they died. Making a full move into influencing brought its own doubts, and the response to her Fargo videos helped her move past them. It also clarified something she had spent years learning: content works better when she thinks about what her audience wants to see. “But it’s repetition, and it’s learning,” she said.
Meeting the People on the Other Side of the Screen
One evening, after she had been making local videos for a month or two, Ciak went out and heard people calling out “Fargo baddies.” She had casually used the phrase in a video, and it had caught on. The phrase eventually became merchandise, and she describes the response as “so overwhelming in the best way possible.”
“I was so surprised at the amount of support that I’ve gotten from people living in Fargo,” she said. Working from her Nashville apartment as an online coach could be isolating. In Fargo, she appreciates the ease of an ordinary conversation, like when someone in line at Costco turns around and starts talking. People who first knew her through a screen now stop to talk with her in the community she is filming.
More Places to Explore
Shopping has been one way Ciak has expanded her view of Fargo. Now she pays closer attention to boutiques and the businesses growing around her. “I love supporting local as well,” she said. She would like to take that approach farther into the Midwest, and she still loves Tennessee, including a dream collaboration connected to the Country Music Association Awards. Fargo, though, is where she wants to keep her focus.
I want to obviously grow as big as possible in Fargo and make that like the home base of my content.
Follow Along
She started by asking Fargo where to go next. The list keeps growing. Find Alicia on TikTok and Instagram at @aliciaciak, and shop the Fargo Baddies tote and trucker hat at aliciaciak.com.
Building your own holiday route? Pick up where Alicia left off at Minn Dak Market, just down the hall at West Acres, or browse the Folkways team’s staff picks.
See the Spread in Print
Published November 17, 2026
