Bloomington, Minnesota: door-to-door solicitor permit

Partly read: the permit answer is sourced, but the fee or the hours could not be read from the city’s own pages. The clerk questions below cover the gap.

• The answer: Yes — a solicitor license from the City Clerk's Office plus a city identification card, carried by every solicitor working door to door, per the city's licensing pages. The city's license list names the solicitor license under City Code 14.352 (transient merchant, hawker or peddler under 14.180). Nonprofit, religious and political groups are exempt from the license but must keep the same hours and carry identification.
• Where it comes from: The City Clerk's Office, Business Licensing, 1800 W. Old Shakopee Road — the Solicitor/Peddler Application is filed there, and all applicants must apply in person for the ID photo.
• Fee: Not read. The city's Fee Schedules page says license fees adopted by ordinance are in Appendix A of the City Code, which is hosted on American Legal and could not be opened. The application form shows no fee amount. Appendix A was amended after an April 2026 public hearing on license and permit fee increases.
• Hours you may knock: 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. — the city's Solicitors page says solicitors must operate between 9 a.m. and 9 p.m., and the application form says no solicitation or peddling between 9 pm and 9 am.
• What the rep carries: The city license and the city identification card, whenever working in Bloomington.
• What takes the time: The application says to allow 7 working days to process, and the ID photo must be taken in person. The form asks for the last five cities where the rep solicited, any convictions, any consumer-protection investigation of the rep or the company, and any license denied or revoked in the past three years, and authorizes the city to investigate. A solicitor license is valid for 6 months.
• Code: Bloomington City Code, Chapter 14 — solicitors (14.352 per the city's license list) and transient merchants, hawkers and peddlers (14.180); fees in Appendix A. The code itself sits on codelibrary.amlegal.com and was not read for this card.
• Worth knowing: Reps may not enter a property with a posted "No Solicitation" or similar sign, or use aggressive sales tactics, and must obey signs banning trespassing. The city asks residents to report non-complying solicitors to Business Licensing, and to call 911 about aggressive ones. The city has no general business license.
• Read it yourself: City of Bloomington — Solicitors in Bloomington · City of Bloomington — Solicitor/Peddler Application (PDF) · City of Bloomington — Business Licensing (licenses required by City Code) · City of Bloomington — Know the code: Door-to-door solicitors · City of Bloomington — Fee schedules · checked 21 September 2026

Ask the clerk, and write the answer down:

• What the solicitor license fee is under Appendix A today, and whether it is per rep
• Whether reps from one company can bring their ID photos in together, and how long the in-person step takes
• Whether a rep who only knocks to set appointments counts as a solicitor under 14.352

Clerk’s name ______________ Direct line ______________ Date called ______________