Jefferson Antique Mall experiencing success

The Mt. Pleasant Area Chamber of Commerce held a ribbon-cutting at the Jefferson Antique Mall Thursday evening.

The ribbon-cutting was used as a dedication to celebrate both the opening and to commemorate the five months of business in the downtown Mt. Pleasant area.

Lisa Kalkbrenner, who is also the owner of Perfectly Vintage, opened the mall on June first. She said that she decided to open the mall because she didn't want the store to close.

"The reason I opened this shop is because I didn't want it to close," Kalkbrenner said. "I wanted there to be a mall here because I think it's a draw for the downtown and the other antique stores here. I didn't really have any intention of doing this, but I didn't want it to close."

Kalkbrenner currently has 39 dealers that supply the store.

The process of running and owning a mall hasn't always been the easiest, Kalkbrenner says. It has been stressful sometimes, like having to learn new things.

"I'm happy it's going well so far,“ Kalkbrenner said. ”You just never know. I definitely never ran a mall before, so I feel like it's going pretty well. I just have to figure out everything from scratch, how to do layaways and keep track of the dealers, but I do get advice from The Vintage Raven."

So far, Kalkbrenner says that business has been good.

"We don't have a lot to compare it to,“ she said. ”The former owner had a lot of the stuff here, but it started out fairly empty. It's filled up really nicely, so I think it's been going really good."

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