Kenrick Antique Mall Offers One-of-a-Kind Finds

Looking for a piece of quality furniture on a budget? Hoping to dig up some lost toy or book from your childhood? Or maybe searching for another item to add to your collection of coins or action figures? If you answered yes to any of the above, then a walk through might be in order.

Located at 104 Kenrick Plaza, its aisles are packed with booths from more than 100 vendors, their individual spaces crammed with all kinds of items. Furniture, sports memorabilia, jewelry, coins, glassware, clocks, rugs, mirrors, toys, gifts, frames, decorating items and household goods are among the store’s stock. The sheer number and variety of items on display makes exploring the rows a bit of adventure—you never know what you may see next.

The store’s manager, Tammy Miles said the most popular find is furniture. She explained that people are always on the lookout for furnishings in good condition, which may cost a fraction of the price of new furniture.

“It’s not just antiques. With this economy people are coming in looking for well-built furniture and decorating items,” she said. “Younger people are coming in and buying a lot of '60s stuff for their apartments…there is a broad appeal.”

However, sentimental buys can be right behind the more practical considerations. Often, Miles said, people will react to an item based not on its condition, but their emotional connection to it.

“I have had ladies walking around here with just tears running down there face because they saw something that reminding them of Grandma or Mom,” she said. ”I just had a guy in here today looking for a 1964 football game that he and his brother used to play. He said he wanted to find one because it was an important memory to him.”

It can also be therapy for the vendors. Miles said many of them will not only hunt down antiques, but spend time restoring them as well. It was a bug that bit her own mother, Diana Baker, who ran a booth at the Kenrick Antique Mall until 1998 when Baker and her husband, Mike Baker, purchased the business.

The family adopted a teamwork approach to the business: Mike Baker, a computer analyst, modernized the store's checkout system; Diana Baker hunted for inventory from other dealers, stores and auctions; and Miles managed the day-to-day operations of the business.

“It’s very exciting because day-to-day you have different stuff coming in. You get regular customers that come back all the time that you know,” she said.

Although Miles said her father passed away several years ago, their strategy has kept Kenrick Antique Mall running strong for the last 13 years.