ANTIQUE MALLS: "ANTIQUE MALLING" GOOD FOR BUYERS, SELLERS AND THE ECONOMY

Linda Skyles has opened three antiques and collectible malls in downtown Metropolis, Ill.

St. Mary's Antique Mall, which started operation in late 1993, now has 90 booths occupied.

Two antiques and collectible shopping malls have opened over the past two years in Cape Girardeau.

A landmark building in Paducah, Ky., will become that area's most recent antiques mall.

Modern everything-under-one-roof shopping malls in America have been around for several decades, but the same concept for vintage items is among the newest businesses on the block.

Skyles, who opened her first mall on Ferry Street in Metropolis in December 1992, is excited about her future.

"The three malls -- all within a two-block area on Ferry Street -- now house 60 independent vendors and have been successful beyond my hopes," said Skyles. "And I think business will be even better."

Skyles, who will be opening a fourth mall in the same area soon, would never have thought about a business on Ferry Street before the boat came. The boat is the Players Club Riverboat Casino, which opened operations on the Ohio River at Metropolis early last year.

"Before talk of the boat Ferry Street was just a small side street that led to the riverbank," said Skyles. "Now the street is a four-lane avenue and the busiest one in town, especially when the riverboat is loading and unloading."

The riverboat brings more than 100,000 people a month into town.

"Construction is continuing on a new riverbank hotel and Players Theater," said Skyles. "The motel is expected to open next month. When it opens I think our business will improve."

Metropolis is not the only town which benefits economically from antiques malls. So does Cape Girardeau

"We attract a lot of people off the interstate at Cape Girardeau," said Geraldine Croxton and Elmer Schetter.

"We advertise in various antiques and collectible publications," said Croxton, owner and operator of Croxton Antiques and Mini Mall, 612 Broadway. "Antique collectors often plan weekend trips to visit antiques shops.

"Antiques malls are always a big draw," Croxton said. "These operations provide shoppers with an opportunity to see a lot of things in one place. People can go through a mall and get lost in nostalgia."

Croxton's operation includes 15 dealers, a couple less fewer than the largest antiques mall operation in Cape Girardeau: Antique Center Mall, 2121 William.

"We have 17 dealers," said Schetter of Center Mall. "We pull in a lot of traffic off Interstate 55. Antiques collectors abound."

Fellow antiques shop owners are quick to point out a spirit of cooperation between shops that encourages their customers to visit other antique shops while in the area.

At least two more multidealer operations are in downtown Cape Girardeau; Heartland Antiques, 119 Independence, has several dealers, and Main Street Antiques, 31 N. Main, features three dealers.

In addition to the malls, several individual antiques operations in Cape Girardeau share in attracting buyers to the city. They include Smothers Antiques and Hansen's Collectibles downtown; Coopers Collectibles and Attic Treasures on South Sprigg; and Country Pride and the Consignment Center, both on Broadway.

Antiques malls have become popular over the past decade.

"They seem to be opening up all over," said Jan McKernan, a dealer and collector at Antique Center Mall here. "Ten years ago only the large metropolitan areas had malls; now they're everywhere."

McKernan likes the concept.

"There's something for everybody," she said. "You can find a big variety even in small mall operations. Some dealers specialize in carnival glass; others may have antique tools, books, primitives, et cetera."

The recent antiques mall boon can be traced to the growing nostalgia craze and, in part, to a troubled economy over the past few years.

"People who otherwise wouldn't have the time or money to open their own shops are finding that a leased booth in a mall is a good way to supplement their income," said Judith Golightly of Main Street Antiques.

The mall concept is simple. It gives dealers the chance to find a haven from high rents and the hassle of running a shop. For a moderate fee, a well-managed antiques mall provides bookkeeping, sales staff, utilities, and in some cases, advertising.

"This also allows people who have other jobs to enter the part-time business field," said one dealer.

Another big asset to dealers and customers is that, with so many dealers under one roof, collectors of everything from dolls and military collectibles to vintage clothing and porcelain, primitives to paper memorabilia, glass and jewelry are likely to attract larger crowds.

Until 1973 "antiques malling" was virtually an unknown term.

Hoyal Johnson and Harry Overby of Lebanon, Tenn., are considered by many as the founders of the first antiques mall, which came about almost accidentally.

Johnson and Overby went into the antiques business in 1973. They found an old building in Lebanon. The rent was cheap and the space was plentiful. A friend asked if he could rent some of the empty space and sell antiques. Before long, other friends joined the venture.

Johnson and Overby operated the business for 10 years before retiring, never realizing they would have a small place in shopping history.

Lebanon is now a flourishing antiques town.

In some instances, antiques and antiques malls have fueled a community. An example is Hazel, a small town in Kentucky. Without antiques, a person may drive through the small village a few miles out of Murray without stopping. But Hazel is now known throughout the Midwest as an antiques town, and people often make it a daylong destination in search of antiques.

Hazel, a three-block-long town, has a large antique mall, with more than 75 dealers and a number of smaller mall operations along with some individual dealers.

Paducah, a larger Kentucky city on the Ohio River, has its share of antiques malls, including Chief Paduke Mall and Antiques Cards & Collectibles Inc. downtown. It was depleted of many of its regular retail merchants when a new shopping mall opened along Interstate 24.

The Chief Paduke Mall, previously at Second and Kentucky Avenue, recently moved into the historic Freight House at 300 S. Third. The three-level building has more than 25,000 square feet, with about 11,000 square feet on the first level. The Freight House, of 1925 vintage, is on the National Historic Register.

The Chief Paduke mall opened at Second and Kentucky in early 1992, and featured 30 dealers. Six others have signed contracts for space in the new place.

One of the largest area mall operations is the South County Antique Mall, which opened last year in a former furniture store on Tesson Ferry Road in South St. Louis. More than 400 dealers have spaced in the 48,000-square-foot building. The owners of the South County Mall have also expanded their operation to St. Mary's, Mo., where 90 dealers have already moved into the 77,000-square-foot St. Mary's Antique Mall in less than three months.