Endless knickknacks and oddities

A look inside Penny Lane Antique Mall

A Penny Lane sticker is held up in the shop on April 21, 2023. One-of-a-kind treasures are found throughout the store, with rotating inventory and about 40 vendors. // Photo by Isabella Loy

Cramped shelves full of breakable relics, an old-timey ringtone echoing through the air and an atmosphere unlike any other await customers as they stroll into the glass doors of Penny Lane Antique Mall in the heart of Old Town, Bellingham.

Though it is one of about a dozen antique shops in town, the size of the store, the loyal vendors and the family-owned aspect are just a few of the characteristics that make Penny Lane stand out.

Thousands of antiques crowd the bright-red building on Holly Street, each with its own price tag and backstory.

Owning an antique mall

The story of this business may be just as interesting as the things within. Right after graduating high school, founder Lyndsey Burglund opened Penny Lane in an old train car in Fairhaven. She ran the place alone — just herself and her antiques — for a decade.

“[I] did the first little store for a couple years and then had an opportunity to buy the store next to Old Town Cafe,” she said. “And so I moved over there and then ran that full-time.”

Once she outgrew that storefront, Berglund relocated to the building that was home to Old Town Antique Mall — which had been an antique business since the mid-’80s.

“In 2011, it became for sale by a friend of mine and my brother’s,” Berglund said. “She’d run it for a long time, was successful, but she was passing away.”

At that point, Berglund took on a business partner: her brother, Matt.

“I went from, you know, working by myself for 10 years and buying and selling all my own things to [having] a business partner, staff and vendors,” she said.

Berglund splits responsibilities with her brother — she works Friday through Sunday, and Matt works during the week. Not having all the responsibility on her has allowed Berglund to focus more on family, and she can now mix her work and family life comfortably.

A room inside of Penny Lane is full of posters on April 21, 2023. Lyndsey and Matt Berglund sell a variety of new items along with antiques — posters are a best-seller. // Photo by Isabella Loy

“This is a good part of my job,” she said, smiling down at her son as he babbled on her lap. “I get to bring my kids to work. It really lets me just, kind of, do my thing. I’ve gotten to a point where I can make my own hours and bring my baby to work.”

Along with the typical antiques, Berglund and her brother sell new items, too, including posters, plants and stickers. Another highlight of her job is being able to set up displays with the new items and create a welcoming, aesthetically-pleasing atmosphere.

“Decorating is always fun,” she said. “Curating little displays — that’s one of my favorite parts of the job.”

All other items at Penny Lane are sold by vendors who rent out spaces within the store. They price their own items, receiving funds as things sell. This model allows for a mutually beneficial relationship; vendors make more sales under a well-known storefront, and Penny Lane takes a small percentage of each sale.

“We have about 40 people renting spaces, selling their own things, and then my brother and I have, you know, a good majority of space where we sell our own things,” Berglund said.

This is a common practice in antique and vintage shops, according to a peer-reviewed study published in Sociological Spectrum titled “Dealers and Dealing in an Antique Mall.” The authors explain that an attractive aspect of antique selling is that vendors do not need to be with their items at all times, rather, they can come and go as they please — restocking as needed.

Sandra Martinez’s SUV parks outside of Penny Lane on April 25, 2023. Martinez loads up her vehicle about once a week and drives up to Bellingham from Skagit Valley to unload her finds. // Photo by Isabella Loy

Booth 45

Sandra Martinez runs booth number 45, a two-sectioned booth on the right side of the store, inches away from the cash register.

Martinez hauls her items up to Bellingham from her home near La Conner. She pulls her white SUV up to the doors of Penny Lane about once a week and spends hours unloading her acquired finds.

Once unloading is finished, Martinez has to organize — another perk to the selling model of Penny Lane: booths are organized and set up by each vendor, adding charm and variety and making every one unique. Walking into a new booth can feel like walking into an entirely new store with a different inventory.

“We make sure everything is user-ready,” she said. “So I clean everything, my husband redoes most of the furniture, so it’s all just ready to go.”

Martinez, with help from her husband, started selling antiques out of a small space in Skagit County more than 15 years ago. She and her antiques have been occupying the building even before Berglund owned it, back when it was known as the Old Town Antique Mall.

“We always shopped vintage and antiques and furnished our home that way,” she said. “So it just kind of was a natural progression to, you know, sell the things that we didn’t need anymore.”

Searching through estate sales, thrift stores, garage sales — these are just a few of the ways Martinez spends her days and sources her items.

“I do this full-time now,” she said. “I didn’t start out that way but the surprising thing to me, and I think to most dealers when they get into it, is really how much time it takes.”

As a full-time dealer, Martinez gets to devote all of her time to her passion for treasure hunting.

“I’m just always looking,” she said. “Sometimes I’m surprised, like, ‘How did I come up with that?’ … But it’s just a few things everywhere you go.”

Mirabelle Lemieux reaches for a potted plant in her booth at Penny Lane on May 1, 2023. “I started getting vintage pots and putting plants in them. I think it’s fun … it gives the plant more of a personality,” she said. // Photo by Isabella Loy

Booth 12

Mirabelle Lemieux, a 26-year-old vendor whose specialties are art pieces and vintage clothing, daylights as a gardener at Western Washington University. She can often be seen at Penny Lane with her sandy-blonde hair pulled back, wearing a WWU hoodie and dirt-stained boots, organizing her booth.

Lemieux moved to Bellingham six years ago and was first hired as an employee at Penny Lane — kickstarting her interest in antiques and vintage items.

“I started working the cash register, and that’s how I started getting to know more about resale and understanding what vintage means, what antique means, how to identify that,” she said. “And then I would slowly bring my stuff in to Lyndsey and sell to her and she offered me a space.”

As a Western employee, Lemieux sometimes gets to see her items around campus, each experiencing a new styling with a new owner.

“I’m selling [and] aiming at my age group just because I know what I like to wear and I assume other people probably like to wear this, too,” she said.

There are a few core components to the appeal of shopping in an antique mall for customers of all ages: the search for authenticity, the yearning for connection and community and the feeling of nostalgia, according to the study in Sociological Spectrum.

Antique shops can profit off of the idea that an item can be loved again — particularly with sentimental pieces. If someone finds an item that sparks a memory — perhaps a salt and pepper shaker that sat in their grandmother’s kitchen during their childhood — that item holds value to them, even if others may scoff at the price tag.

“Sometimes, I think, you can hear complaints about the prices but there’s a reason these used clothes cost more because they have a story,” Lemieux said. “They’re from a time period, they’re rare, they’re unique.”

Lemieux hand-writes each tag in her booth, with a detailed description and price — unlike a printed, generic tag one might see at a chain establishment.

“It’s kind of cool that you kind of get to give these things a second chance, a second life and a new home.”

Though she enjoys it as a hobby, Lemieux emphasized that sales at Penny Lane also have a financial impact on her life.

“I think people sometimes don’t realize that these are the way people feed themselves and pay their rent,” she said.

Nostalgia behind the chaos

Penny Lane means a lot of things to a lot of different people. It means a full-time job to Martinez, a side gig to make some extra money and fulfill a passion for Lemieux, a family business for the Berglunds. To the majority of Bellingham residents, though, it’s a big red building on the side of the road with weeks worth of stuff to look through.

The overwhelming amount of items can be intimidating, but discovering something that holds meaning might be worth the time it takes to find it.

“The people who have these booths have done all the work to curate something and bring it to you in an accessible form,” Lemieux said.

The 40 vendors inside each have a unique story, ones that would, too, take weeks to sort through. Their devotion to the art of antiquing is what makes Penny Lane itself a must-see relic.