The first thing one notices upon entering Lake Geneva Antique Mall is its impressive size. At more than 11,000 square feet the shop, located at 829 Williams St. in Lake Geneva, is filled with vintage goods of all kinds.

Furniture. Old coins. Classic books. Wood-shafted golf clubs. Clocks. Figurines of animals and objects. Fine jewelry. Disney characters and other collectibles. Glassware. Vinyl records. The list hardly scratches the surface.

We sat down with Tina O’Malley, who has owned the store since January. Lake Geneva Antique Mall has been at the location – formerly occupied as a grocery – for 38 years, originally opened by Scott Lancour. He still owns the building and is one of the vendors on-site.

Tina is not new to the shop or to the Lake Geneva business scene. She has been the bookkeeper the past few years for Lake Geneva Antique Mall and for Lake Geneva’s Topsy Turvy Brewery, where she also served as general manager.

We sat down recently to catch up with Tina. She has a big personality built into a small frame. She’s a talker, a hugger, and instantly makes visitors feel at home.

Asked how she decided to get into the antique business, Tina said it was always her husband Bill’s dream. She made it come true, she told us with a twinkle in her eye. He’s been a dealer at the shop for about 10 years and still has space, finding items at auctions, sales and various venues. They work well together.

“My mind has a harder time with antique value. He’ll buy it for something and turn it around, maybe he’ll make two times as much, three times as much,” she said. “Some of the things people walk in with, I know this has sold in the past for this amount so I will buy it for about half of what I believe. He comes in and knows it better than I do. It’s more of a team. He’s the buyer. I do everything he doesn’t like.”

“Everything” includes running the business, doing the bookkeeping, the human relations part, scheduling staff, maintaining relations with dealers. Tina’s a quick study, acknowledging she didn’t know the beer business when she signed on as general manager at Topsy Turvy and learned on the fly.

It’s a busy life, because the store is open seven days a week and only closes three days each year. Hours are 10-5 Monday through Saturday and Sunday noon-5.

She can afford to be picky about quality in the merchandise because the popular shop has a waiting list of dealers hoping to get space. As we toured the facility it became clear that every inch of space is packed with goods, fitting for an antique enthusiast’s treasure hunt. Browsing the store is a trip through time.

“We don’t allow anything in here that’s newer than 50 years,” Tina explained. “We try to keep it as close to a true antique mall. The terms of the rental are that If I decide something is not worth being in here I can remove it. That way we can keep quality.”

When it comes to antiques we are novices at best. Like many folks we have watched the Antique Roadshow on PBS, where people bring in something they think is worth a fortune only to find out it’s a common item. Or, vice versa, they think it’s worthless and it’s worth a mint. We asked Tina about similar experiences.

“We get that once in a while where we buy something and it turns out to be way more valuable,” she said. “Scott saw that over the years. Scott was the kind of business owner that if he discovered that he really underpaid you he’d go back and give them more money. That’s why people kept coming back to him. That’s the kind of thing we try to do, too. He’s tutoring us.”

Imagine that. Honesty and character in an era better known for hustle and hackery.

We wondered about weird items people might have brought in hoping to sell. Someone wanted to sell “a kit used back in the day to do a lobotomy,” she said. “I’m like, ‘Noooooo’.”

Some tastes come with a smile. A 9-year-old boy saved his money to buy an old-fashioned dial telephone.

The building is being refreshed, but not enough to diminish the comfortable old-timey antique feel. And Tina still dreams of using part of the building for Celtic Woods, a shop to honor her Scottish and Irish roots. She’s also a Reiki master and hopes eventually to include a wellness studio.

That fits the treasure hunt nature of Lake Geneva Antique Mall, a place to connect with what matters to people.

“When people come in they are searching for something,” Tina told us. “They’re happy. They’re not coming in here angry, trying to get rid of a bad day. They are coming in here for a treasure. Or they remember this as a child. Or they’re looking to replace something that was their grandmother’s.”

Take a walk, like we did, through the past. Find the familiar, a reminder of a beloved grandmother or favorite uncle. Time, and maybe money, well spent.