Bellefonte’s Great Mish Mosh antique store owners are retiring. What to know

Karen and Les Urbanski, owners of The Great Mish Mosh at 128 S. Allegheny St. in downtown Bellefonte, recently announced they’ll retire at the end of this summer. The couple hopes to sell the two-story antique store to a new owner who will keep the business going.

FULL STORY: Bellefonte antique shop owners announce retirement. Here’s what’s next

Here are key takeaways:

• The Urbanskis have owned the store for about three years, purchasing it in 2023 from founder Brian Herman, who opened it in 2013. Karen Urbanski had worked there as an employee for two years before buying it.
• No deal has been made yet on selling the store, though there’s been some early interest. “I honestly think that anything outside of an antique store here just wouldn’t feel right,” Karen Urbanski told the Centre Daily Times.
• Business has picked up since the retirement announcement, with Urbanski noting a surprising amount of foot traffic from younger customers shopping for jewelry, furniture and other goods. “It’s assumed that young people don’t want antiques, but I’ve found that they absolutely do,” she said.
• The store will run markdowns of 20-30% on various items, with more sales planned in the coming weeks to scale down inventory.
• After retiring, the Urbanskis plan to build a dream home on land near Madisonburg. Karen Urbanski said she’ll continue selling vintage and antique jewelry at pop-up events.
• The Great Mish Mosh is open noon to 3 p.m. Sundays and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Saturday.

The summary points above were compiled with the help of AI tools and edited by journalists. The full story in the link at top was reported, written and edited entirely by journalists.