Walk in the door of the new Downtown Pawn Shop at 124 Third Ave. NW, and it looks like a traditional thrift or antique store with vintage electronics, instruments, tools and jewelry for sale. But co-owner Jim Tholen is quick to point out retail isn’t the biggest part of their business; loans are.

“We sell money,” Tholen said.

Tholen and Kim Johnson opened The Downtown Pawn Shop in early October, and they’re quickly finding a niche in the loan business.

“It’s really kind of a bridge between maybe borrowing some money from your relative and going to a bank,” Johnson said. “A bank’s not going to give you a loan for a hundred dollars for 30 days.”

Tholen said he thinks their location is a prime spot downtown, and he said it’s paid dividends, as many people have stopped in since it’s near many other businesses.

“A lot of people that have never been in a pawn shop come in here,” Tholen said.

An added bonus: It’s near banks. Tholen and Johnson like the shop located near banks, because it gives people another option for borrowing money, albeit in a different fashion.

“You loan people money and you let them use what you loaned the money on,” Tholen said of the banks. “We loan people money, and we take what they’ve got the money loaned on.”

“And we hold it for them or store it for them,” Johnson added.

People can pawn an item for money, and reclaim the item by paying of the loan and interest within a certain time, usually about 30 days to two months.

But, Johnson noted the shop will hold items long if the customer continues paying the interest.

Tholen noted customers ahve the incentive to repay their loans and reclaim their items. Nationwide, Johnson said about 70 percent of people pay their loans and reclaim the pawned items. So far, they’re at 100 percent payment rate over their short time.

So far, the pawn and loan side has been the busier side of the business. On the retail side, Tholen and Johnson are still getting in the swing of things.

Anything they buy has to be held for 30 days before it can go out on the floor, and anything pawned has to be held about two months before going on the floor. To fill the need until these items can hit the floor, Johnson and Tholen are selling some items from their own collections.

“Obviously we’re just starting to get some of the stuff we bought running the business out on the floor now,” Johnson said.

Before opening the shop, Johnson worked as a musician for about 20 years, playing in the Shotgun Red Band for many years backing up the puppet character that appeared on shows like “Hee Haw” and still plays at the Minnesota State Fair.

He’s always bought and sold items, and music background helps with buying and selling instruments, as well as vintage electronics. He still plays guitar around town on occasion.

“We do have a lot of musical stuff here compared to other pawn shops,” Johnson said.

Tholen said he’s bought and sold items his whole life, as well as previously owning a body shop and antique shop.

Both are now excited to be in the pawn shop business, one they say is changing. A customer recently told Kim Johnson he’d only been in one other pawn shop before stopping in the the Downtown Pawn Shop — the World Famous Gold & Silver Pawn Shop featured on the History Channel’s “Pawn Stars.”