This story is part of an occasional KCUR series called The Regulars, about Kansas City’s neighborhood hangouts and the customers who bring them to life.
Walking into The Vinyl Underground at 7th Heaven can be a shock to the senses. Thousands of vinyl records fill the main room of the south Kansas City shop, with bright blue walls covered in posters and signs like “Be gay, do crimes.” Music blasts from the speakers, and the smell of incense envelops the space.
At the front counter, a customer, Judy, chats with an employee about the 30 records she’s buying (Her favorite: a compilation of Ace Frehley’s greatest hits). After she pays, 7th Heaven’s owner, Jan Fichman, helps Judy carry them to her car.
“Fichman’s been such a staple in this community for so long, and not just from the music standpoint, but just how he cares for the people in this neighborhood,” Judy says.
Judy, who did not want to tell KCUR her last name, has been buying her records from 7th Heaven for 12 years. She started her collection after her dad began to downsize his own. Judy remembers picking out albums to listen to before she could read, just based on the cover art.
Judy first went to 7th Heaven after hearing about its impressive inventory but stayed for the atmosphere — it reminded her of the shops she visited as a kid with her dad.
“It feels more like a traditional record store,” Judy said. “A lot of the new record stores are a little bit more of a hipster vibe.”
While the record store has always enjoyed loyal customers like Judy, it’s been especially busy since Fichman announced in late September that he would be closing 7th Heaven, after 50 years in business.
Before 7th Heaven, Fichman says he sold bootleg records at gas stations and truck stops.
In October 1974, while still a student at the University of Missouri, he was able to open his own brick and mortar to start selling music, just across the street from the current location at 7621 Troost Ave. Fichman’s dad helped him run 7th Heaven while Fichman was in classes; Fichman still remembers when his dad called him to say they had made $100 in one day.
“But $100 back then meant you could pay for room and board at the fraternity and have $10 left over,” Fichman said. “So, in our minds that was substantial.”
After a year and a half, Fichman quit school to run 7th Heaven full-time.
Even more records live in the basement of the current, 10,000 sq.-foot building, which also boasts a small stage made with unfinished wood — kept open to any musician or band who wanted to use it.
“The sound guy gets 25 bucks for doing the sound if they don't have a sound guy,” Fichman said. “But other than that, it's just a free space for people to come and experiment and practice.”
Fichman prides himself on making 7th Heaven into a community space for everyone who walks in.
“Over 50 years, we've had a microcosm of society at the store,” Fichman said. “Everybody was here to have a good time because they all had something in common.”
Over the last few weeks, 7th Heaven’s customers — some of whom have been shopping here for decades — have made their final visits to say goodbye, and also to shop the hefty going-out-of-business sale.
James McGee first went to 7th Heaven in the early 90s with his rap group, Seeds of a Generic Creed.
“We were going there to find out how to put our tape in the store,” McGee said. “The first time I went to 7th Heaven was trying to get a consignment deal.”
Before the days of streaming, unsigned artists from all over the country would promote their music at 7th Heaven on consignment — meaning 7th Heaven would sell their tapes and take a cut.
As a result, 7th Heaven became a jumping-off point for a lot of independent musicians – now-famous Kansas City rapper Tech N9ne started his career selling his tapes there.
“So it was like, Kansas City had its pulse on the national music movement,” McGee said. “Because most of those artists would come to 7th Heaven to get their product in there, not only to sell it, but to be legitimized in the market.”
McGee said he eventually landed a single deal with a major record label. “And that happened directly because of 7th Heaven,” he said.
The store hasn’t done as many consignment deals in recent years, but it still proudly hosts a section with mixtapes from local DJs — like “Old School Grooves” by OJ Kinky Eyes Productions, “Big Bub & Today Comp,” and “All That Jazz 9.”
While 7th Heaven wasn’t immune to changes in the music industry, Fichman figured out ways to pivot, even when cassettes and CDs replaced vinyl, streaming replaced physical music, and then vinyl made its return.
“That guy just went with the flow, man,” McGee said. “He's an innovator. And he knew how to read the market.”
One strategy Fichman had to keep 7th Heaven afloat during lulls was to add non-music products to his inventory, bolstering its reputation as a “head shop.”
“We had other things like smoking accessories, futons, and all these lifestyle items that we could fall back on,” Fichman said.
From the Vinyl Underground section of the store, a few stairs with brightly colored signs reading “Must be 18+ to enter” lead to 7th Heaven’s Smoke and Love Shop. Shelves of rolling papers sit behind the bongs and pipes in glass counters, while one corner of the room offers to fulfill a visitor’s dildo, lingerie, and lubricant needs.
Patrick Riordan has been a consistent 7th Heaven customer since the 1990s, when he was in college.
For him, 7th Heaven is a haven for hard-to-find albums. One of his favorite pickups: Neil Young’s “On the Beach.” Initially a commercial failure, the 1974 album went out of print in the 80s before later gaining popularity, making the limited-release vinyl hard to come by.
“I found the album here and I had been looking for it forever,” Riordan said. “I couldn’t believe I found it.”
This was pre-internet, when you couldn’t buy or stream music online. Riordan says he has a broad taste in music — jazz, country, punk, rap — and he’s discovered a lot of new artists at 7th Heaven.
“You never know what you’re going to find,” Riordan said. “Especially if you’re flipping through like records because you’re always trying to find the next, ‘Oh, this looks really cool.’”
Sometimes, Riordan comes in just to see if anything catches his eye. This trip, however, Riordan was on the lookout for Charlie Parker. Usually, the Kansas City saxophonist would be an easy find in 7th Heaven, but the store’s inventory has been smaller since Fichman announced its impending closure and price discounts.
At 72, Fichman said he’s simply ready to retire. He said he looked for buyers for 7th Heaven, but nothing panned out, and now he’s trying to offload as much inventory as he can.
As for what’s next, Fichman is still planning that out.
“Improving my pickleball game, which needs a lot of improvement,” Fichman said. “I've got three wonderful little grandsons, they’re six, four, and almost two.”
Judy says that, for longtime customers like her, Fichman closing 7th Heaven is bittersweet news.
“I'm happy to see him and his wife to be able to live their retirement, live their best life,” Judy said. “And know that they had a 50-year run of a Kansas City iconic place, and we're going to miss them.”
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