After 50 years, iconic Kansas Metropolis counterculture store is closing; gross sales are underway
seventh Heaven, a thrumming hub of Kansas Metropolis’s counterculture for the previous half-century, will shut later this yr.
Proprietor and founder Jan Fichman stated Monday that he plans to close down the music retailer and head store “someday in November, most likely,” although he hasn’t but set a time limit.
“It is determined by how shortly we transfer via the stock,” Fichman stated. “We’ve one thing like 36,000 used information within the retailer. All our smoking equipment and used music are marked all the way down to half worth, and new vinyl is 20% off. For those who got here in and wrote a verify for a pair hundred thousand {dollars} at present, we’d shut it by Thursday.”
Fichman based 7th Heaven in 1974. Raised in south Kansas Metropolis, he began out within the music enterprise promoting bootleg eight-track tapes at gasoline stations, truck stops and swap meets. After dropping out of faculty, Fichman opened his first store in a former Taco Through at 7653 Troost Ave.; it later moved to the present location at 7621 Troost.
Along with information, seventh Heaven bought incense, futons, water pipes, turquoise jewellery and used denims, tapping into the tastes of the hippie underground.
“We caught it on the proper time, and the enterprise simply took off,” Fichman stated. “Promoting information is a low-margin enterprise. The smoke store stuff is the place the cash was.”
Earlier than lengthy, seventh Heavens had been popping up all around the area: at ninety fifth Road and Nall Avenue in Overland Park; on State Avenue in Kansas Metropolis, Kansas; in Blue Springs and Sugar Creek, and even so far as Lawrence and Sedalia. On the firm’s peak, there have been seven seventh Heaven shops. The final of Fichman’s shops closed in 2010, although his brother Ken owns a seventh Heaven in Blue Springs that’s principally a smoke store.
“I consider we’ve bought extra recorded music than anyone within the historical past of Kansas Metropolis,” Fichman stated. “I totaled it up a number of years in the past and it’s someplace round $30 or $40 million.”
As rap and hip-hop rose in recognition within the Nineties, seventh Heaven emerged as a hub for that scene. The store allowed musicians to promote their information on consignment, and rappers like Grasp P, E-40 and Mac Dre bought their early mixtapes there.
“seventh Heaven was very instrumental within the development of the KC music scene and supplied a spot for us to get within the system, create our buzz, and make our cash,” Courtney Richardson, who used to rap below the title Court docket Canine and was later signed to No Restrict Data, wrote on Facebook on Sunday. “It would perpetually be part of KC music historical past.”
Earlier than he was a household name, Tech N9ne may typically be discovered hustling his CDs on the store.
“He’d are available and stand by the door and say to prospects, ‘Would you wish to take heed to my new document? It’s proper over there on the listening station,’” Fichman stated. “He was additionally so humble and by no means forgot the individuals who helped him get the place he’s. I feel that’s an enormous a part of his success.
“Anyone can promote Taylor Swift and Metallica,” he added. “We had been at all times attempting to interrupt underground artists. I employed individuals who had been actually sensible about discovering new music and new artists, and I simply allow them to do their factor.”
The shop weathered storms over time — the rise of streaming music and a 2006 federal raid for promoting drug paraphernalia. Fichman finally pleaded responsible and forfeited $440,000 to the federal authorities and acquired probation.
“We had been the large boys on the town, so that they got here after us,” Fichman stated of the bust. “They mainly tried to destroy our enterprise, however we stored on anyway.”
Phrase that seventh Heaven would shut crept out on social media final week, and Fichman confirmed to prospects in an e mail e-newsletter Saturday that the rumors had been true.
On Monday afternoon, the store was buzzing. Skronky jazz, Tupac, and late ‘90s rock performed over the audio system as prospects hunted for offers among the many vinyl racks and glass circumstances stuffed with water pipes, grinders and vapes. One gentleman departed with a blue 6-foot bong that rose from the ground to his nostril.
With retirement on his thoughts lately, Fichman stated he tried to discover a purchaser for the store, however no deal materialized.
“It’s a big retailer with plenty of overhead, and the smoking equipment enterprise has modified rather a lot since legalization,” he stated. “You may get that stuff in every single place now. Fuel stations, comfort shops. You may get a pipe at Oak Park Mall now. Plus, individuals was prepared to journey to Troost due to our big choice. At present it’s not that approach. And the town hasn’t achieved a lot developmentally to enhance this neighborhood.”
A farewell social gathering with in-store performances is within the works, Fichman stated. He’d wish to guide artists with deep ties to seventh Heaven, like Wealthy the Issue, The Popper and Tech N9ne. “Perhaps some Bay Space rappers too,” he stated. “We’ve bought plenty of Bay Space stuff over time.
“It’s been a superb run — plenty of enjoyable,” Fichman continued. “You recognize, it’s a fairly easy enterprise. You take heed to the group. They inform you what they need, and it’s your job to go discover it for them and have it in your retailer.”
