Locally Owned and Community Based
From the very beginning, our philosophy has been simple. All are welcome, support local art, and don’t suck. Our unique and diverse employees represent our broad and diverse customer base. They reflect the products we sell and the places we’ve been. It’s been a great 47 years and we work hard to keep the store relevant with not only the current customer base, but for generations to come.
Embrace Your Wild Side
—Best Smoke Shop in Kansas City
—Embrace Your Wild Side
—Best Smoke Shop in Kansas City
—Embrace Your Wild Side
—Best Smoke Shop in Kansas City
—Embrace Your Wild Side
—Best Smoke Shop in Kansas City
—Smoke Shop
Our selection of smoking accessories will blow your mind. Pipes, water pipes, vapes, stash containers, odor-blockers, and so much more. Seriously, we can’t even remember what all is in there.
Vinyl Underground
There’s no better place to buy and sell used vinyl records in Kansas City.
Where We’ve Come From
After spending the summer of 1972 selling 8-track tapes on the midway of state fairs, owner Jan Fichman decided that making money was a lot more fun, and profitable, than studying calculus and chemistry.
So, he quit college and hustled selling 8-tracks in liquor stores, gas stations, truck stops, swap meets, and record shops. He also supplied other wholesalers that sold out of town, eventually expanding the operation to include everything east on I70 to St. Louis.
In 1974, he realized that selling bootleg 8-tracks was probably not going to be a long-term career, especially since the copyright laws were updated to include pre-recorded music. Following the advice of a relative, 7th Heaven was born.
We carried a variety of products including 8-tracks, record albums, used jeans, incense, turquoise jewelry, posters, stickers and a whole lot of other stuff, crammed into just 1,200 square feet. Once we started advertising with Mike Ross from KPRS radio, Kansas City’s only urban radio station, business took off. I opened another store, then over the next several years we had 5 stores and were growing with the booming vinyl and cd business.
Music was a high-volume, low-margin business, so we always carried smoking accessories and lifestyle items that had strong margins. Realizing the effectiveness and reach of radio, we rode the strength of legendary rock station KY102 for many years.
We’ve always been a “community” store in that we’ve always welcomed “made in Kansas City” products.
This was particularly strong in the urban community with pre-recorded CDs and mixtapes. Before anyone knew who Snoop Dog, Master P, Eazy E, Messy Marv, Rich the Factor, Mac Dre, Berner, Tech N9ne, and many more were, 7th Heaven gave them an outlet for sales and self promotion.
We’ve had in-store new releases and autograph sessions with hundreds of artists.
In the ‘70s, at our original store at 7653 Troost, we had an in-store that was supposed to be in a parking lot tent. The group Parliament Funkadelic was to appear for an autograph session. The attendance was in the thousands and the group had to find cover inside the 1200 sq. foot store. Needless to say it was chaotic! From The Whispers, Megadeth, George Clinton, Messy Marv, Limp Bizkit (who actually performed in our parking lot as we helped get them airplay on a KY102 show we did), to our hometown favorite, Tech N9ne.
There are a lot of favorite stories, but the most memorable parts of this journey are the wonderful, engaged and diverse characters that have been part of it.
From the beginning, we realized that our unique and diverse employees were representative of our broad and diverse customer base. We continue to prioritize inclusion, diversity, and welcoming to all people who visit our store.
