Vinyl records, art, and home decor: New vintage shop opens in Cordova

The bright blue, green, and orange walls inside Cordova’s newest small business used to belong to an ice cream parlor. The color scheme wouldn’t work for many other businesses but as luck would have it, the new business opening here is called That 70s Shoppe. It’s a colorful interior for a colorful decade.

“I’m leaving the colors the way they are,” says Mike Rodieck, the owner of That 70s Shoppe. “The artwork really bounces off the colors of the wall.”

That 70s Shoppe is located in Suite 114 at 1250 N. Germantown Pkwy. in Cordova.Rodieck has opened a “nostalgia store” here at the intersection of Germantown and Cordova roads. And while the name of the store is a playful take on the hit sitcom of a similar name, Rodieck’s collection of vinyl records, artwork, home goods, and more span the decades. Though there is an emphasis on the style and music of the 1960s, 70s, and 80s, Rodieck says he has items that span the centuries. There’s original artwork from the 1700s, he says, and even a few items from the early 2000s, though “there’s nothing newer than 10 to 15 years old.”

That 70s Shoppe reflects Rodieck’s passion for collecting art and music from all over the world, something he’s been doing for more than 40 years. A native of central Arkansas, Rodieck moved to New Zealand in 2005, moved back to the States where he called Memphis home, before stints in Malta, Romania, and Spain. He recently moved to east Memphis to take care of his mother. He brought all of the things he’s collected along the way.

“Some of this stuff has traveled with me from Little Rock to Malta and back again.”

Much of Rodieck’s focus is on vinyl records of the rock and roll era, spanning the 1960s through the 1980s. He’s a stickler for quality, he says, and will throw out anything with a chip in it. And while he has a passion for vintage styles and great art, perhaps his favorite thing of all is to talk about it, to pass his knowledge down to the next generation.

“I love talking to the kids that come in with their families. They love looking at these 12-inch squares that we used to call record albums but the kids are now calling vinyls. It’s a lot of fun talking to them and explaining what they’re looking at,” Rodieck says.

“My favorite is when they know an old song that comes on the stereo, like an old tune that their grandparents grew up with that they now love, too.”

That 70s Shoppe is located in Suite 114 at 1250 N. Germantown Pkwy. in Cordova.