Have you been looking for new music?
Maybe a new place to shop?
Or even a fun place to check out with your friends?
If you answered ‘yes’ to any of those questions you should go to Atomic Genius Records and More. Located in downtown Puyallup and an eight-minute walk away from PHS, you can find a variety of different music on vintage vinyl.
Atomic Genius Records and More is open five days a week, Wednesday through Sunday from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Manager and Owner, Beth Curtis, said that owning the record shop has changed her life completely.
“It’s changed everything. I used to work at a corporate job, I was a product manager for aerospace, this is nothing like that job, but a lot of aspects are the same… I guess I’m working for my own goals instead of somebody else’s,” Curtis said.
In the back of her record shop, she keeps an art gather and studio where she creates and sells her artwork. Curtis said the reason she decided to open a record shop was to get back into art.
“The idea came to me shortly after my father passed away and that completely made me reevaluate what I was doing with my life…” Curtis said. “All of this artwork that’s in here is mine. The whole reason I wanted to start this store was so I can get back to doing artwork. I haven’t quite gotten there yet, but eventually there’ll be some new pictures out here.”
Curtis said her shop opened in August 2021. She said she originally had the idea back in 2020 before the pandemic, but COVID-19 impacted her plans.
“I sat down and rounded the numbers to see if this is something that I could do. I did all the research and all that, and it turned out I could, so I just started putting it together,” Curtis said. “I was going to open in 2020 but I was procrastinating giving my notice at my corporate job and I’m glad that I didn’t because it was that weekend, they shut everything down. It would have been a very different outcome had I launched this when the pandemic happened. It gave me an extra year to get my diligence done.”
Along with selling vinyl, they also carry original archive quality art prints, handmade cribbage boards, hand painted record clocks, music themed collectables and even a custom guitar.
Curtis said her favorite thing about working in a record shop is the environment she gets to be surrounded by.
“I work in a record shop, what’s not to enjoy. I get to listen to my favorite music all day, I get to talk to really cool people, and I get to have Christmas every time I get a shipment in,” Curtis said.
In their store, they carry many different genres and artists including AC/DC, David Bowie, Fall Out Boy, Lana Del Rey, Billie Holiday, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Nirvana and many more.
Curtis said that her shop is a space where people should feel comfortable and hopefully a space where people can find new music.
“This space is here for you. Record store environment is something I want people to be able to feel comfortable in, find new music, find old favorites. If they can make an event out of it, someplace that they’ll come back again and again,” Curtis said.
