Owning a college town record store isn’t exactly your average retirement job. But with 23 years of experience behind him, Aftermath owner Robert Ridgway wouldn’t have it any other way.

“We really don’t need the money,” Ridgway said. “So we put everything we make back into the store. It’s a lot better job than selling shoes or something like that.”

The store is only the second independent record shop in Campustown and takes the place of the recently closed Discs ‘N’ Denim.

Ridgway is a co-owner with his wife Karen, who handles all of the non-music items, such as buttons, stickers, T-shirts and posters.

Ridgway said his main reason for opening the store was to make music fans happy. He said he feels CDs are usually way over-priced, which is one reason why he sells all of their new discs for only $9.98.

“I’ve been in the business for so long that I know all of the cheapest places to order my product,” he said. “That’s how I am able to sell them for so cheap.”

Aftermath moved into what Ridgway described as a great location, leaving the store with only one competitor in Peeple’s Records and Tapes. However, Ridgway said he doesn’t think about competing.

“We just try to be the best (record store) we can be,” he said. “We want to treat people the way businesses used to treat people.”

In the four days they have been open, Ridgway said he has already experienced a few examples of the kind of store Aftermath plans to be.

In one case, he put a rare Dead Kennedys record behind the counter and within the hour, a customer purchased it.

“I sold it to him for 10 bucks and he just started jumping up and down,” Ridgway explained. “He was so excited. He said he had been looking for the record forever.”

In another example, Ridgway said one customer fell $3 short of the cost of the items he was purchasing. Ridgway gave the customer his stuff anyway and told him just to bring in the money next time he was in the store.

“And they usually do, about 90 percent of the time,” he said. “I like to trust people. We don’t set up security cameras or any of that stuff.”

Ridgway said that in past experiences, the same people come into his stores at least twice a week. He said part of that has to do with their wide variety of unusual discs and other merchandise.

Unlike franchise music stores such as Musicland, Ridgway said at his store, you have to always expect the unexpected.

“Those places are generic,” he said. “Here, you never know what you’re going to find.”

One of the focuses of Aftermath, Ridgway said, is to supply music fans with rare collectable items. As a collector himself, Ridgway brings in a number of rare items, including Led Zeppelin and Pearl Jam disc sets, worth well over $200 apiece.

Aftermath will also have special sections for new releases and local music. Ridgway said he and People’s Bar and Grill owner Tom Zmolek have even discussed setting up a stage in the store for touring bands to play acoustic shows.

“That way the people who couldn’t make the night show, would still be able to hear the band and maybe get an autograph,” Ridgway said.

Aftermath currently has a People’s section for bands that are coming to the club.

Ridgway opened his first record store in Colorado Springs in 1974. He opened another one in that area before moving to Denver to start a third. All three stores still exist.

His fourth store found location about 15 miles west of Sacramento, Calif., on the University of California Davis campus.

He originally intended to sell his last store, but problems with the buyer led him to taking all of his products to Ames, where his family had just moved.

Aftermath, 2514 Lincoln Way, will tentatively be open Sunday through Thursday, 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. and Friday and Saturday, 11 a.m. to 10 p.m.

Ridgway said so far their most popular items have been alternative albums.

“Their selling like hotcakes right now,” he said.