Bobby and J.C. Mosley’s second-hand shop known for its nostalgic flair is expanding its footprint.

Five years after opening Melodies and Memories in Downtown Bowling Green, the couple has purchased a secondary spot on Nashville Road in the Woodburn area to pepper with records, retro game consoles and toys from decades past.

If you ask Bobby, the plan was always to expand.

“Oh yeah. I wanted three stores,” he said. “I want another one, I don’t know right where yet.”

He said he has customers out in Franklin, Auburn and Russellville who will happily stop in the more rural location instead of driving up to Bowling Green proper.

“It’s in the middle of everything,” he said. “You’ve got Portland, Woodburn, Rich Pond. It’s got more of a country setting to it. It’s right on Nashville Road of course, but it’s not commercialized.”

Plentiful parking and a shed to store larger items were draws for Bobby. The property, formerly a rock garden farm, is less than a third the size of the main store, “but it’s enough.”

“It’s more than enough for what I need to do,” he said.

The couple runs the main operation at 419 Park Row as a duo. Bobby said he’ll be bringing in outside help to run the second store, stopping by to make sure things are running smoothly.

“It’s easy for one person,” he said. “You can always have a big sale, too, it’s right on the main road.”

The couple won’t be splitting their inventory between the two locations. There’s enough – including a burgeoning back room of vintage T-shirts – to fill both stores.

“I may take 10% of the store, but most everything in the store will stay in the store,” Bobby said. “It’s going to be a little of everything just like this.”

He said he’s going to work on the Woodburn store for the next three months “to get it right,” meaning ensuring easy access to items around the shop.

Vinyl records – a selection spanning from ABBA to ZZ Top – remain as the couple’s hottest items. Bobby said sales usually dip during the summer when Western Kentucky University students filter out from Bowling Green, but “this year I haven’t noticed it a bit.”

“I’m finding more people my age now trying to get back into music, trying to drag that old turntable out,” he said.

He plans to throw as many vinyl records up on display as possible, lining the walls so customers can see what they want. The main store’s current record setup consists of bin after bin of wax stretching back into the heart of the shop.

“Probably 60% of them will be pictured as soon as you walk in, you’re not going to dig through a lot,” he said. “I’ll probably have two bins that you’ll dig through, probably about 15 feet long total.”

The downtown store’s vibrant window display, currently packed with Scooby Doo, Care Bears and Cabbage Patch Kids, works to draw customers in from the street. Bobby said he has some knicknacks he intends to put up front in the new location, carrying over a bit of that eye-catching charm.

“I’ll have a few,” he said. “It’ll be the identical store – only different.”

Bobby is targeting September for the Woodburn store’s grand opening, located at 12785 Nashville Rd.

“Let’s say Sept. 15, just to be safe,” he said. “That’s right about fall. I started putting my first things in there yesterday.”

Bobby’s philosophy – “If you commit to it, you won’t fail” – kept the venture steady during early growing pains, leading to repeat visitors.

“Eventually we did gain that client base, we have customers that keep coming back in,” he said. “They come from Nashville, some come from Georgia, some come from Arkansas. Every chance they get, they’ll come down here.”

Bobby said he thinks the store’s unique personality, bursting at the seams with technicolor playthings and items not found elsewhere, has been the key to its success.

“There’s no rhyme or reason to it, and that’s what I like.”