Joined: Mon Nov 01, 2004 7:37 pm Posts: 5501 Location: Threadkill, CA
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duckyboy Wrote: Finch Platte Wrote: We got lucky. There's a Rasputins moving into our old Tower location. It may be a while. They have MiniDiscs marked at $12.99 for one 60 minute disc.  Where do you live, man? Are you in the bay area?
Stockton, about an hour from the BA.
From the local rag:
By Ian Hill Record Staff Writer November 21, 2006 6:00 AM
STOCKTON - Rasputin Music, the eclectic Bay Area record chain, has purchased the lease on the Tower Records store at Pacific Avenue and Benjamin Holt Drive.
The possibility that the well-known music operator will open a store there after Tower closes its doors for good by year's end has some residents rejoicing while others sing the blues.
"I grew up in San Francisco, (and) we would always go to Rasputin," said Brian Clark, a 31-year-old Stockton musician. "For me, the more variety of music, the better."
Rasputin has large stores in Berkeley and San Francisco that sell new, used and hard-to-find CDs and LPs. It also has locations in Campbell, Newark, Pleasant Hill, San Lorenzo and Vallejo. Rasputin Vice President Jonathan Fernandez did not return a telephone call seeking comment.
Mat Woods, 25, guitarist for the Stockton rock band Morse, said he would shop at a Stockton Rasputin outlet.
"I'll probably be there a lot," Woods said. "In fact, I'm kind of concerned. I think my paycheck might start disappearing faster."
Other residents, however, worried about how Rasputin's decision to come to Stockton would affect the city's few remaining independent record stores. Longtime Stockton music promoter Middagh Goodwin, 39, and Lodi resident Doug Campbell, 22, shopping at Replay Records, expressed concern about the future of the store, a Stockton music institution for nearly two decades.
"My friends and I come here a lot," Campbell said. He said if Replay closed, Stockton would lose a record store with a hometown feel that shoppers can't find at bigger stores.
"I bought my first CDs here, my first vinyl here," said Replay employee Alex Picasso, 21. "It's been like a second home to me."
Replay owner Willie Hines, 51, expected Rasputin to be the "death blow" for his store, which is in the Hammer Ranch Shopping Center on Pacific Avenue and also sells used CDs and LPs.
"I've been doing this for a good 20 years. That's a good run," Hines said. "I'll do my best until the end, if there is one. I'll fight the good fight."
A federal bankruptcy judge last month approved the $134.3million sale of West Sacramento-based Tower Records to liquidator Great American Group. Two weeks ago, the liquidator auctioned the chain off to several buyers, including Rasputin, according to published reports. A judge still must approve the auction results.
Tower opened its Stockton outlet in 1974, and the store quickly became a staple of the music market. When its closure was announced, customers said they would miss the store's wide selection, which ranges from the cutting-edge punk group The Refused to Bay Area rap pioneer Mac Dre to classical composer Sergei Rachmaninoff.
Tower also sells videos, magazines and CDs by San Joaquin County musicians, and it has served as a Ticketmaster outlet and hosted performances by several artists.
Rasputin's decision to lease the Stockton Tower Records comes as record stores are facing increased challenges from the Internet and big retailers such as Wal-Mart and Best Buy. A study by the Recording Industry Association of America showed the percentage of consumers who bought their music at record stores dropped from 52 percent in 1995 to 32.5 percent in 2004.
Over the same period, the percentage of consumers who bought music at stores such as Best Buy and Wal-Mart grew from 28.2 percent to 53.8 percent.
The percentage of Internet music consumers grew from 0.3 percent in 1997 to 5.9 percent in 2004.
_________________ Old's cool.
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