More music, more movies, more clothes; Rasputin’s reborn in Modesto as Mad Monk
Traditional retail stores are shrinking across the country. But instead of getting smaller, Rasputin’s Music is getting bigger.
The unconventional move comes from an unconventional store which has been renamed, appropriately, to Mad Monk. Rasputin’s Music moved from its Dale Road location to its current much, much larger former Babies R Us space on Sisk Road in August. But it’s only in the last month that the true vision for the upgraded store has come to fruition, bringing together the music and movies of Rasputin’s with the clothes of Anastasia New & Vintage Clothing.
Both stores are owned by Berkeley-based Rasputin founder Ken Sarachan. Rasputin is the largest independent record store in the Bay Area, starting with the Telegraph Avenue site in 1971, and has about half a dozen other locations across mainly Northern California. Sarachan also owns the one current Anastasia store on Telegraph Avenue in Berkeley.
In the past year, Sarachan has consolidated some of his Rasputin’s Music locations, including the Stockton, Fremont and Fairfield sites. He sees the new Mad Monk store in Modesto as a model for his future businesses, consolidating his music/movie stores with his clothing store and his former bookstore to give customers a whole bunch of everything.
“The idea with all the availability of big box stores, because of the alleged retail apocalypse, is to combine all three in one place,” Sarachan said. “We sell used books, clothes, records, CDs, DVDs, games all at once. So it’s three stores in one. Eventually, we’ll be all big stores, not little stores. Little stores just don’t cut it anymore.”
The result of this more is more mentality is the massive, 30,000-square-foot Modesto store that is half racks and racks of new and used clothing and half rows and rows of music and movies. The new name, Mad Monk, is another reference to the the infamous early 20th Century Russian mystic Grigori Rasputin, who is the music store’s namesake.
Thousands of items for sale
It’s hard to overstate how much merchandise Mad Monk has to offer. The used clothing side alone has some 25,000 to 30,000 pieces for sale. They include clothes for all ages from T-shirts to dress shirts, suit jackets to evening dresses, and children’s clothes to big and tall selections. About a third of that entire selection sells for just $4 a piece, including most of the used T-shirts.
The store also has a small collection of new junior clothing and a large selection of new rock-and-roll based T-shirts.
The new Anastasia’s side of the store is about six times larger than the original, other Anastasia site in Berkeley. The new Rasputin’s side is a similar upgrade, more than doubling the space of its previous Sisk Road site, which was about 8,000 square feet.
So that means more movies, more CDs, DVDs, Blu-rays, video games and vinyl records. Heck, there’s even a few old LaserDiscs, VHS and cassettes because, “Why not?” The store also sells used books, and a few new items like record players and other largely music-related accessories.
But Mad Monk isn’t just for curious shoppers, it’s also for serious sellers. The store buys almost all forms and genres of used music (in basically every format except Betamax and 8-track), movies and video games.
Store General Manager Wes Straub said that while they aren’t currently purchasing used and vintage clothing, they should start sometime early in the new year.
If you look closely in the store, you’ll see some remnants of the old Babies R Us below the new merchandise — including an emblem on the floor directing people to children’s car seats. The transformation inside includes playable vintage pinball machines and a stage in the back that will be used for concerts in the not-too-distant future, Straub said.
Going big instead of small
Flipping big box stores like the former Babies R Us into one-stop shops for music/movies/clothing is all part of Sarachan’s master plan. Earlier this year, he also purchased the former Orchard Supply Hardware building on Sisk Road. His ultimate plan is to remodel the space and sell it. But for now, he is using it as storage for his other properties, which will be making the transition to larger combination stores as well, like a planned site in Fresno.
So why start this transformation in Modesto? Location, location, location.
“It’s ground zero everywhere,” Sarachan said. “It’s at the intersection of the (highways) 580 and 99. So you’re going to have stores in Sacramento, Stockton, Modesto and Fresno. And maybe Bakersfield, eventually — along 99. You’re in the middle, closest to the Bay Area.”
Mad Monk, at 3500 Sisk Road in Modesto, is open from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday to Saturday and noon to 7 p.m. Sunday. For more information, call 209-575-3401 or visit www.rasputinmusic.com.
This story was originally published December 19, 2019 at 2:42 PM.
