Rasputin Music to close Haight Street record store

Rasputin Music to close Haight Street record storePhoto: Tomas M./Yelp
Camden Avery
Published on November 08, 2019

Seven years after first opening for business in the Upper Haight, Rasputin Music is ceasing operations in the neighborhood. Staff were told that they would be losing their jobs today, and that the store's final day in business will be this Sunday, November 10.

The move comes three years after the record-store chain shuttered its Powell Street store, meaning it will no longer have a presence in San Francisco. Rasputin continues to operate stores in Berkeley, Campbell, Fresno, Modesto, and Pleasant Hill.

The news is a rough blow for the Upper Haight's commercial corridor, which has lost a number of anchor businesses under the joint pressures of sky-high rents and years-long construction on an infrastructure project that's driving double-digit sales hits to many businesses.

Rasputin's situation is unusual because it owns its 4,300-square-foot building outright — though it's long been listed as "for lease" after a deal with a dispensary aiming to obtain the Haight's only recreational cannabis license fell through. The closure could indicate that the building as been sold.