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Business & Tech

Business Spotlight: Bananas At Large

From beginners to old pros, it's the place to go for musicians.

Operating in San Rafael since 1974, Bananas At Large sells and rents instruments, accepts consignments and offers lessons. We talk with owner Alan Rosen about the soul of music stores, a $12,000 guitar and why Metallica's James Hetfield is a hell of a nice guy.

What's hot?

Right now guitars. It fluctuates.

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Why?

Music trends. For a while it was hip to do the DJ thing. If you listen to current music you'll hear a lot of guitar. It's not good or bad - the minute you start to judge music you've missed the point.

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What do you look for in a guitar?

The top wood.  The better quality, the better it sounds. Also the feel of it. How does it feel when it sits on your lap or when you roll your hand around the neck. Right now you're seeing a lot of cool instruments at reasonable prices. Like Yamaha has a whole line of acoustic handmade guitars from $169.

What's the priciest piece of equipment you're selling?

A $12,000 Zemaitis guitar. It's a handmade guitar, all 5A grade mahogany wood with premiere ebony.  It's hand-engraved in all the metals and has handlaid mother of pearl and abalone on the top.

How does it sound?

 Incredible.

 Remember in the movie Wayne's World, how they joke about everyone playing "Stairway to Heaven" at the music store so they put up a sign asking them to please stop? What's the song people play the most when they come in and want to try out a guitar.

 "Enter Sandman" by Metallica. It's that one rift in the beginning. There's a great story around that.

Tell it to me.

There's a kid named Bobby. He's a nice young man who's probably 13 or 14 who loves to hang out here. His mom literally drops him off here. It's like day care.  One day James Hetfield (the guitarist from Metallica) was here and Bobby was struggling with that riff. He just couldn't get it. And James walks over and does a big bear hug from behind him so he can position his fingers. He says: "Here, this is how it's done kid." Then he sees Bobby's cell phone and says. "This would be a good time to get a picture." So, he gets the picture and it's… it's amazing. The look on Bobby's face.  In one small move, James gave him the inspiration and did for Bobby what somebody probably did for him when he was a kid.

Wow. Great story. Do a lot of celebrity musicians hang out at your store?

Yes, but we don't yap about them. That's what makes it a comfortable place to come in and hang out. And that's why they're able to shop here without bodyguards and security. We don't use them for publicity.  You won't find big posters with rock stars on them either.

 Why not?

It can be intimidating. It actually turns people off. The music stores for a long time had a reputation of being a boys' club. If you weren't cool or hip enough, you were looked down on. It was snotty. It made music stores a mystery to a lot of people.

What's your biggest challenge?

Non-music related discretionary spending. Our challenge is the iPad and the Playstation. Things that are not musical that take up time and money It's amazing how many parents will  balk at a $99 guitar, but not even blink over a $300 Playstation. Our challenge is not competition from other music stores. The more independent stores out there the better. People remember music and get inspired.

 You and your wife Meredith purchased the store in 2007. What was your vision?

A community music store that's a place to hang out, play music, share ideas, learn… just enjoy music and be inspired. That's long since lost and we're trying to bring it back. That's how we want to run this business.

So you serve the pros and beginning musicians. How do you handle that range?

We have a rule which is you can't say 'no.' Somehow, someway there is a way to say 'yes.' If we don't have it – we can find it. If we have to loan something until we find it, we can do that too.  

How are you making it through the recession?

We redefined what success was for us and set three goals: To not lay off employees, to pay all our vendors by the end of the year and to continue community action. And we accomplished all three. We massaged hours and adjusted schedules, and actually did more donations this year to places like Little Kids Rock and Young Performers International.

 You just opened a new store in Santa Rosa at the beginning of this month. Why?

 Well, we looked at the current recession and were searching for ways to improve. One of the opportunities was looking at a new location in an underserviced area. We have about 20,000 square feet in San Rafael. Santa Rosa is about 5,000 square feet.

What was your revenue last year?

In the several millions, but of that there's not much profit.  We've seen a 5 percent drop since the hay days. In a business like ours where the margins are very thin that's quite a bit though.  It's one of the last businesses where people think it's a haggling business.                                                            

What makes the margins so thin?

Manufacturers run on thin margins, also mail order and Internet sales cut in. Out of state sales hurt us too, because people don't want to pay California sales tax.  They think they're saving the 9.5 percent, but they're thinking short term. It hurts all of us when they throw their money out of the state.

 How do you like doing business in San Rafael?

Are you kidding me? It's San Rafael. The community itself is beautiful, the weather is wonderful, the people are incredible. There's a great diversity and I love the restaurants. I feel like I'm home here.

Bananas At Large

1504 Fourth St. 

457-7600

 

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