They sell “gift baskets” and the website still says “order now to get your basket in time for the 2021 holiday season”.
They’ve got a big banner out front that says “RUG DEALER”.
Dude, that’s just hair club for men.
I used to live round the corner from a strange little place that sold cassette tapes (what we used for music and sometimes even data before CDs, for those too young to know). Everyone was convinced it was a front but it turned out it was a world famous tape supplier. Just happened to be based in my quiet little back street.
The newsagents next door to my last place have to have been a front though. Shelves were half bare, only ever stocked with stuff that doesn’t go off. Always two or three guys hanging out in the back room, looking slightly surprised if you wanted to buy something. Cash only, no cards (not that unusual round here but they usually have a minimum purchase rather than just no card machine at all these days).
They were absolute sweethearts. Took loads of deliveries for us, always really nice about it. And that’s more evidence that it’s a front. Proper criminals are the best neighbours anyone could ask for because the last thing they want is complaints bringing the police to their door.
I used to get my hair cut buy these two dudes that owned a little barber shop and every once in a while some shady looking guy would come in and they’d stop mid haircut and go into the back for however long they were gone for. Eventually, the random dude would leave and I’d get my haircut finished. I was working as a cook so I’d show up on line a Tuesday at 11am. Place would be dead otherwise. I grew up around there and I’d been going for a long time so they weren’t worried about me.
One thing that was crazy about this place is the only magazines were like guns and ammo type magazines. In Canada. Highly unusual. This was back when a barber shop was still likely to have a few “gentlemen’s magazines” lying around. Not them, just guns. :)
Super sus, but you make it sound like such a cool place. What happened to it? Vice squad raid? :(
Where I live they legalized marijuana, but didn’t issue licenses for legal dispensaries for almost two years. Nearly every corner store and head shop is a front . There’s even a pizza shop near by with weed for sale openly.
Pizza and weed sounds like a good business model, tbh
To be fair, when I slung pies in a college town back when, one of the night guys was a local shroom dealer and would take orders for “custom” pizzas. We didn’t do delivery, so little bundles of fun went out the window inside the pizza boxes (tucked in with the parm & chili flake packets) on the regular.
Town of 20k people, we had a wool shop… just sold wool only. Always thought it was a front, years later found out they won the lotto(2mil) blew it all keeping the wool shop open almost 10 years with zero customers lol
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I knew a guy in my town who worked a shitty job at the Oasis factory making the green foam that florists stick flowers into, just so he could keep a tiny book store he owned open. As an adult, I now wonder if he also sold weed on the side.
Aww, that’s touching. I hope his store made him so happy that he didn’t care about his foam drudgery
Tax write off, get thee behind me, capital gains tax!
There is a wool shop that never has any customers, in the center of town, so not cheap real estate, and I saw someone go in there after looking in the windows, and got yelled at to get out.
It’s in Switzerland, so shady financial stuff isn’t exactly rare.
Which canton of Switzerland?
Basel Stadt.
Rome, Italy. rent for a small store is 800/mo where this store is, and an average salary is about 1200/mo. This antique/junk store sells like 2 things a day(with average price being 5€) always takes unfavorable exchanges and generally isn’t great business-wise, yet it’s been here for 15 years, in a district where most - more reasonable - businesses fail within 2 years.
It doesn’t take credits cards, only cash. There’s a flight simulator controller from the 80s that didn’t sell for a decade.
Maybe I’m just paranoid.
Edit: i still love that store, I’m addicted to collecting old junk (self promotion time: I founded a coin collecting community over at lemmy.ml,its called numismatics) and I go to that store every month or so, it helped me to get rid of some old vynil records from my grandfather in exchange for some cash (obv without receipt) but still, I think it either evades taxes (taking that from granted) or it’s something bigger, like a front for a mafia or something else.
There is a pizza place. We once went in to order food. There was no food, no menu, no drinks. We stood there and asked for a menu. They looked at us like we were nuts. We turned around and left.
To be fair, after COVID some of the diners started to only do delivery. So maybe it was that (most likely not, though)
Tiny takeaway with a rich owner, hires on the spot, cash in hand payments, no contracts and most regular deliveries are to houses that stink of weed. Pretty sure that one would be a front (but it’s a front that does good food)
Any business with cheap products and little traffic. I live in a high rise with a view on a street with many little shops.
In my street there’s a shop for wedding dresses 2-3k $ a pop. I understand it’s not high traffic so whenever there is a car parked in front, usually for a couple of hours, it’s probably a customer.
Then there is some convenience stores. All have heavy traffic, from the corporate one to the local mom&pops shop.
Then there is this small sushi joint. Open for 3 hours everyday. I’ve never seen any customers sitting inside or walk in. Can’t find them on our local food delivery. Twice a week there’s the same blue Mercedes parked in front.
Not difficult to spot which business is sus.
Sad thing is, the police pops into that sushi joint the same day that blue Mercedes was parked in front.
Maybe alert federal authorities?
More corrupt than the US, unfortunately.
There’s a cafe near me that’s open 24/7. I’ve been in there a couple of times and the coffee is horrible, the last time I visited the guy behind the counter didn’t know how to turn on the espresso machine and had to call his boss.
But I’m 100% certain all those people turning up at 1am are just getting a caffeine hit before heading to the clubs
I have 2 places like that near me. Both aren’t 24/7 but no one knows anything about how the stores are run. One is a cafe and the other is a gelato shop.
You would think the gelato shop would be busy during the summer but there are always 3-4 guys chain smoking in front of the shop. It is so bad they had to put a walled off section in front of the shop to keep the smoke from going to the neighboring stores. So pretty sure it is a front for something
There’s a “cash converters” style store in my town (like a pawn shop, but they don’t do loans or deal in jewelry). Once, years ago I saw a game controller (Logitech wheel) that I was after in the window . I tried to buy it, and was told it was “reserved” It’s still there, along with everything else. They don’t seem to have any stock turnover at all, and they’re still open.
After talking with coworkers, it’s generally assumed to be a money laundering front.
Art galleries.
A front for tax evasion?
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Think of the art pieces as placeholders. It tells the system that you spent a million on art, instead of telling the system that you spent a million on illegal things.
There was (maybe still is) a cake shop in Southgate, North London. About a minute from my old flat.
The cakes in the window display rarely changed, if ever.
The guy running it looked like if you imagine the toughest prisoner at a prison, only wearing an apron.
About 50/50 whether the glass would be smashed whenever you walked past.
It was often “open” and had people coming in and out of it at 2-3am when I came back from nights out.
And there was a drive-by shooting right in that area while I lived there, that I always assumed was related. 😅
I live in Italy, pick one at random, that’s it
