Once lived in a small town with not one, but TWO Hollywood Videos. In like the late 20-teens. Just napkin math numbers, you’d need every household in the town to rent a video twice a week to support both of those just maintaining their leases… Over a decade into the age of streaming dominance.
There was no way they weren’t doing something shady on the side.
Sometimes it’s just a passion project by crazy people. My town has a shack on a busy non-walkable intersection without even parking spaces that sells only angel figurines. Let me be clear, this isn’t general angel knickknacks, this isn’t specific saints, it’s angel figurines ONLY. You will find no bless this house signs. No Christmas tree toppers or ornaments. Not a single holiday decoration, religious or otherwise. You won’t even find Jesus on the cross.
Angel. Figurines. Only. I always assumed it was a front for something until my mom helped with some taxes for them. No, it’s just one crazy couple who are obsessed with the sanctity of the angel figurine. They feel very strongly about it and asking if they do garden angels now that spring’s coming up and you’d love to patronage them is apparently offensive enough for them to take their taxes elsewhere lol.
Years ago, I was in the mall in Dearborn, MI. It has most of the stuff you’d find in any other American shopping mall. There’s the Gap, American Eagle, and Spencer’s Gifts. It’s mostly full of teenagers doing things that teenagers do in a mall.
Then there’s a random antique shop full of Edwardian furniture. I didn’t see anyone in there besides a sales guy or two, and it seemed completely out of place. Dearborn is also fairly close to the Canadian border. I swear it’s gotta be a money laundering front.
In Switzerland it’s either “Barber Shops” or “Döner Shops” their card reading terminals are for some reason always broken and you have to pay cash!
Their card terminal is broken because they can then lie on the taxes on how much they made. They can’t do that with a card transaction.
It’s one of the three mattress stores within 2 blocks of each other, but I’m not sure which one.
Hint: it’s all of them.
Not quite money laundering, but for a time thwre was shapp called the ‘Happy Herb Shop’. In the centre of town. Maijuana is still lillegal in AUS
Was too young to get in when it was open, and closed down when I was old enough to go in. :(
Growing up west of Orlando, there was this store in the mall that sold like glass figures and porcelain stuff. Never once did I ever see a customer in there. Multiple stores came and went but that one, there since the mall’s opening, remained. When I worked for EB Games at the same mall, we’d always pass it when we dropped off our money and my manager would say it was a front. Everyone I knew called it the Crack Store.
There was a dog grooming salon in Nottingham with curtains over the windows. Other than the woman who ran the place, no one (or dog) ever went in or came out that we saw.
As a kid there was a pizzeria everyone at school said was a money laundering operation, no one knew of anyone who bought pizza there and it was always open… thinking about it now, the town had about 10 000 people living in it, and there was 6 pizzerias and that particular one was in a very odd place and no signage and i have never seen a menu form them anywhere
The country town my sister lives in had their post office shut down because they were using it as a distribution warehouse for their meth business and most probably money laundering but 100% was running a meth empire from the local post office.
Those fucking candy shops in London. You know the ones. Also, I used to manage a car wash/detail shop in Florida, and Breaking Bad nailed it.
American Candy shops in Denmark too. It’s hilarious. I still go to them when I visit my bestie though haha. Love those mixed bags.
If you used to manage, weren’t you directly involved in the layering of dirty money?
Please do an AMA!
His name is Bogdan
oh yea that tiny indian restaurant with no customers and 10 waiters
Beauty salons. Too many of them. Who is even visiting them?
I suppose the smell of acetone would probably put off police dogs, they’re probably drug related enterprises
This is true in my home town. I know one that dealt heroin a few years ago. I think they used the nail salon to launder.
I found a money laundering deli
It’s amazing, they love having customers as it improves their cover so everything is dirt cheap and really high quality.
Sometimes people come in and the guy behind the register politely shuffles us out with an armful of free cold cuts and a wink
None of you will ever hear about this place from my lips
You think anyone does crime to support their dream of being a shop keeper with good deals?
We need to cook JackbyDev
“La casa de las carcasas”. All Spaniards know it.
At some point in my city there were two shops open in the same street, 100m from each other. Now there’s just one open, but it’s insane seeing six employees inside with such a low volume of customers.
They expanded, they also have shops in Italy now. In big shopping malls, where the rents are insane.
There’s no way they can afford the rents just by selling stupid phone covers.
