There’s a road near my house that has over ten barber shops on it. The road is about half a mile long. I’m not sure of the percentage, but they can’t all be legit.
Oh you mean the barber district!
Sounds like Plymouth. I think i counted 15 Turkish barbers
Hey weird. Me too. None of them know how to cut hair either. Are we neighbors?
Also a dozen empty hotels that have no vacancy.
We have a scrapbooking store in town that never seems to have business, if it’s not a front it’s a way to keep the family from getting inheritance
Every psychic in NYC
There’s a furniture store that is never open that I go by a lot which I find odd, but I don’t know if it’s shady. We literally do have Mafia in my city 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)
Nice try, detective
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? :(
They’ve got a big banner out front that says “RUG DEALER”.
Dude, that’s just hair club for men.
There’s one that’s a limo service that’s shady af
There’s a rim sale and limo rental place across the street from me that I’m sure is a front. The only people I ever see there are the owners and they always just have a few limos parked in front.
That’s kind of the same place as the one in my home town. Shady as fuck. 😆
Long John Silvers, of course.
They sell “gift baskets” and the website still says “order now to get your basket in time for the 2021 holiday season”.
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.
Which state? Asking for a friend.
Funny story, when they first legalized it in Colorado but before issuing licenses, I was there for a weekend and there was a guy selling “I❤️CO” bumper stickers, but where the heart is a weed leaf, for 50 bucks a piece that come with a complementary eighth. He delivered like a pizza guy.
That happened a lot in NY too, I think we called them sticker shops
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.
There’s a german stoner movie called Lammbock which covers exactly this scenario. Check it out if you can.
I hope i’ll find subtitles :)
Mattress stores that stay open 24/7, pretty sure you send them a mattress full of cash and they deliver you a mattress full of coke
There are mattress places in my town in locations that have to cost a significant sum to rent that are “by appointment only.”
I never see anyone go in or out, and I’ve not known a single person who would schedule an appointment just to buy a forking mattress.
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Chicago has a weirdly high number of mattress chain stores. There’s a stretch near me that has 3 of them in the span of 4 blocks. They’ve all been there for awhile and there’s rarely ever anyone in them. No way these are legit businesses considering how often people buy mattresses.
Mattress stores have a way of popping up next to each other. If you see a mattress store, there’s almost always another one across the street.
We had a restaurant on the corner that was open 20 hours a week. They closed a few years ago. I miss their fries.
There was a chicken restaurant that had a hand painted sign which was poorly done. There were bars on the windows and the windows had ads for cigarettes and prepaid cellphones. It eventually got shut down due to distributing drug paraphernalia.
