Asklemmy

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.

I used to live in a town with no less than three scuba shops.

It was not on the water.

Local roofer is a front for his coke buisness.

The roofing contractor with the lowest score in my town is known for doing a bad job. It's also known that he is the largest coke dealer in the city.

There are a ton of gambling places where you never see anyone walking in. It's a public secret these are money laundering operations from some well connected crime syndicate.

I have a shop near where I live in the middle of a suburb that only sells fans (the wind blowing kind) and they are a DHL pickup point, everytime I am there there is nobody there. The fans are stacked in boxes up to the ceiling and the quantity of them never changes, been that way for over a year now.

There is also always a shady ass person behind the counter, and often a few shady persons in the "back" of the store.

Since they only sell fans they should've called their store OnlyFans come to think about it .

For decades there was a funeral parlor down the street from my house. Right in the middle of a busy residential neighborhood in the city. There's only on-street parking and they had two spots in front of their building reserved for funerals. Only no one ever parked there. No cars, limos, hearses, anything. A neon open sign turned on every day over their door but no one ever came or went.

My parents had a tenant who was an elderly gentleman with few relatives. When he died, my mom called the parlor to arrange the funeral but no one answered. She left a message on their machine but no one ever called back. We weren't fully surprised because we'd been calling it a front for years, but mom was unconvinced until then.

The building got fully renovated a few years ago and we actually saw a funeral taking place, so they've upped their game.

Cellphone cases stores

When I lived in Daytona a shop opened up that sold nothing but Super-Whippers - $1 plastic whisks. They had two display trees in the front windows, one with black whisks and one with white whisks. They were never open and there was a hand-written sign on the door that said "Closed. If you want a Super-Whipper, they have some at the nail salon next door." The store was in a strip mall less than 200 ft. from three dollar stores and a Publix, all of which sold plastic whisks.

Pretty sure it was a front lol.

In Barcelona there are a lot of many small cafes, bars, restaurants (located generally in zones where the terrain is very expensive) that got purchased by Chinese families.

Generally these were frequented for coffee, drink + tapas, lunch meal. But after the ownership change they end up frequented mainly for the same stuff but not for the food because it's generally not good.

To me these are front for something else. They always become much worse. Never better. Like there is no intention of improving it. But they still do it smartly because they keep some customers just for the beer and coffee after work.

Here in Brazil, I guess the Subway franchise. Almost no one inside the shops for years and lack of real promotional campaigns give the sensation that it is a big money washing scheme.

Every single Mattress Firm

Slightly related: I just assume any business that operates on a cash-only basis is commiting tax fraud.

In the city I grew up in, there’s a Chinese restaurant near my home that never gets packed, not even on busy weekends. I’ve also never seen more than 2 customers at a time eating there. And yet, it’s outlasted every single restaurant in the vicinity for 3 decades. That, and there’s always an expensive car or two parked in front.

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)

There is this wig shop in a very popular and pricey area in my town. It's been there since my mom was a child.

The wigs exposed are old fashioned, ugly, never change and we've never seen the shop open. Its super weird. I'm convinced it has to be a cover for something.

Shady as shit no-tell motel, overpriced as hell for where it's located. Pulls in maybe 5 guests a week, but the owners flashing about in a shiny new car.

There's this building near my old place. It's old, it's somewhat tall, with a great big hall inside, looks like. LOTS of religious paraphernalia and icons about. It's a little creepy.

No one ever comes or goes during the week; only on weekends. And then it's a steady stream. I don't know how they can afford the space they're taking up, but they seem to. I worried it could be a front for gambling or child-trafficking, but they call themselves a church. Definitely seems sus. It's been on Reddit, actually, a few times.

Just kidding, it's the famous Knox Presbyterian with the sayings everyone sends everyone.

There are several! It's kind of a problem in my city but none of the civilians care because somehow they have the best food

A handful of restaurants which definitely can't afford the amount of people working there and the interior. They always operate the same way: the food doesn't taste good, expensive interior and (many) more personnel than customers.

Unless they all have a philanthropist millionaire as a sponsor, I suspect they launder money. Apparently this is quite common in Germany because hard cash is still common here. Even large sums of money.

The old pizza place used to be owned by a big drug dealer and you could rig up, order a special topping o. The top and you could get weed over the counter.

Then my local chicken fast food restaurant did the same but you got to go through the drive Thu.

They had to close it down and deep clean because they were selling everything lol.

I live in Italy, pick one at random, that's it

So I was about to write about a very weird hat shop on the ground floor of an exclusive apartment building in the most hip neighbourhood in my city. They have like 15 hats on display, no customers ever, three bored workers scrolling through their phones all day. But I went to their website, which they do have and it seems most of their business is actually distributing Stetson products and other premium leather goods in this part of Europe, so I guess they can very well afford having one brick-and-mortar display store.

In the town I live in one of the worst kept secrets is a small hundred year old mixed use 2 or 3 story building. The Laundromat at the bottom with a handful of old washing machines and dryers is always locked and never actually open. Former tenants have publicly stated it's purely a front because the landlord doesn't want to bother with a commercial tenant but because of the zoning it needs a commercial space on the ground level so they maintain a fake laundromat

Mattress Firm

Not sure if this counts since most of them have recently closed down, but for a while there was a large number of American candy stores popping up all over town. Many cash only, same products and same branding across many different stores. Hardly anyone was ever shopping there, and yet they could somehow always afford to pay rent for prime locations. Eventually, several journalists picked up on the topic and found evidence many of them were fronts for money laundering and were tied to organised crime. Not sure if it was directly connected to that increased awareness, but shortly after more of these articles were published, most of the local stores closed.

There's an arcade in the center of town beneath an expensive (yet shitty) apartment complex. The arcade windows are covered but there is a sign that says "Opening Soon". It's been two years and nothing has changed externally. At first I was giving them the benefit of the doubt, but the property is expensive to rent and after 2 year I have my doubts.

What I don't understand though is if you were using the place as a front, wouldn't an arcade be a great place to launder money while your at it?

Used to go to a night club that must have been up to something. The prices, both membership and drinks were so low it is either fake booze or another income. The drinks seemed fine.

There's a neighborhood restaurant near me that is unreasonably bad. You cant tell the staff apart from people who are just hanging around - and you do need to figure it out cause no one is coming to take your order. They're dirty, disinterested and rude. Food is typically some piece of meat and fries which is served swimming in sauce, and often it's way overdone or cold / raw. You just get the feeling overall that they're truly not interested in getting customers.

There's an ice-cream shop in my town that I 100% know is a front because the partner of its owner got done for drugs dealing, sex trafficking, and possession of illegal firearms a couple of years after it opened.

My barber used to have basicallyno customers, his family members as the employees (shite) and one day went ahead and got cctv cameras installed and had a backroom that was well protected. Later the shop and the people mysteriously disappeared suddenly.

Long John Silvers, of course.

Matress stores.

Never see anyone in them, never see anyone in the parking lot, and every time i've ever gone in there was one person working there who acted surprised as hell someone came in.

and yet they are always expanding and building more locations

This tiny hidden pizzaria place that is always closed for private meetings. Called Pizzaria Mafiosi. Hidding in plain sight.

Burrito place near me. They cost $3 for a regular and then $5 for a specialty. No way they're surviving on that much money renting in a strip mall. I only ever see 1 or 2 other people in there at most even during lunch or dinner