There used to be a coffee shop in my town. Every day they had a two-part secret phrase that would let you get drugs, but it sounded like an order. I think I activated it one time. “Can I please get a double-double with whip cream?” “Sure. How’s your dog Mittens?” “I have no dog?!” Later, the coffee shop shut down because they got caught drug trafficking. They would double cup the coffee orders that had the drugs, and put the drugs in between the paper cups.
That’s a fun way to do it.
This was an entire episode of Castle (the guy from Firefly) except it was a Pizza shop.
I’ve never seen Castle, but I was pretty sure you were referring to Nathan “the guy from Firefly” Fillion. Ouch.
Captain Hammer?
Gunnery Sergeant Edward Buck
The uh… The rookie…
I remember reading a story about something like that at KFC. And the code phrase was you wanted an extra biscut or something.
Every mattress store you’ve ever seen is likely a front for some shady shit.
You think the money is under the mattress?
Came to say this
My town has a population of about 2,000 people. There are five dedicated car washes within a 10-mile radius of my house, with two more under construction.
I honestly do not understand car washes and how they are supposed to turn a profit.
With drug money, duh.
Haven’t you seen Breaking Bad?
The drug trade is a trillion dollar industry. Got to wash them somewhere. Where better than at a washer?
Yup. Really easy to stuff some cash in the till and declare it as income with a car wash. Actually clean 100 cars a day? Buy enough cleaning supplies for 130 cars. Report on your records that you sold 130 washes. Dump the excess chemicals down the drain or just use them abundantly during washes. Sure, if you claim to wash a thousand cars when you only washed 100, then that could get you caught quickly. But if you’re not greedy, you could keep such a setup going for a very long time.
Biggest cost is the startup and then employees, with an occasional big maintenance repair. Buying cleaning products in bulk? The cost will make you feel cheated for what you pay for a quart to a gallon.
I get that, i used to service a small-ish car wash, and the amout of times something broke or didn’t work or the cost of osmosis filters alone was staggering to me. Always thinking about how many people would have to wash a car to just get that money back.
Used to be a Pizza place in my home town that had $1 large pizza on Wednesday no limit, they were the worst pizza in town, but they were packed every week. It went on for years then they got shut down turns out they were using the increase in foot traffic to cover people coming in to buy drugs.
It’s way more than one shop. Meh, shop there anyway if you like anything they sell. Chances are your government is blowing ridiculous money on bullshit anyway. Pay cash too when you can. And do everything you can to resist digital spending tracking.
Only one? All vape shops are money laundering fronts, until proven otherwise.
One of our customers operates out of two leased “office” trailers next to an old pole barn in the middle of a corn field.
From there, they “operate” 17 different companies, all demanding separate billing from us.
There’s no WAY it’s legit. They have more “official” registered companies than they have office employees.
Edited because mobile sucks
Could it be a landlord situation? It’s pretty cheap to open an LLC. Sometimes landlords will open many of them, an LLC for every rental property they own. It protects them from liability. If something goes really wrong and a tenant sues them for big $$$, the most they risk losing is the single rental house the tenant is renting.
Ironically that’s one of the things they don’t claim to be involved in.
To list some of the things they claim to do
Construction
Hydro excavating
“Tribal Economic Development”
Native American health insurance
“Health” supplements (think: “vitality” pills)
Renewable Energy projects
Manufacturing
Finance
Industrial development (though never actually heard of a won bid)
(all of these entities are “owned” by a Native American- which I’ve alwas suspected is for tax benefit purposes)eh. you know what? let em.
The feds (and white men) have fucked them around for 400 years. Let 'em grift everything they can.
Won’t somebody please think of the landlords?
Nah they make good steak and shrimp and they don’t bother me so Ima leave them alone. There are much bigger criminals to worry about in this country than shady local businesses.
There are three recently opened smoke and vape shops in my village that are 100% money laundering schemes, they all sell American sweets as well for some reason
My town had an extremely generically named “spa” that I passed by all the time and joked that it must be a drug ring and I found out that no actually they were a human trafficking ring and they got shut down by the police.
Sad ending.
Just one? Knowing how expensive commercial rent is in this area, I’m pretty sure quite a few of the stores around here are fronts. No way this town supports 12 different nail salons. There’s a taco shop and a greek place in the same shopping center that both taste terrible and are always completely empty. How does a vacuum and sewing repair shop stay in business in this day and age?
Lots of people are having their stuff repaired instead of disposing and buying new. Those tailors custom fit your clothes, do embroidery and patching, in addition to repairs. Shoe repair shops will restore leather, resole boots, and give them all a good shine. I’ve never had a vacuum repaired, but they’re pricey enough that I’d definitely try repair before buying a new one. Check out your local repair shops. They probably do good work, because they get a lot more practice than you might think.
How does a vacuum and sewing repair shop stay in business in this day and age?
Commercial repairs, probably.
When i see rent in some places i always have to do some math to figure out how much money they have to make to pay rent and one or two salaries. And i often don’t get it. There is an old town that is kinda nice, but not that much foot traffic, and rent is insane because it’s in the middle of an old town. Many stores and restaurants open and then close again, because they go under. But there is a computer store that is open as long as i can remember. And not like a cool hacker, i’ll sell you an rtx 5090 shop, a shop that still has a y2k sticker on the window and they still sell you McAfee for your pc. Absolutely bizzare
In 1991 two small businesses were busted for being fronts for illegal gambling parlors. 30 Cleveland cops were part of the bust. I lived next to both of them at one time. One was a t-shirt printing shop, I forget what the other was. A year later I moved into a neighborhood that had a pizza shop with a very nice sign, no windows and never seemed to be open. It was not uncommon to see a patrol car parked in front
I grew up near a place called the “McGuffin Lumber Company.” It was just a tiny storefront business, and I never saw anyone go in. And, of course, “MacGuffin” is a Hollywood term for an arbitrary thing that motivates the plot of a movie, like the Maltese Falcon in that film. So it was a running gag in my family that it must be a front.
Bakery across from prisoners rights office I used to volunteer at. Went to get a loaf to make a sandwich once. Open shelving all around, mostly bare except for a few dusty loaves. Ask this big, very white man with a head like a four-slice toaster, for said loaf and he goes in the back and comes out with a bag of Wonderbread rofl.
i work at a bank, and there’s a restaurant owner who brings in so much cash, despite his place having terrible food. then again, old people may just like it
