memes

Beauty salons. Too many of them. Who is even visiting them?

My town has like 20+ different barbershops within a couple blocks from each other. They only do the most basic mens haircuts, rarely have any customers, cheap, and cash-only. The business usually lasts for a little over a year, and then suddenly they get some new signage... and another barbershop is reborn! All using similar stock image logos as well.

I went to one a couple years back and I had to basically buzzcut myself to be presentable again.

Not quite the same but I used to work at a local, family owned supermarket chain that is now out of business. I started at one of the busiest locations, but after I moved apartments I transferred to another location that was out in the 'burbs. At the first location I worked at, all our equipment was well maintained, stock was reasonable, stuff seemed normal.

At the suburban location, our equipment was all falling apart. The roof leaked. The other stores sent us their overstock and charged it to our departments. I was in the deli, and one day the contracted maintenance guy was there and I asked if he could take a look at one of the meat slicers. He said sorry, corporate told him not to do any work at this location that they hadn't pre-approved.

My first hypothesis was that this location didn't make any money, and that's why they didn't want to spend to fix it. One day I decided to ask the store manager about it—he was pretty chill and we talked sometimes, so I figured he wouldn't mind. I said "Does this store actually make any money?" and he said "Well, let me put it this way: the numbers I report to corporate show that every department here, except floral, makes a profit every month. And then the numbers they put out in the quarterly reports show that we've never made a profit since we opened."

"Where does the money go?" I asked.

"That's above my pay grade," he said.

I'm convinced someone was embezzling funds. A couple years after I left, the whole chain closed one day with no notice to the employees.

😎 current U.S. presidential administration 😎

We have a jewelry store in town that is by appointment only. During the day there's always a high end car parked at the back of the store but you never see anyone in there. When my buddy was getting ready to propose he tried calling to get an appointment and it went straight to voicemail with a message that said private clients only and then beeped. He left a message but never heard back. I've never met anyone who has seen anyone go in or come out of that place.

The "Water and Donut Store" where they get mad if you ask for donuts, say it's not the right time of day for donuts (all times of day/night are the wrong time, but there are always three or four stale, lonely donuts in the large glass donut cases) and have a station where you may, for a small fee, fill your water jugs with minimally filtered tap water. 🤨

There is a super famous, incredibly mediocre destination BBQ restaurant in Central Texas that is famous for an all-you-can-eat family-style meal. For decades, they only accepted cash. Way, way longer than made sense. Like into the 2020s I think.

Their main menu item was all-you-can eat (hard to quantify number of sales), only members of the family that ran the place were allowed to count the take and the receipts at the end of each shift, and they only took cash.

I fully believe they were either laundering money or evading taxes by under-reporting. But then they opened a few satellite branches, including one at the airport, and started having to be more careful as they expanded.

you mean the 12 car washes that all sprung up at the same exact time all within 5 miles of each other?

the same ones that have practically zero cars driving through them because they opened at the height of 2020 where nobody was driving anymore?

the same ones that somehow weathered a bust market for carwashes for 3 years?

the same ones that are owned by two guys with the same last name that look suspiciously like retired mafia?

you mean those places?

nah, they're just a couple brothers that were really successful before the pandemic.

oh yea that tiny indian restaurant with no customers and 10 waiters

"La casa de las carcasas". All Spaniards know it.

In my country, it’s the casinos. They naturally receive cash predominantly, and can easily launder millions. Everything else is small potatoes.

I know this great money laundering scheme in town. You take filthy money and they turn it into clean tamales. Abuelita has the slickest game in the county

I knew a guy who drove a taxi for a company in New York back in the 70s and one day he got in a wreck and totaled his cab, and a very large very Italian man came and told him not to worry about it and that everything would be handled and there was no need for paperwork, and that was the end of it.

Used to ship auto parts from a company called 'Specialty Products Company'.

"what'd you guys sell"

"IDK... 'Products?'..."

Still not convinced they aren't a money launderer.

There's a falafel place that closes at around 13:00 every day and doesn't seem to really care all that much if you pay or not. I can't imagine it not being a money laundering scheme.

They make great falafel though!

There's a psychic/tarot reader on the highway near me that's been around as long as I can remember, and I don't think I've ever seen a car parked out front.

Saw this in Reddit, but I'm banned 😃. Anyway, Norfolk VA: the French bakery/deli on Granby St, in Riverview... "Would you like to sample a pastry?" Sure - Hey, that's pretty good. "That'll be $40. Would you like more?" Uhh, no.

I walk practically every day in front of a boba tea shop. Never seen someone go in it, or even clerks behind the counter. The shop is open until 10pm every day.

One pizza place by my old house in the bad part of Minneapolis always had a bunch of cars in the parking lot. One day I decide to try it; I manage to find a parking spot, walk in, and the place is pretty much empty. I order a pizza, take it home, and it's one of the worst pizzas I've ever eaten. That place simply cannot be a legitimate business.