memes

At the end of my street growing up was a used car dealership with the same 4 cars scattered out front my entire time through elementary, middle and high school. They didn't even bother airing up the tires...

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.

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.

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.

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.

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. :(

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!

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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

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

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

Mixue. They're suddenly just popping up everywhere, and the price of their ice cream/drinks is dirt cheap to a point where it doesn't even make any sense. I understand that the cost of those ingredients are dirt cheap anyway, but there's no way their margins cover operations, rent, labor.

Used to live in a street with 7 barber shops, in a town known for drugs smuggling. It was safe to walk there at night though surpisingly.