memes

Candy stores in Copenhagen that never seem to have customers, but are weirdly still around.

There is a trading card shop here - in a village of 2500.

How?

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.

Kansas City…a city full of fantastic BBQ.

There’s the one place with trash BBQ and no customers. I always wondered…

The spy store in Surrey, BC https://maps.app.goo.gl/A6uF2bq66MobKhiX8

That one

In eastern europe it’s like every second shop so you get quickly used to it

There's a restaurant in my town that everyone knows is just a money laundering scheme, but it's been there for like 10 years now so I guess no one can prove it.

There's a pet store on the inside of a tiny mall thats part of a strip mall. Every other business in that part of the mall dies, especially since the dmv relocated. Only thing that has remained consistent for the nearly 30 years I have walked this earth is the pet store and the nail salon. I at least see customers at the nail salon.

JP Morgan Chase, Comerica, Bank of America, etc

There’s a Mexican restaurant which I always wanted to try. Walked in and ordered a carne asada plate- the fucking thing was almost 30 bucks. It took like 20 minutes and was the consistency of reconstituted shoe leather and tasted like a jarred fart.

There is never a soul eating in there and yet it remains open.

SURPRISE MOTHERFUCKER

We have several Community Market arrangements in my town. People who make homemade stuff, like decorations, knitwear, art, crafts, jam, soap etc can book a stand for a day or several. It's extremely exhausting to sit on a shitty chair for 8 hours straight in a crowded place, and especially in the Christmas market when you are half outside and temperatures are close to freezing, so most people book two days in a row at most.

This one group of people just books end-to-end for the entire market duration. Like, weeks. They show up, fill their stand with TEMU crap, and take turns to sit at the stand and consistently sell nothing to nobody.

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.

There is a rug store here that has been "going out of business" for decades. Since before they moved to their current location in a massive new building.

Mattress Firm Money Laundering conspiracy theory

There's a donut shop near me that's only open from 1am to 10am. If that's not suspicious then I don't know what is.

There's multiple tiny Mexican restaurants in my town that I 100% know are run by the cartel. Like,I know the manager didn't buy a $100k dodge Durango hellcat selling burritos and tacos in a farm town.

I don't fucking care though, the tacos are good.

Why would a town with less than 15000 inhabitants need 3 laundromats, 3 hand carwashes and 2 mattress stores? The 4 nightshops are also shady.

I feel this way about mattress stores. Can't prove it either.

We were excited to learn of a new restaurant opening, an all-day breakfast and lunch place, like an upscale Denny's with a liquor license.

Hmm. That sounds more ghetto than summer lazy patio time with friends should.

Anyway, they finished setting up 4 years ago. At most I see 2 cars in the lot on the way past and no one seems to ever be inside.

Either they're laundering serious cash or they're somehow bankrupting a restaurant in an area that needs an option other than pizza and subway.

Rug stores. There’s around twelve of them along a couple miles of road. How many rug stores could one city possibly need?

The Dixie Drive In.

'Smartphone repair shop' near where I live. Has always light on (24/7 confirmed), but nobody inside. At times an ad flag (those 2mt tall with the shop name on it) comes out and is near the entrance.

One time I managed to catch a guy behind the counter and entered for asking if they had some spare parts (I think it was a battery) and he looked fucking disgusted just because I dared to enter. Useless to say, they did not have any spare parts.

As of today (4 or 5 months), not a single client entered.

Also, that shop that sells completely random stuff (chandeliers, dolls, weird statues, horrible carpets and so much more junk), never seen it open but have been there for like at least 30 years.