Yep, we have really expensive fashion boutiques on the promenade where I live. Nobody seems to enter and shop there. Ever. There’s usually a shopkeeper, female, who sits there all day, adjusting the clothes.
… and once every three years or so it turns into a solarium or something for a couple of months and then reverts back to a boutique. At least that’s how it works here.
Rome, Italy. rent for a small store is 800/mo where this store is, and an average salary is about 1200/mo. This antique/junk store sells like 2 things a day(with average price being 5€) always takes unfavorable exchanges and generally isn’t great business-wise, yet it’s been here for 15 years, in a district where most - more reasonable - businesses fail within 2 years.
It doesn’t take credits cards, only cash. There’s a flight simulator controller from the 80s that didn’t sell for a decade.
Maybe I’m just paranoid.
Edit: i still love that store, I’m addicted to collecting old junk (self promotion time: I founded a coin collecting community over at lemmy.ml,its called numismatics) and I go to that store every month or so, it helped me to get rid of some old vynil records from my grandfather in exchange for some cash (obv without receipt) but still, I think it either evades taxes (taking that from granted) or it’s something bigger, like a front for a mafia or something else.
Had a similar one as well in a former neighbourhood I used to live. Turns out the guy is one of the biggest online sellers and keeps the shop for some legal reasons/for customers to come and see an object in real life/to keep him entertained while in reality he had tremendous trade volumes online.
The fact is that the store owner is a massive boomer, I need to write him via sms because he doesn’t have WhatsApp (ubiquitous in Italy and all of Europe) and only owns a dumb phone, as an online seller myself, I think a smartphone is a must these days. He doesn’t have a site, he thinks eBay is the devil (and as an ebay seller, that’s true, but for other reasons) so I don’t think he’s an online seller, he’s just not the type
Yeah, in that case he is very likely just living off inheritance or something. I know exactly what you mean, though - initially I thought the guy I described above is “your” type of guy. I know more than enough of these idiots but most now have a smartphone to read telegram channels it seems.
And the guy I mean still is a huge boomer and asshole, nevertheless. Both online and offline reviews are horrible.
BTW: Salutami il mio amore segreto, l’Italia. Ancora poche settimane e finalmente potrò tornare a trovarvi.
Di solito viaggio in Polesine, dove vivono i miei parenti. Ma grazie per l’avvertimento.
Where I live they legalized marijuana, but didn’t issue licenses for legal dispensaries for almost two years. Nearly every corner store and head shop is a front . There’s even a pizza shop near by with weed for sale openly.
Pizza and weed sounds like a good business model, tbh
There’s a german stoner movie called Lammbock which covers exactly this scenario. Check it out if you can.
I have a vacuum repair shop in an old warehouse building a couple blocks from me. It has almost no signage except a neon “open” sign sand a small “vacuum repair” sign on the door. I have never seen anyone walking in there
I need a dust filter for a Hoover Max extract pressure pro model 60. Can you help me with that?
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.
I mean I live in Berlin…
