In my computer tech wanderings I have done a lot of work at small strip mall churches. I have seen several that folks were obviously living in the place even though that would be a huge zoning violation. I have on several occasions pondered the idea that if I had a larger business occupancy with the space, I would set myself a little apartment there.
We’ve had a couple of threads on businesses that were suspected of being fronts. The ones I contributed;
- “Cheese”. A small building just off Penn Ave and 37th or 38th in North Minneapolis. Always lots of guys hanging out, no actual business when I lived in the neighborhood in the late 90’s, early naughts.
- Pizza shop down in SE Minneapolis when I lived in that neighborhood with the ex-wife in the early naughts. Always a handful of gangbangers in it. No neighborhood fliers or advertisements ever. I don’t recall it even having a listing anywhere. Never saw a single pizza walk out of that place, or anyone but members of that gang going in or out.
- Garage at Lowry and I think it was Fremont. Building where they worked on cars and a lot surrounded by a chain link fence that was always packed with cars. I needed some work done once in the mid 90’s and pulled in for an estimate. A guy walked out looking pretty pissed off and asked me what the fuck I wanted in a manner that made it clear I needed to leave now.
Now if you want a real front, it has to be Radio Shack. NO ONE knows how the hell they have EVER made enough money to pay rent on those stores, let alone anything else.
Nowadays…residuals on cell phones.
A few I found:
I’ve often wondered that myself.
Some hypotheses:
Good info on criminal ones. What about espionage fronts.
Finding actual numbers on this is going to be pretty much impossible, sadly.
There is a supermarket chain which for a very long time was viewed as a thin front for ETA. The founders were all card-carrying members of the Basque-Independentist worker’s union, all of them people who had made themselves unemployable because of their nasty attitudes. For about two decades, their store in my home town was the scariest dump in the area.
Then at one point, someone realized that hey, maybe if they started, you know, actually running it as a business it might start making better money? You know: look at the customers rather than glaring at them, sweep the floors, get rid of all that spidersilk on the ceiling?
After some attempts which got foiled by a problem that’s common in co-ops (“why do I have to obey him? I’m an owner too!”), and which got exacerbated by the, ahem, sweet personality that at that point was still a hiring requirement, they hired their first non-owner workers: the executive team.
In the last two decades they’ve gone from a small chain of dumps to one of the biggest supermarket chains in the country, and where it used to be a place where everybody had a police file as thick as my arm, now the immense majority of the workers are just, you know, supermarket workers.
We joke that their front’s success led to ETA becoming bourgeoise, and thus to its demise (hopefully, permanent this time? yes? for real?). Fuck police solutions, what was needed was an accounting team and a marketing manager!
Nugan Hand Bank in Australia ?
Could have been in existence to fund anti-communist activity ?
In college I had a job working at porno theater. Yeah, I’m old. That place had to be a front for something. It was literally around the corner from the county courthouse, jail and other offices. It had seating for a couple thousand people but we never had more a couple dozen people at any give time.
Legend has it that Chicago mobster Dion O’Bannion operated a florist shop as a front, but eventually developed a real affinity for the business at the expense of his mob activities.
Years ago I worked in the kitchen of a resort that operated with no financial controls at all. I ordered anything that took my fancy from food suppliers; there were several young women on the payroll who showed up only to clock in, and then went shopping. I still have no idea what the deal was, but some clues made me assume it was drug-related. Fun job, while it lasted.