So I was reading this topic over the last day or so. It had some really interesting stories in it. It’s at least 6 years old now, though.
I was wondering if there were any new stories or businesses that people suspect these days…or maybe even updates from posters who posted in that old topic even?
Either way, it makes for interesting reading and story-telling.
Are there any shady businesses in your area or that you know about that you suspect may be really doing other things?
There’s a Chinese place near where I work. I went there once for lunch - nobody else there on a Wednesday at 12:15. First red flag. I almost left when someone poked their head out of the back and yelled “what you want!?” Second red flag. I ordered the beef and broccoli, and the cook came out to make it on the spot - I was hoping fresh made would overcome the first two red flags.
Fresh wasn’t in their vocabulary. The beef was rancid and the broccoli was wilted. I threw 75% of it away (I think I ate the rice and some broccoli that was less wilted) and went next door for a sub.
Other coworkers have reported similar quality of food and lack of customers.
Now, while I was there, they did a brisk delivery service, but come to think of it, I couldn’t smell any of the food being delivered as they walked past me, plus they weren’t cooking any of it… the boxes just came from the back, not the kitchen.
So, mob front / drug delivery service.
Maybe it’s a thing about Chinese restaurants.
There’s one we pass by almost every day. We’ve never stopped in to try it, but no matter what time of the day or night, there are never any customers.
There is a big plate glass window in front where you can see the dining room very well, but it is always, without exception, empty.
There’s a strip mall near a friend’s house, on a busy corner. Sandwiched in between a nightclub and a tanning salon is a “Spa”. I’m sure it’s not at all suspicious that, in the window of the spa, is a neon sign advertising “Open 24 Hours”…I imagine that there are an absolute ton of people seeking out pedicures or aromatherapy sessions at 2 a.m. 
The mall near my house has a store run by a Pakistani or Indian man that sells blingy purses, blankets, and stuffed animals. I walk at the mall several times a week for exercise, and I have never seen any customers in there, or anyone else working there either.
This same mall has TWO stores that sell dietary supplements, and I don’t see many people in there either.
This was a long long time ago, but there was a shoe store on 14th St. in Washington DC that just had to be a front for something. I went in there once – they seemed completely stunned that anyone would want to look a their shoes. They had only two or three models of men’s shoes, none of women’s shoes, no sneakers or boots or any kind of accessories like shoe laces or shoe polish. I got such a weird vibe from the two guys in there that I split in a couple of minutes.
There’s an Army surplus store here and I’ve never seen a single person walk into it. It’s been there for years and has to be a front for something.
The CIA 
I read The North Avnue Irregulars not too long ago and one incident recounted was some shady characters in a convenience store who were suprised that anyone would want to buy a newspaper there.
You sure these places aren’t just fronts for awesome swanky lounges and stores?
Back in the mid 1980s, I spent about four years at a job in the Chatsworth district of the San Fernando Valley. At the time there were a lot of light industrial concerns, warehouses, and so on; this may still be the case but I haven’t been up there in years. Bugle Boy Jeans had its factory there, as did Arco Solar, Infinity Home Audio, and several others–including the Pioneer Photograph Album Company. Out of all these companies, PPAC was the one encircled by the nastiest, most brutal razor wire perimeter I’ve ever seen. Now a photo album, by itself, isn’t particularly valuable or expensive, so why was it this place that went to the greatest lengths to repel intruders? It looked more like a storage and transfer point for a large illegal drugs operation.
It turns out they’re still in Chatsworth but they seem to have dialed back the visible security. I’m not sure they’re in the same building anymore.
Local “pizza parlor” that has hookhahs on every table, laughing people stumbling out at 4:45 AM, filthy, rats running around the trash cans.
The cops don’t close it.
Neither does Health.
There’s a place by where I live called IBM Office Solutions. They sell and service business printers and stuff. The building, to say nothing of the business model, looks like it was transported from 1985. The thing is, the real estate on Hawthorne Street, in that location…there’s just no possible way that store is making more money than they would selling that lot. Here it is if you want to take a look at the area in question. It’s an upscale hip area with lots of bars and restaurants and quaint clothing shops. I’ve never seen a single person in there. It’s just baffling.
Unless of course IBM in this case stands for International Blow Merchants.
The Google Maps link says the business is actually called Imperial Office Solutions, but the sign out front says they are an IBM authorized dealer.
And they sell typewriters.
Yep. Totally legit.
There’s little places like that in my town too. I suspect that they make most of their money off of local businesses and/or government offices, and the occasional walk-in isn’t really where their profit is centered.
Those are the kinds of stores that I think are fronts, too - the Middle Eastern carpet/furniture stores that never have any customers, but stay in business for decades (usually with a "Going Out Of Business! sale banner on it for decades, too).
Nearby my old apartment, there was a convenience store that recently opened up. The store had next to nothing, I never saw anyone in there besides some employees, and the place had the rankest smell ever when you walked in. I always wondered if there was a grow-op going on there. The smell could have easily covered up the scent of marijuana, the employees always looked stoned off their asses and the store simply didn’t have enough stuff to sell in order to be profitable.
We must be neighbours. 
There’s a jewellery store that I take my watches to when the batteries die. Owned by a very polite asian family. The husband does the watch repair, while his wife and her aging mother tend the store front. The door is always locked. There is barely any jewelry in the cases. What there is, looks dusty, tarnished and fake. In all the years I’ve been taking my watches there, I have never seen a single customer in the place. It smells like an old people’s home. The lights are always dim, as if they are trying to save on the electricity bills.
The store cannot possibly survive on my watch battery replacements. They are up to something and it’s not retail sales of jewelry. But I keep going back because it’s inexpensive and they are always so nice.
I’m going to tell a counter-story. I used to buy Scandinavian stuff for a lot of my family, and was glad to find a Scandinavian store in Champaign when I lived there. I’d shop there two or three times a year. Each time I’d be the only one in the store (that I recall), but the proprietor was ALWAYS on the phone making or filling orders. She was always very pleasant and knowledgable, and I never had anything but a good experience in the store.
One day after shopping there I stopped across the street to get my hair cut. While in the chair, I mentioned that I’d been to the Scandinavian place. Every lady working there gasped. It seems the running wisdom was that the shop was a front since “no one every went in there.” To a one, none of the haircut ladies could ever remember having seen a customer go in. If you were to visit, you would see that it was an extremely well-kept store that did a lot of bulk business, but to a casual observer it seemed impossible to understand how the place kept afloat.
In my town, a small town of less than thirty thousand, on the main street in down town, that is heavily trafficked, is a large men’s clothing emporium. The clothes on the models in the windows have mens dress clothes on them that have not changed in the decade plus that I’ve lived here and looke like they’re from the 70s (a nehru jacket, Really!). A male friend went in there one day with another man. He told me the clothes inside are of equal vintage. The clerk was an Asian woman who barely spoke english and looked absolutely shocked anyone would walk in.
My guess is the upstairs is used for gambling. I don’t think our local cops would tolerate drugs but they might look the other way for the victimless crime of gambling.