What the heck is this business?

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

(Inspired by Shirley Ujest’s thread on “how do these guys stay in business?”)

There used to be a business around the corner from my house past which I would walk the dog every day. It had been a house, but was now clearly some kind of business, though it had no sign or any other identification on the outside beyond the street number. Looking into the window, I could see a very well appointed anteroom, clearly a checking-in room of some kind, with a reception desk and all.

Here’s the really weird part: The only cars I ever saw there were limousines. Sleek, black limousines. And they’d only be there during the afternoon. (Limousines are a pretty rare sight in Memphis, especially in that area of Memphis: Cooper-Young, in case anyone knows Memphis.)

Possibilities:

  • It’s a high-priced psychiatrist or medical specialist. Seems unlikely because who takes a limo to the shrink?

  • It’s an exclusive, high-priced whorehouse. Now the limos make sense, but in the afternoon? (I never saw any cars there at night at all.)

  • It’s a bunch of drug runners or mafiosi or something. Getting warm, although, again, the presence of limousines was *extremely[/] out of place in this area, and I would think such people would not want to attract attention.

  • Cooking school (limos could be for visiting professors)? Can’t be; if it were any kind of “legitimate” business, it would have had a sign. Most businesses welcome walk-in customers, right?

Anyway, here’s what we’ve got:

  • Place doesn’t want to be identified (no sign);
  • Wealthy, perhaps nouveau-riche clientele (limousines);
  • Strange hours (where does one go in a limo in the daytime?).

This has been bugging me for years! Any help?

2

Drat those italic codes.

3

Are they, perhaps, a limousine rental outfit?

4

Any chance it was a limo-rental place?

I used to know a guy who had a family business w/ three cars - ferry’d folks to and from the airport and drunken teenagers from place to place. Ran it out of his house. I used to get a ride home from a crappy night job w/ him a coupla times a week-- often wondered what the neighbors made of that - (me being chauffered home at 2 or 3 am weeknights… they may have figured I was either a dealer or a prostitute, I dunno.)

5

Hmm. Limo-rental hadn’t occurred to me. But the limos were always parked on the street; there was no lot. And I don’t think I ever saw more than two, or maybe just one. I should go drive by the place and see if they’re still there.

6

I once had an office in a building on a kind of ritzy business address street, and was startled one day to realize that the lobby and parking lot were rife with plainclothes guys wearing earpieces with a couple of limos and a Suburban in convoy formation idling at the front door. Some of the security guys were scruffy enough to make me think that it was not a government operation.

This happened several times with different sets of actors. I finally learned that these were various business, entertainment and what-have-you bigshots who patronized the wig maker in the building.

7

Late as usual. This board is so fricken slow. Anyway: what indicates that this is a business? Just curious.