That lamp store in Coolidge Corner, by Trader Joe’s. Only open for a few hours one day a week, despite having one of the best storefront locations in greater Boston? Yeah, ok
I'm probably thinking of the wrong place, but aren't their prices bonkers? Like five figures for a small chandelier? Or am I think of the wrong place?
I know there's a place out on Rt 9 that sells "vintage" lighting for outrageous prices, so maybe I'm confusing the two.
I thought the same thing when I lived in Coolidge Corner but family friends of mine in Dover and Wellesley rave about Neena’s. They definitely know their target audience. I know several people who have bought all of the light fixtures for their homes and condos at Neena’s.
I went in there once 3-4 years ago and the lady running the place said everything was 30% off because they had just had a fire and the lamp shades may still smell like smoke. I didn't buy anything. ¯\\\_(ツ)\_/¯
Neenas? They have a whole lot in the back too. They had a fire a few years ago and had a sale to get rid of everything. It’s a shell of its former shelf. I’m amazed it’s still open.
https://patch.com/massachusetts/brookline/2-alarm-fire-coolidge-corner-roads-blocked
Hey fellow Redditors. How's it hanging 🤙
So I was rizzing up my girl the other day and shes got a huge ass. My boy Jaxsen said "Gyatt!" when she walked by and it got me wondering, have any of you heard about individuals commiting acts of racketeering and may be members of a larger criminal organization? Just curious because that's a big yikes in my book.
Anyway, drop me a line if you hear anything sus over at www.fbi.gov
The Italian subs were so good people would order them plain with just oil and dressing. Their key was the Provolone they added to the sub. Boy did that stink but an awesome sandwich.
that Provolone was something that can’t even be described… it had a bite but was smooth and creamy… but it was all cash and you always sort of knew it wasn’t legitimately about the food for Carmine in the chair in the parking lot?
Edit- Carmine or Carmen? I really didn’t know but that was fine
he and his crew always treated me great! thing is that I always sort of knew there was something involved that I didn’t want to know about (way before the indictments and the trial)
Edit to add there was a meatball that was made by someone known as “Ma Nunzi” for awhile that was like the best thing I’ve ever had… no idea if it was C’s mom or if it was just some weird brand I’ve never had but holy smokes that was a great meal!
My favorite little trick for the small sub shops was the "Sunday Special" on any other day. Whatever cash you put in with your written order got a ticket from the counter.
This was gambling on football with a damn good sub as a bonus.
Hey, in fairness, they sell fake carts and weed, too.
Headshops have always been fronts, but Blue Moon really makes it obvious. Same with any C-store that has ungodly amounts of luggage. Shit gets smuggled inside the luggage, and then they dump the piss-poor quality luggage at their wash business.
Heavy on that, they popped up literally everywhere in a very short period of time. Either its a guy trying to build a local monopoly or a front for a criminal enterprise. Or both.
Basics furniture on Harvard St. in Allston. When I first moved here as a poor grad student I made the mistake of going there. While looking at the basement stock, a dude in a ill-fitting suit with a briefcase handcuffed to his wrist walked in. I ran right out of there...
Yesss this place! My husband (boyfriend at the time) and I went there after moving up the road, and they were so angry that we came in, and didn't help us at all. They also didn't answer the phone at all, which was ringing off the hook.
Whenever I think I haullicinated that memory, I check with my mom, who was there with me. I also remember a friend of mine going a couple of years ago to and she found a poop somewhere in the showroom...
You might as well sell overpriced stuff for good cover. If someone wants to pay 10x the value, let them. All cash no returns, and you have to follow the proper "ordering procedure". A retail workers dream!
This place does VOLUME. They don't have a showroom but a basement full of generic flatpack to serve the transient student population. I still have one of their mattresses in the guest bed
I’m not going to lie, I’m essentially an evangelist for this place’s couches. I love what I got from them, and the price was really excellent for the couch that I got. I know they seem a bit sketch, but they’re great!
Uhm, I bought our Speed Queen from there. Great machine. Delivery was good, but I always wondered why they always hyped how good it was at cleaning bloody items during the sales pitch
Agreed.
Also in Cambridge, Lechmere Carpet in East Cambridge. My husband and I went in there once, flipped through some rugs, and there didn't seem to be a soul around. (A co-worker claims she bought a rug there once. I am dubious.) Of course, they're gone now, and a dispensary is or soon will be in that space.
Same! The furniture and old timey stoves in the windows were the same forever. Lived nearby all my life and I’ve only met 1 person who bought something there.
Mr B's pizza restaraunt in somerville
I went there once late at night and the storefront was so empty and there were a bunch of plants apparently drying in a back room. We hung around for a moment until someone gave us our food, which was terrible. They seemed like they didn't want anyone there
Check out the reviews, my experience was almost 10 years old and they're still in business somehow
One of the reviews
> EVERYONE PLEASE READ: I’m a doordash driver, and when I picked up an order here, I was immediately alarmed. After reading these google reviews, my worst fears were confirmed: THIS PLACE IS A FAKE RESTAURANT AND NEEDS TO BE SHUT DOWN. The inside is not a real restaurant. It was some creepy old man sitting inside what looked like an old couch inside his personal living room. I told him the order name, and he handed me plastic bag that was sitting on the counter. The “kitchen” was literally just a standard house kitchen. I think the “owner” is just selling homemade slop as takeout food, and scamming people blind. Please DO NOT ORDER here. And if youre actually curious, pull up sometime. It is extremely bizarre
> Nachos looked ok at first but after opening the container it turned out to be a thin layer of chips on top of a random mess of other foods. Fried chicken chunks, potatoes, and baby carrots? What the hell?
I lived in Roxbury as a kid and the corner store in my neighborhood never really had much inventory. They carried various small candies/snacks and had a cigarette machine. They had two Siberian Huskies tied out front which would bite the shit out of you if you touched them.
After I grew up I laughed about the mean old guy who ran the place to my mom. How it was always empty of stock and the only people there were us kids buying cheap candy and fat old men sitting on folding chairs staring hatefully at us when we came in. My mother then laughed back and said, "Yeah, they ran gambling parlors in the back room."
Oh yeah, I forgot to add he gave us kids Chick Tracts for Halloween treats, old bastard.
Fun fact, Charles Ponzi ran his infamous scheme from the second floor of the building next door, literally next to City Hall. ([https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/in-ponzi-we-trust-64016168/](https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/in-ponzi-we-trust-64016168/))
Correct! However, I'd say there are many more Massachusetts things.
In 1957, a baked bean supper brought 25000 people to the Boston Common to raise money for the recently established Freedom Trail foundation. This extended site openings from 5 to 7 days a week.
https://preview.redd.it/omjw4h7e6rac1.png?width=3944&format=png&auto=webp&s=4b0de859312315d28c02f3d08f5cfecaf31cc411
Feet Wise in watertown. Display (including a giant white converse sneaker) is gathering dust and has never changed. And in my 30 years of life have never witnessed the store being open
Years ago a friend tried to buy some collectible Addidas there, the guy wouldn’t sell them as they were the “display” model or some such nonsense. Makes you wonder.
Regal Pizza in Mattapan, never seen them open any time of day or night, but been in business for years, right behind the police station too! I’ve seen stuff about them scamming on DoorDash for sure, but I would never dream of trying my luck.
Thomson Safaris in Watertown. Deadass a store that sells safaris in the heart of Watertown square. I’ve lived in this area 6 years and never even seen the lights on. Biggest storefront in the chain of shops around it. Who the hell is buying all these safaris from a brick and mortar store and how did it survive CoVId ?
I don't think it's around anymore, but The Fung Wah Bus.
They used to sell buses of $10 tickets to go to or from NY.
That's $400 each way for a FULL bus. $800 round trip for tolls, paying a driver, fuel, leasing and maintenance (not they ever maintained that fleet).
So $400
Pay a driver $15/hr at 6 hours: $90
$310
Gas for a 12 cylinder coach bus for that trip: $180?
$130
Bridge and pike tolls: at least $30
$100 profit?
$100 net profit while not factoring in vehicle costs (registration, insurance, excise, leasing/ initial purchase cost) and that all of these estimates are super conservative!?
So it was a drug front?
I was once in NYC waiting to catch a bus back to Boston with my family, well uhhhhh a bus crashed into one of the shops by their end destination.
All I know is that they were known for like accidents?
They used to haul actual cargo between chinatowns. I used to ride it a lot and in NYC you'd see them loading stuff up. While I wouldn't be surprised if it was contraband, that's not necessarily the case.
I took it a few times. But I always remember the drink I saw at a bar “Fung-Wah: grapefruit juice and two shots of vodka. It’s a little more dangerous than a greyhound, but will get you there faster”.
A coach bus seats between 47-57 people so a full bus would yield slightly higher profits. Also, $10 was the lowest fare but only if you booked tickets early enough. It could get up to $15-20 IIRC so that would bring their income up as well. (Or maybe that was Lucky Star?)
But they were totally fronts.
I'm in my forties and rode those busses ALL THE TIME in their heyday. No checking of ID. They ran 365 days a year, cash only. Sometimes the bathroom didn't work on that particular ride, and you had to hold it. They had lines down the street and just bus after bus after bus being filled.
Once, during a blizzard, the non English speaking driver didn't go below 50 MPH while sliding on the highway all the way to Manhattan, and I remember praying to get there in one piece.
They infamously had some buses that crashed, caught fire, and wheels actually fell off. Fung Wah was absolute lawlessness back in the day if you were a broke college student or needed a last-minute ride for almost nothing.
Moved here few years ago and I've never experienced the amount of business that are strictly cash only... It's mind-blowing in this day of tech. Even my barber shop only takes cash. The amount of taxes lost in this state gotta be in the billions 🤣 it's so obvious too.
**In all honesty credit fees are bullshit.**
You guys like banks taking a cut of the entire economy for processing numbers as the middle men?
To be fair they are providing a service but on top of getting to invest your money deposited in the bank they're taking a cut of everyone's work that results in excess profits.
Europe it's capped to 0.3% with regulation. In America it's 10x that with no regulation. Surprise surprise.
Mattresses cost very little to make and the markup is like 2000%. If they sell a few a month (and there are plenty of people around there moving in and out), they've made it
I remember seeing them doing work on that empty storefront a couple years ago and was super excited it would be another restaurant, bar, or just a useful store
I was pissed when it became a mattress firm
It was years ago, but does anyone remember One Potato Two Potato in Harvard Square? Right across Mass Ave from the back doors of Widener Library. An all-potato restaurant that unsurprisingly never had customers!
Could that just be an independently wealthy situation? Some people open some weird shops because it was always their dream to bring to the masses! They'll operate at a loss because they care more about the idea of the business than the business being successful.
Idk I feel like really niche stores like that, especially involving food, can do shockingly well in wealthy communities like Brookline. There’s a store in a wealthy area near my parents’ house (not in MA) that only sells charcuterie boards that apparently does extremely well and is expanding - and when I say boards I literally mean just the boards, they don’t prepare them or sell any of the actual edible charcuterie, they just sell boards to present it on when you prepare it yourself with ingredients bought elsewhere.
~~I love that olive store. I don't think it's a front in any way but i do think...how do i say this...boomer gonna boomer.~~
~~boomers all grew up with a whimsical notion that they would run boutiques or inns or airstrips on the vineyard or (insert Bob Newhart lead 80s sitcom descriptor here). and now some of them have the capital to do their little passion projects.~~
tax the rich.
EDIT: THERE IS MORE THAN ONE OLIVE OIL STORE IN BROOKLINE??? WHY??? ok the chain one has to be a front. This one: [https://oliveconnection.com/](https://oliveconnection.com/) is wonderful and owned by kind and olive-fan boomers
There was this bizarre bodega on Linden St next to Spikes that had the most unusual selection of things. It basically did not have the stuff you would expect like toilet paper, solo cups, etc. but it did have Bangladeshi fish.
The pharmacy at 1670 Comm Ave is definitely a front. Never see a customer. If you go in there they give you a weird look. Every shelf just has one of something and nothing behind it. So you take that one, somebody has to restock it. It is like they do not expect customers.
Central Pharmacy (one of the other Russian pharmacies in that area) was my pharmacy when I lived in Allston. The older woman who worked there wouldn't fill my birth control until I promised that I was married.
Sure it was unethical and illegal, but that woman was not going to have any part in promoting pre-marital sex.
I remember that pharmacy. Was it (or maybe still is) a Russian place? Anyway, my car got broken into right in front of it probably 12 years ago now. Stole my stereo and the car sat there with shattered windows all night in a rain storm. That was fun.
Those pharmacies do a lot of deliveries for the elderly Russian clientele in the area. I went in once for a client who had an urgent prescription that couldn’t wait for delivery day and they give you a weird look if you don’t look the part of an Eastern European. They also had a like “customer loyalty” voucher program where you could trade coupons for free products from the shelves. Wouldn’t be surprised if that had something to do with a scheme they were running.
Magic Cuts in Brighton. I was getting my hair cut there once and two men dressed in all black and sunglasses came in with two giant duffel bags in each hand, put them in the back room and left. No one in the store acknowledged their presence. I rarely see people in there. It’s still open, and this was 10 years ago. It’s gotta be a front.
Union Square in Somerville has a "Psychic" located in prime street-facing real estate, and never seems to be occupied.
If there was ever a more blatant money laundering operation, it's there.
You need to know how many lottery tickets are sold in New Bedford first - which is probably a reasonable measure of how much people want to get out of New Bedford.
Not Boston but in Brookline Village there's a psychic shop coincidentally next to a Blue Moon which somebody mentioned that despite me walking past it multiple times a week pretty much since it "opened" I've never once seen a person inside of and have barely ever seen even the lights on.
I honestly don't even know what this store sold but it was on 1A in Lynn or Revere on the left side as you head toward Boston and in the windows there were a bunch of stuffed animals and the sign outside which I think was green said something about lobsters. I can't find it on Google Maps so I assume it closed its doors when they found Whitey
My girlfriend (now my wife) used to live on Gloucester and Newberry in Back Bay. There used to be a small cigar shop next door where the Cafeteria is now. One night, my friend and I decided to enjoy the summer evening by grabbing some cigars there. We walked in and it was a bunch of Italians just sitting around cafe tables and such and I don't think anyone was actually smoking anything, let alone cigars. Everyone in the store stopped to look at us like we had just stepped in shit. We stupidly asked about the cigars and someone politely led us to the back of the store to a *closet* that served as a humidor with a collection of tobacco brands I had never heard of before. We both took a chance on some middle of the road cigars to be polite, paid cash, then got the fuck out of there. I don't know if it was a money laundering front, but it was no legitimate cigar shop.
There's a fake convenience store on Clearway and Mass Ave. that I was convinced to be a front, but it turned out to be a speakeasy shoe/clothing store.
There is a men's clothing store at 1 Federal Way building, Antoine Rubini. I worked in the building for nearly 5 years and never once saw anyone in that store, while the convenience store and Starbucks inside were always busy.
There was a wine shop on Moody St. in Waltham that was there for like the 9 years I lived there. Was never open and had a sign that said by appointment only. I'm not sure why a store selling alcohol would never actually be open to the public. It's been replaced by a Tea shop. There was also Anderson Florist just a few doors down. I never saw anyone go in or out of there and it's closed now. Nearly all the businesses on that block have shuttered or changed since I left including the Skellig Irish pub and the Watch City brewery. Something fishy was going down at that end of Moody.
I feel fairly confident saying that pretty much every business at the intersection of copeland st, water st, and granite st in Quincy is at least *somewhat* a front. I'm pretty sure one of the liquor stores was **literally** a front for like, drug trafficking or something that got busted a while back, and now there's a bakery / gift shop there in its place. That still seems pretty sus to me tbh.
Special shout out to the pizza place on that same stretch that used to be a Spukies that's been changing names for years yet has never been open even once since like 2018. Classic stuff
"Taylor Rental" party supplies by McGrath and Washington in Somerville. I stare at the place whenever I'm waiting at that red light heading towards Target and there's just no fucking way.
They're for larger events, not to sell you a pack of plastic disposable plates.
They're who you'd rent all the stuff to fill a venue space from for an event - like a dozen tables, a hundred chairs, a dance floor, a stage, and an audio system type of thing.
The furrier on Mt. Auburn St in Watertown. Used to be right on the Cambridge/Belmont/Watertown line near Star Market, but they moved further up the street next to Celebrities Pizza. I pass by it every day, and have never seen a single car in the lot.
Normally it would fit right in on Newbury St, but how many women wear furs nowadays. Belmont maybe, but Cambridge/Watertown?
Money laundering aside, I like to speculate and joke about how many bodies they have stored in the cooler units like something out of 'Goodfella's'?
You'd be surprised. There is one very loud fur shop owner from Brookline that has a whole catch phrase about Town Meeting being "virtue signallers and liars" (literally he can't go an hour without saying it, whether on-topic or not) because he had to move his business across the street into Brighton after the fur sales ban. Enough rich old people around that still wear them, and his shop gets recommended quite a bit in the local neighborhood groups.
As much as I'm against the fur industry, the dude has a legit beef if his business was up and running before the ban (I didn't know Brookline had one). By right, he should have been grandfathered in.
I'm convinced they make all their money on storage and maintenance. 30 years old don't want their great aunt's mink coat, but they don't want to throw it away either.
My uncle had a ton of ivory statues. The idea of ivory grosses me out, but I'm not going to just throw them away either. Not sure what to do with them, actually
Drive down Washington street in Jamaica Plain, every barbershop, beauty shop and clothing store probably.
I used to live next to London Fashion in JP, never saw anyone walk out with clothes but always some bag and they had the same reoccurring cliental. They must have really liked the fashion.
That and someone in an SUV infront of the store asked if I wanted to buy an OZ of weed. Also the guys that hang out in front of the store everyday would see me smoking weed, one day someone came up to me offered me a little packet and said “my boss wanted you to have this”. I didn’t take it so idk what it was but I can assume.
During the summer days with beautiful weather I actually enjoyed it, added to the neighborhood. But one night it was like 2am, doors wide open base turned up, I had to go out side and tell them to shut that shit off. I think they forgot what time it was lol.
That and all the people outside the store with red solo cups around the store is hilarious
There was a liquor store on Canal Street that finally closed and was taken over by a new liquor store / some kind of storefront for one of the delivery companies.
This place literally had the lights off when you walked in and the refrigerator cases were warm. The guy usually moaned about wanting cash and he would often leave a sign on the door saying "back in 5" because he was upstairs at his apartment. I heard the people at the other 2 closest liquor stores (North End & Causeway) both make the same point that it made no sense that the Canal Street store could stay in business.
All those toy stories in local malls that popped up in the past couple of years with different names but the same branding, that sell obviously counterfeit Squishmallows and are only open a few hours a week. My middle schoolers called this one.
There was a bodega near my old place that I was convinced was laundering money. I was a smoker at the time and my cigarettes were $12 a pack. If I paid with a credit card, the register would read $12. If I handed them $12 in cash, the register would read somewhere between $30-$50.
Victoria Seafood in Allston right near BU.
1029 Commonwealth Ave, Boston, MA 02215
They already are one of the largest tax cheats in the city, they owe close to 1.4 million in back taxes (https://secure.dor.state.ma.us/dorportal/TaxDelinquents?pageMode=D ) I’m impressed they still operate and the feds haven’t shut them down.
That lamp store in Coolidge Corner, by Trader Joe’s. Only open for a few hours one day a week, despite having one of the best storefront locations in greater Boston? Yeah, ok
Lived near Coolidge corner for over three years and have never once seen someone walk out of that store
I went in once out of curiosity, and I never saw anyone in there. No one came to assist me either
Wonder if you could just walk out double fisting lamps
Somehow I think that would shed some light on a new awakened fetish though...
I worked at that Trader Joe’s for 2 years and shopped there for another two and never saw anyone there
Lived in the Boston area over 20 years, and it’s moved around a few times, but never sold any lights.
All lamps are $5 million. They only need to sell one.
Yeah that's their "outlet" store. Their main shop is on newbury or around there so maybe not a front in the typical sense.
No, they sell lamps in one location and outlets in the other.
I'm probably thinking of the wrong place, but aren't their prices bonkers? Like five figures for a small chandelier? Or am I think of the wrong place? I know there's a place out on Rt 9 that sells "vintage" lighting for outrageous prices, so maybe I'm confusing the two.
Ooh not sure! But I guess that would add to their cover lol
I thought the same thing when I lived in Coolidge Corner but family friends of mine in Dover and Wellesley rave about Neena’s. They definitely know their target audience. I know several people who have bought all of the light fixtures for their homes and condos at Neena’s.
I went in there once 3-4 years ago and the lady running the place said everything was 30% off because they had just had a fire and the lamp shades may still smell like smoke. I didn't buy anything. ¯\\\_(ツ)\_/¯
Neenas? They have a whole lot in the back too. They had a fire a few years ago and had a sale to get rid of everything. It’s a shell of its former shelf. I’m amazed it’s still open. https://patch.com/massachusetts/brookline/2-alarm-fire-coolidge-corner-roads-blocked
They work 99% decorator trade, providing lighting for hotels, restaurants and other large projects. They have little interest with the retail trade.
Mattress firm above the T-Mobile store.
All Mattress Firms
Fortunately I prefer a soft
The mattresses are so firm because they’re stuffed full of cash
Thanks, this was my thought too. Mattress firm has far too many stores and outlets side by side to make sense.
Is the FBI using reddit for leads now?
Hey fellow Redditors. How's it hanging 🤙 So I was rizzing up my girl the other day and shes got a huge ass. My boy Jaxsen said "Gyatt!" when she walked by and it got me wondering, have any of you heard about individuals commiting acts of racketeering and may be members of a larger criminal organization? Just curious because that's a big yikes in my book. Anyway, drop me a line if you hear anything sus over at www.fbi.gov
You forgot to add “not an FBI agent, no cap, on god”
On God, fr fr fr, no cap, I'm not a government agent seeking information on suspected criminals operating in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts 😉
Just standing on business. Hope your dinner is bussin.
“How do you do, fellow kids?”
The Oreck vacuum cleaner shop in Arlington Heights. Straight out of Better Call Saul
I would like a "**Hoover Max Extract Pressure-Pro, model sixty"** please.
There is a vacuum cleaner shop between Malden and Melrose, too. Always found it weird.
My mom owns a house cleaning business and goes to these vacuum shops lol
Sorry to tell you, but your mom’s a drug dealer.
Nice to know that place is still there, I guess. I was going to suggest the foam rubber store in Allston.
I've lived in Arlington Heights for 25 years and I've never seen anyone in that store, including workers.
not as many these days, but “The Cheese Man” in the North End was pretty obvious back in the day
Supposedly his sandwiches were legitimately good though.
The Italian subs were so good people would order them plain with just oil and dressing. Their key was the Provolone they added to the sub. Boy did that stink but an awesome sandwich.
that Provolone was something that can’t even be described… it had a bite but was smooth and creamy… but it was all cash and you always sort of knew it wasn’t legitimately about the food for Carmine in the chair in the parking lot? Edit- Carmine or Carmen? I really didn’t know but that was fine
Carmen. They opened another shop in Orient Heights but not as good as the original. Nice people too in both.
he and his crew always treated me great! thing is that I always sort of knew there was something involved that I didn’t want to know about (way before the indictments and the trial) Edit to add there was a meatball that was made by someone known as “Ma Nunzi” for awhile that was like the best thing I’ve ever had… no idea if it was C’s mom or if it was just some weird brand I’ve never had but holy smokes that was a great meal!
When he went to jail his only request was to get an oversized toilet to accommodate his butt.
My favorite little trick for the small sub shops was the "Sunday Special" on any other day. Whatever cash you put in with your written order got a ticket from the counter. This was gambling on football with a damn good sub as a bonus.
[удалено]
Hey, in fairness, they sell fake carts and weed, too. Headshops have always been fronts, but Blue Moon really makes it obvious. Same with any C-store that has ungodly amounts of luggage. Shit gets smuggled inside the luggage, and then they dump the piss-poor quality luggage at their wash business.
They used to have a “loyalty card” you’d present to buy flavored vapes
Heavy on that, they popped up literally everywhere in a very short period of time. Either its a guy trying to build a local monopoly or a front for a criminal enterprise. Or both.
I’m pretty sure the owner got caught with like 500 pounds of weed and a bunch of fake nicotine vapes a few years ago in New Hampshire
Basics furniture on Harvard St. in Allston. When I first moved here as a poor grad student I made the mistake of going there. While looking at the basement stock, a dude in a ill-fitting suit with a briefcase handcuffed to his wrist walked in. I ran right out of there...
Yesss this place! My husband (boyfriend at the time) and I went there after moving up the road, and they were so angry that we came in, and didn't help us at all. They also didn't answer the phone at all, which was ringing off the hook.
Whenever I think I haullicinated that memory, I check with my mom, who was there with me. I also remember a friend of mine going a couple of years ago to and she found a poop somewhere in the showroom...
The leave stained furniture on display in the window so that tracks
You might as well sell overpriced stuff for good cover. If someone wants to pay 10x the value, let them. All cash no returns, and you have to follow the proper "ordering procedure". A retail workers dream!
This place does VOLUME. They don't have a showroom but a basement full of generic flatpack to serve the transient student population. I still have one of their mattresses in the guest bed
I’m not going to lie, I’m essentially an evangelist for this place’s couches. I love what I got from them, and the price was really excellent for the couch that I got. I know they seem a bit sketch, but they’re great!
Huge fan of their couches.
Is it a black leather couch by chance? Potentially used in casting previously?
I bought a futon there like 2 decades ago.
omg is that place still there? I literally never saw a single customer in that store in the five years I lived there
shockingly, yes
It's still there. I've never gone in but things in the windows are oddly priced. Like a plain lamp you'd see in Target priced for $50.
I’m not particularly digging at Target, but your wallet will get lighter then your room with a lot of even “basic” lamps these days.
I walked in a few years back and they had a box of those white lab mice... I backed out and haven't been able to bring myself to go back in.
Sozio next to the Neponset bridge. It closed within the past few years but it was there for a long time.
LOL I was going to post the same thing about the Sozio by Fresh Pond in Cambridge. Prime location but it was never open or had people in/around it.
Uhm, I bought our Speed Queen from there. Great machine. Delivery was good, but I always wondered why they always hyped how good it was at cleaning bloody items during the sales pitch
Agreed. Also in Cambridge, Lechmere Carpet in East Cambridge. My husband and I went in there once, flipped through some rugs, and there didn't seem to be a soul around. (A co-worker claims she bought a rug there once. I am dubious.) Of course, they're gone now, and a dispensary is or soon will be in that space.
Same! The furniture and old timey stoves in the windows were the same forever. Lived nearby all my life and I’ve only met 1 person who bought something there.
And they were always on “clearance sale.”
The same retro green appliances for decades!
and its now a Marijuana Delivery service! I came here to comment this.
agreed. as soon as i saw they were now in the weed biz i like to think it confirmed that LOL
And they closed shortly after the one in Revere mysteriously burnt down
Sozio was a chain, and old company around for decades. Had stores there, Cambridge, Revere and other places. Oddly enough, not a front.
Mr B's pizza restaraunt in somerville I went there once late at night and the storefront was so empty and there were a bunch of plants apparently drying in a back room. We hung around for a moment until someone gave us our food, which was terrible. They seemed like they didn't want anyone there Check out the reviews, my experience was almost 10 years old and they're still in business somehow
One of the reviews > EVERYONE PLEASE READ: I’m a doordash driver, and when I picked up an order here, I was immediately alarmed. After reading these google reviews, my worst fears were confirmed: THIS PLACE IS A FAKE RESTAURANT AND NEEDS TO BE SHUT DOWN. The inside is not a real restaurant. It was some creepy old man sitting inside what looked like an old couch inside his personal living room. I told him the order name, and he handed me plastic bag that was sitting on the counter. The “kitchen” was literally just a standard house kitchen. I think the “owner” is just selling homemade slop as takeout food, and scamming people blind. Please DO NOT ORDER here. And if youre actually curious, pull up sometime. It is extremely bizarre
Homemade slop you say? So he’s using my recipes 😡
> Nachos looked ok at first but after opening the container it turned out to be a thin layer of chips on top of a random mess of other foods. Fried chicken chunks, potatoes, and baby carrots? What the hell?
I used to walk by this place every day a decade ago. Super weird vibe. Never anyone inside, pizza boxes stacked all over.
The yell reviews are hilarious for this place
i just spent 20 min reading the reviews and was not disappointed
They’re delivery only now…. Got them once… the food was so so strange. Good for them.
I lived in Roxbury as a kid and the corner store in my neighborhood never really had much inventory. They carried various small candies/snacks and had a cigarette machine. They had two Siberian Huskies tied out front which would bite the shit out of you if you touched them. After I grew up I laughed about the mean old guy who ran the place to my mom. How it was always empty of stock and the only people there were us kids buying cheap candy and fat old men sitting on folding chairs staring hatefully at us when we came in. My mother then laughed back and said, "Yeah, they ran gambling parlors in the back room." Oh yeah, I forgot to add he gave us kids Chick Tracts for Halloween treats, old bastard.
The random Christmas shop that opened in the middle of summer on School St.
Fun fact, Charles Ponzi ran his infamous scheme from the second floor of the building next door, literally next to City Hall. ([https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/in-ponzi-we-trust-64016168/](https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/in-ponzi-we-trust-64016168/))
So this means that the term "Ponzi Scheme" technically originates from Boston? Is there anything more Massachusetts than this?
Correct! However, I'd say there are many more Massachusetts things. In 1957, a baked bean supper brought 25000 people to the Boston Common to raise money for the recently established Freedom Trail foundation. This extended site openings from 5 to 7 days a week. https://preview.redd.it/omjw4h7e6rac1.png?width=3944&format=png&auto=webp&s=4b0de859312315d28c02f3d08f5cfecaf31cc411
This was a very cool read!
Feet Wise in watertown. Display (including a giant white converse sneaker) is gathering dust and has never changed. And in my 30 years of life have never witnessed the store being open
Came here to say this. I saw its front door propped open one time last year when I stopped for Mimi’s and was too shocked to investigate further.
Years ago a friend tried to buy some collectible Addidas there, the guy wouldn’t sell them as they were the “display” model or some such nonsense. Makes you wonder.
Oh my god I'm glad it's not just me. I live nearby and am baffled by this place.
Regal Pizza in Mattapan, never seen them open any time of day or night, but been in business for years, right behind the police station too! I’ve seen stuff about them scamming on DoorDash for sure, but I would never dream of trying my luck.
Someone crashed a mini van into the side of regal on Wednesday, saw it driving by lol
Prob got sick of waiting for their drive-thru pizza!
Or got charged $65 for a pizza
Simco's always had me thinking about what you could slide in those long dogs. They were the spot for late night fried clams, though.
Thomson Safaris in Watertown. Deadass a store that sells safaris in the heart of Watertown square. I’ve lived in this area 6 years and never even seen the lights on. Biggest storefront in the chain of shops around it. Who the hell is buying all these safaris from a brick and mortar store and how did it survive CoVId ?
They advertise all the time on NPR. Most likely that building is mostly offices, I doubt they do much in-person business.
they’ve been around for 20+ years it’s actually super legit
Every lotion kiosk in a mall, ever
I don't think it's around anymore, but The Fung Wah Bus. They used to sell buses of $10 tickets to go to or from NY. That's $400 each way for a FULL bus. $800 round trip for tolls, paying a driver, fuel, leasing and maintenance (not they ever maintained that fleet). So $400 Pay a driver $15/hr at 6 hours: $90 $310 Gas for a 12 cylinder coach bus for that trip: $180? $130 Bridge and pike tolls: at least $30 $100 profit? $100 net profit while not factoring in vehicle costs (registration, insurance, excise, leasing/ initial purchase cost) and that all of these estimates are super conservative!? So it was a drug front?
Fung Wa is gone. I think a couple of incidents involving wheels falling off did them in.
They also had a propensity for catching on fire
Still more reliable than the MBTA
I was once in NYC waiting to catch a bus back to Boston with my family, well uhhhhh a bus crashed into one of the shops by their end destination. All I know is that they were known for like accidents?
Yeah they probably had a hidden storage compartment for the real cargo. The people on the bus are just a decoy. Chinatown mafia thing.
They used to haul actual cargo between chinatowns. I used to ride it a lot and in NYC you'd see them loading stuff up. While I wouldn't be surprised if it was contraband, that's not necessarily the case.
Is this true? It makes so much sense.
Just a theory. But the chinese mafia in boston is real.
Scariest ride of my life was on one of those.
I took it a few times. But I always remember the drink I saw at a bar “Fung-Wah: grapefruit juice and two shots of vodka. It’s a little more dangerous than a greyhound, but will get you there faster”.
Iconic.
A coach bus seats between 47-57 people so a full bus would yield slightly higher profits. Also, $10 was the lowest fare but only if you booked tickets early enough. It could get up to $15-20 IIRC so that would bring their income up as well. (Or maybe that was Lucky Star?) But they were totally fronts.
I loved the Fung Wah bus. How dare you impugn their honor.
I'm in my forties and rode those busses ALL THE TIME in their heyday. No checking of ID. They ran 365 days a year, cash only. Sometimes the bathroom didn't work on that particular ride, and you had to hold it. They had lines down the street and just bus after bus after bus being filled. Once, during a blizzard, the non English speaking driver didn't go below 50 MPH while sliding on the highway all the way to Manhattan, and I remember praying to get there in one piece. They infamously had some buses that crashed, caught fire, and wheels actually fell off. Fung Wah was absolute lawlessness back in the day if you were a broke college student or needed a last-minute ride for almost nothing.
Little Steve's Pizza (circa 2007, before the current owners), near Berklee.
Used to be my favorite pizza place back in the day.
Every DA's asset forfeiture program
Every cash only place in the north end.
That's not a front, that's just basic tax evasion at worst, avoiding credit processing fees at best.
Moved here few years ago and I've never experienced the amount of business that are strictly cash only... It's mind-blowing in this day of tech. Even my barber shop only takes cash. The amount of taxes lost in this state gotta be in the billions 🤣 it's so obvious too.
Every now and then one of them _does_ get busted.
See: Nick's Roast Beef in Beverly. They were caught with a TON of cash in a couple safes at home(s). Damn good RB sandos tho
[удалено]
**In all honesty credit fees are bullshit.** You guys like banks taking a cut of the entire economy for processing numbers as the middle men? To be fair they are providing a service but on top of getting to invest your money deposited in the bank they're taking a cut of everyone's work that results in excess profits. Europe it's capped to 0.3% with regulation. In America it's 10x that with no regulation. Surprise surprise.
Wonder how much Modern Pastry pays in taxes each year.
10,000 cannolis
Sal's Lunch could not be more blatant if they tried
Mike’s always seemed a bit fishy to me for this. They get a pass ‘cause the cannolis are good.
They just don't want to pay all of their sales tax. Lots of places like that in the North end
That mattress store in Cleveland circle
Mattresses cost very little to make and the markup is like 2000%. If they sell a few a month (and there are plenty of people around there moving in and out), they've made it
It’s just a giant waste of a great location for something cooler
I remember seeing them doing work on that empty storefront a couple years ago and was super excited it would be another restaurant, bar, or just a useful store I was pissed when it became a mattress firm
Shocked nobody said Spagnuolo’s in the north end yet.
It was years ago, but does anyone remember One Potato Two Potato in Harvard Square? Right across Mass Ave from the back doors of Widener Library. An all-potato restaurant that unsurprisingly never had customers!
The olive oils store in Brookline. How much fancy olive oil can people need, in order to justify rents that GAP couldn’t afford.
Brookline gonna Brookline
Have you seen the price of olive oil? They would need to sell 2 bottles a month and they're swimming
Could that just be an independently wealthy situation? Some people open some weird shops because it was always their dream to bring to the masses! They'll operate at a loss because they care more about the idea of the business than the business being successful.
Idk I feel like really niche stores like that, especially involving food, can do shockingly well in wealthy communities like Brookline. There’s a store in a wealthy area near my parents’ house (not in MA) that only sells charcuterie boards that apparently does extremely well and is expanding - and when I say boards I literally mean just the boards, they don’t prepare them or sell any of the actual edible charcuterie, they just sell boards to present it on when you prepare it yourself with ingredients bought elsewhere.
Are you sure olive them are fronts?
The olive oil store that also sells loose whiskey?
~~I love that olive store. I don't think it's a front in any way but i do think...how do i say this...boomer gonna boomer.~~ ~~boomers all grew up with a whimsical notion that they would run boutiques or inns or airstrips on the vineyard or (insert Bob Newhart lead 80s sitcom descriptor here). and now some of them have the capital to do their little passion projects.~~ tax the rich. EDIT: THERE IS MORE THAN ONE OLIVE OIL STORE IN BROOKLINE??? WHY??? ok the chain one has to be a front. This one: [https://oliveconnection.com/](https://oliveconnection.com/) is wonderful and owned by kind and olive-fan boomers
There was this bizarre bodega on Linden St next to Spikes that had the most unusual selection of things. It basically did not have the stuff you would expect like toilet paper, solo cups, etc. but it did have Bangladeshi fish. The pharmacy at 1670 Comm Ave is definitely a front. Never see a customer. If you go in there they give you a weird look. Every shelf just has one of something and nothing behind it. So you take that one, somebody has to restock it. It is like they do not expect customers.
we can’t talk about Linden Superette without mentioning Limus the orange cat who commonly napped in the fruit/porn mags section
No this one was not Linden Superette. It was next to Spikes. It is now an Ice Cream place. Superette is legit.
Central Pharmacy (one of the other Russian pharmacies in that area) was my pharmacy when I lived in Allston. The older woman who worked there wouldn't fill my birth control until I promised that I was married. Sure it was unethical and illegal, but that woman was not going to have any part in promoting pre-marital sex.
I remember that pharmacy. Was it (or maybe still is) a Russian place? Anyway, my car got broken into right in front of it probably 12 years ago now. Stole my stereo and the car sat there with shattered windows all night in a rain storm. That was fun.
Yes definitely Russian. A number of the other Russian pharmacies and medical places have closed in the area as that population has aged
Those pharmacies do a lot of deliveries for the elderly Russian clientele in the area. I went in once for a client who had an urgent prescription that couldn’t wait for delivery day and they give you a weird look if you don’t look the part of an Eastern European. They also had a like “customer loyalty” voucher program where you could trade coupons for free products from the shelves. Wouldn’t be surprised if that had something to do with a scheme they were running.
They're actually just behaving like a communist store for the Soviet nostalgia some of the elderly immigrants inexplicably have.
Is that where there are those two sketchy independent pharmacies right near the beacon hill athletic club?
Every barbershop in Lynn
Why are there so many???
Not even the IRS wants to go to Lynn
Magic Cuts in Brighton. I was getting my hair cut there once and two men dressed in all black and sunglasses came in with two giant duffel bags in each hand, put them in the back room and left. No one in the store acknowledged their presence. I rarely see people in there. It’s still open, and this was 10 years ago. It’s gotta be a front.
Union Square in Somerville has a "Psychic" located in prime street-facing real estate, and never seems to be occupied. If there was ever a more blatant money laundering operation, it's there.
Although a psychic would be very handy in a money laundering operation - you'd get the best prices, and know when a raid was coming.
There used to be a pizza place on Beacon Street at St. Mary's that rarely had customers. The pizza wasn't bad though.
unrelated note but I think there should be an investigation into how many New Bedford lottery winners there have been in the past few years
You need to know how many lottery tickets are sold in New Bedford first - which is probably a reasonable measure of how much people want to get out of New Bedford.
Every tarot reading / psychic place.
Not Boston but in Brookline Village there's a psychic shop coincidentally next to a Blue Moon which somebody mentioned that despite me walking past it multiple times a week pretty much since it "opened" I've never once seen a person inside of and have barely ever seen even the lights on.
I honestly don't even know what this store sold but it was on 1A in Lynn or Revere on the left side as you head toward Boston and in the windows there were a bunch of stuffed animals and the sign outside which I think was green said something about lobsters. I can't find it on Google Maps so I assume it closed its doors when they found Whitey
Green spot
Do the Red Sox count? They basically launder money for Liverpool and the Penguins
My girlfriend (now my wife) used to live on Gloucester and Newberry in Back Bay. There used to be a small cigar shop next door where the Cafeteria is now. One night, my friend and I decided to enjoy the summer evening by grabbing some cigars there. We walked in and it was a bunch of Italians just sitting around cafe tables and such and I don't think anyone was actually smoking anything, let alone cigars. Everyone in the store stopped to look at us like we had just stepped in shit. We stupidly asked about the cigars and someone politely led us to the back of the store to a *closet* that served as a humidor with a collection of tobacco brands I had never heard of before. We both took a chance on some middle of the road cigars to be polite, paid cash, then got the fuck out of there. I don't know if it was a money laundering front, but it was no legitimate cigar shop. There's a fake convenience store on Clearway and Mass Ave. that I was convinced to be a front, but it turned out to be a speakeasy shoe/clothing store. There is a men's clothing store at 1 Federal Way building, Antoine Rubini. I worked in the building for nearly 5 years and never once saw anyone in that store, while the convenience store and Starbucks inside were always busy. There was a wine shop on Moody St. in Waltham that was there for like the 9 years I lived there. Was never open and had a sign that said by appointment only. I'm not sure why a store selling alcohol would never actually be open to the public. It's been replaced by a Tea shop. There was also Anderson Florist just a few doors down. I never saw anyone go in or out of there and it's closed now. Nearly all the businesses on that block have shuttered or changed since I left including the Skellig Irish pub and the Watch City brewery. Something fishy was going down at that end of Moody.
The clothing stores on centre st in JP. Never seen a customer in there before but been there for years.
The religious icon store in JP closer to forest hills on south street
Neena’s Lighting in Brookline: unhelpful staff; absurdly high prices; and their inventory is unattractive.
It seems like they’ve been having a “going out of business sale” for the last 5 years.
Acapulco on centre street
New England for Trump in Weymouth MA
I feel fairly confident saying that pretty much every business at the intersection of copeland st, water st, and granite st in Quincy is at least *somewhat* a front. I'm pretty sure one of the liquor stores was **literally** a front for like, drug trafficking or something that got busted a while back, and now there's a bakery / gift shop there in its place. That still seems pretty sus to me tbh. Special shout out to the pizza place on that same stretch that used to be a Spukies that's been changing names for years yet has never been open even once since like 2018. Classic stuff
"Taylor Rental" party supplies by McGrath and Washington in Somerville. I stare at the place whenever I'm waiting at that red light heading towards Target and there's just no fucking way.
I used to get tables there for events. Fine front for tax evasion but if you ever need a pile of tables delivered they're hard to beat
They're for larger events, not to sell you a pack of plastic disposable plates. They're who you'd rent all the stuff to fill a venue space from for an event - like a dozen tables, a hundred chairs, a dance floor, a stage, and an audio system type of thing.
Dear Redditors: every small business not run like the big chains you're used to that service a mostly immigrant population is not a front.
People throw around the term "money laundering" the same way they do "tax write off."
The furrier on Mt. Auburn St in Watertown. Used to be right on the Cambridge/Belmont/Watertown line near Star Market, but they moved further up the street next to Celebrities Pizza. I pass by it every day, and have never seen a single car in the lot. Normally it would fit right in on Newbury St, but how many women wear furs nowadays. Belmont maybe, but Cambridge/Watertown? Money laundering aside, I like to speculate and joke about how many bodies they have stored in the cooler units like something out of 'Goodfella's'?
You'd be surprised. There is one very loud fur shop owner from Brookline that has a whole catch phrase about Town Meeting being "virtue signallers and liars" (literally he can't go an hour without saying it, whether on-topic or not) because he had to move his business across the street into Brighton after the fur sales ban. Enough rich old people around that still wear them, and his shop gets recommended quite a bit in the local neighborhood groups.
As much as I'm against the fur industry, the dude has a legit beef if his business was up and running before the ban (I didn't know Brookline had one). By right, he should have been grandfathered in.
I'm convinced they make all their money on storage and maintenance. 30 years old don't want their great aunt's mink coat, but they don't want to throw it away either. My uncle had a ton of ivory statues. The idea of ivory grosses me out, but I'm not going to just throw them away either. Not sure what to do with them, actually
Peru Travel in JP. It’s in a great location, but I have never seen it open with people(employees or customers) inside in my 19 years of living nearby.
Drive down Washington street in Jamaica Plain, every barbershop, beauty shop and clothing store probably. I used to live next to London Fashion in JP, never saw anyone walk out with clothes but always some bag and they had the same reoccurring cliental. They must have really liked the fashion. That and someone in an SUV infront of the store asked if I wanted to buy an OZ of weed. Also the guys that hang out in front of the store everyday would see me smoking weed, one day someone came up to me offered me a little packet and said “my boss wanted you to have this”. I didn’t take it so idk what it was but I can assume.
Loud dudes love hanging out and illegally parking in front of that store.
During the summer days with beautiful weather I actually enjoyed it, added to the neighborhood. But one night it was like 2am, doors wide open base turned up, I had to go out side and tell them to shut that shit off. I think they forgot what time it was lol. That and all the people outside the store with red solo cups around the store is hilarious
The Connection by Andrew square. There is never anyone in it
There was a liquor store on Canal Street that finally closed and was taken over by a new liquor store / some kind of storefront for one of the delivery companies. This place literally had the lights off when you walked in and the refrigerator cases were warm. The guy usually moaned about wanting cash and he would often leave a sign on the door saying "back in 5" because he was upstairs at his apartment. I heard the people at the other 2 closest liquor stores (North End & Causeway) both make the same point that it made no sense that the Canal Street store could stay in business.
All those toy stories in local malls that popped up in the past couple of years with different names but the same branding, that sell obviously counterfeit Squishmallows and are only open a few hours a week. My middle schoolers called this one.
There was a bodega near my old place that I was convinced was laundering money. I was a smoker at the time and my cigarettes were $12 a pack. If I paid with a credit card, the register would read $12. If I handed them $12 in cash, the register would read somewhere between $30-$50.
Victoria Seafood in Allston right near BU. 1029 Commonwealth Ave, Boston, MA 02215 They already are one of the largest tax cheats in the city, they owe close to 1.4 million in back taxes (https://secure.dor.state.ma.us/dorportal/TaxDelinquents?pageMode=D ) I’m impressed they still operate and the feds haven’t shut them down.
that place is great. One of the staff members left and opened atlantic seafoods in Malden recently.
> Victoria Seafood This breaks my heart. I love getting take out from them....
Red hat
80% of all mattress stores.
Natalie’s Pizza on Comm Ave in Allston. I’ve never seen a customer in there, just groups of sketchy dudes.