To ask about the candy stores on Oxford Street?

[Goostacean]

I counted 13 American-style, big, bright, touristy candy stores on Oxford St between Marble Arch and Oxford Circus. Why are they all there?! I never see anyone in them. How are they affording the rent? It’s got to be a front for something surely...? Any ideas?

Prostitution upstairs?

I’m not sure about Oxford street, but I noticed a big display of American sweets in my local corner shop the other day and got chatting to the owner. He was telling me that they are the biggest seller at the moment, they sell way more than they do of british sweets. It must be a whole young people thing I don’t know about!

Wow, just googled the Private Eye expose! Fascinating stuff. Outrageous, really.

www.google.co.uk/amp/s/twnews.co.uk/amp/gb-news/from-in-the-back-a-souvenir-issue

Yes, one of the many reasons I love them! (Private eye, not weird organised crime syndicates selling worthless tat.)

If you are making lots of money on items, you also have to buy lots of stuff

I've been wondering that about the sudden influx of dessert places where I live. How many people are buying ice cream sundaes on Tuesdays in November?

DS was rabbiting away about this very recently (but i wasn't listening 😬) it was all about the candy shops and how they are money laundering fronts. (I was probably doing something important.) It seems a well known thing. I can confirm i didnt see a single one with a customer in today, i was actually having a good look in them to see what they were all about...just a load of empty space.

Fascinating just read the article re souvenir shops - it totally makes sense

I always assumed that the dessert places were legit and to do with the large numbers of young people (Muslim and other) who don’t drink alcohol - they fill the same sort of niche.

@Haudyourwheesht

I've been wondering that about the sudden influx of dessert places where I live. How many people are buying ice cream sundaes on Tuesdays in November?

Life is uncertain, head straight to dessert, its the best bit, you don't want to miss it!😉

Alternatively, there will always be pregnant women who can polish of half a dozen sundaes in a single sitting, especially if its at midnight...(at least i had that magical skill..even when it was snowing🤔)

It's called phoenixing and is a form of tax evasion. The company which owns / runs the shop(s) is dissolved before they'd have to file accounts or a tax return. A new company is set up to take over running of the shop (and is given ownership of the assets etc at a very low price). The physical shop and the goods it holds doesn't change.

Rinse and repeat. New companies spring up and get dissolved. The term 'phoenixing' refers to the companies resurrecting from the ashes of the old one, repeatedly.

Money laundering. For sure.

£2:50 for a snickers

We have a glut of barber shops, hairdressers and beauticians on one street. Other shops are Iceland, multiple Polish supermarkets and a home bargain. I'm convinced the barbers and beauticians are fronts.

I wonder if that’s the same in Edinburgh as there are loads and loads of tartan tat shops with no one buying anything?

It's nail bars in my town.

My small, very unglamorous hometown had a shop that appeared to sell nothing but high end Tiffany style lamps. I only ever saw it open once when there was a very bored looking older woman sitting at the counter. The shop has been there at least 20 years. If that’s not a money laundering business I don’t know what is.

I used to work for a tattoo studio which turned out to be a front for racketeering. It was grim, I only found out long after I'd left.

Yeh dessert places are legit. There's one franchise that teens seem to love espesh as they are halal.

Just checked up on the Tiffany lamp shop and it’s still there but not listed online anywhere and doesn’t even have a shop sign. The lamps in the windows have price tags so not some kind of private residence. Bizarre.

My kids were mesmerised and wanted to visit them all!

@Eleoura

I read an article that said that the largest tourist market in London was from the USA (pre-covid this was). Not sure how true that is, and no idea how those shops are surviving. Hersheys for a start is vile IMO!

@Eleoura I think Hershey’s taste like vomit.

@Everydayisawindingroad Apparently they started making chocolate with sour milk during WW2 and when they tried to go back people preferred the sour milk version. Hence chocolate that tastes of baby sick.

Oh I love spotting these too-not been to Oxford St for ages but in our nearest city there are units that endlessly open briefly, close for a refit that takes forever, then re-open briefly as a similar entity. Then close again.
All clearly washing money. DH works in financial crime so I get to hear all sorts. Some of them are so obvious (but others are very, very good).
Covid has been very hard on the laundering front, very few cash businesses operating. There’s money literally piling up in organised crime with no way to wash it.

I guess I’m the only saddo that knows a lot of American and UAE bankers use them for themselves & their organisations. You don’t often see people in them because their orders come over the phone. I used to work in one a long time ago & processed an order for £10,000 by a UAE bank for Eid. You can’t make it up