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?

@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?

Most young Muslims for a start. For many Muslim young people a dessert place is the equiv of the pub.

Won’t anyone think of the poor moneylaunderers and how they’ve suffered in lockdown?

Surely money laundering businesses would stay off Oxford street (most well known shopping street in the UK! With the highest rent) and keep themselves more low key?

HMV sell a bit range off US sweets, so does urban Outfitters, Mrs. Simms sweet shop, Sainsbury's even has them. I think the market is just growing.

@Ozanj

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

A world of . Somehow that anecdote doesn’t really convince me that they’re on the level. Though I guess if it was a long time ago then internet orders wouldn’t be a thing. Now they would though.

Not implying that you’re making it up Ozanj - just that I don’t think your experience is incompatible with them being money launderers.

@Ozanj

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

That's the whole point! The 'shop' now has a 'legitimate' £10,000 in the income... and from a foreign bank...

Q. E. D.

@UnicornMadeOfPinkGlitter

They are so expensive. Dd loves Cheetos that are not readily available in the U.K. they were almost £15 a pack in one of the stores. No way. Usually feel ripped off paying about £7 for them.

Our B&M sell Cheetos. £1 for 6 bags.

Thankfully it's years since I had to set foot in the West End. Arenthe filthy hot dog floggers still around or have they been consigned to history now along with the Muffin Man and the Hot Chestnut man?

Also Asda for cheetos

A bit like all the sun bed shops in Liverpool! Definitely a front for money laundering.

@cortex10

It's my hobby spotting money laundering 'businesses' - about 10 so far in our small provincial town. I enjoy the mental maths: counting numerous staff based in a prime location yet few obvious customers.

There’s a car dealer near us that I am convinced is a front. Prices are way out of line with everyone else (either way too cheap or crazy expensive). And their stock shifts randomly.

Haven’t been there in a long time , but American and Japanese sweets and cereals were very big a couple of years ago, Selfridges Still sells them, and they are always popular,
twinkies, Reese’s butter cups , hello Panda. Overpriced for what they are, and utterly vile .
My Ds and I could not believe that they sold hello Panda for almost £7! In the ME they were sold in every corner shop for less than about £2 for the big packet.

The hot chestnut men are still around in winter, making the place smell gorgeous

@Beautiful3

A bit like all the sun bed shops in Liverpool! Definitely a front for money laundering.

If it's anything like Glasgow the colour of the general populace suggests that sunbed shops are thriving.

The only thing I’ve ever wondered about the dessert shops is why everything has to be so sickly. I’d love a dessert shop for adults - puddings seem to be overlooked once you hit adulthood sadly.

Re the money laundering, I like looking out for these too, and can think of three possibles in my town. Two jewellery shops that nobody sets foot in (checked one online, and the only reference I could find was a news story about a break-in from about 20 years ago, no online shop) and a furniture shop that sold the cheapest, nastiest stuff I’ve seen at ludicrously high prices. Think metallic wall art encrusted with plastic jewels and a picture of stiletto for a few hundred quid. Never saw anyone in there. That one didn’t last long, though, so perhaps just an unviable business. The ghost jewellers have both been going decades!

Theres a "mini market" type shop near where I live. It's open virtually everyday but I've been in a couple if times and theres barely anything in it. The shelves are half empty and in the winter it was freezing in there. I'm sure it must be a front for something else. It's literally 2 minutes walk from an actual supermarket as well, so its not as if theres a need for it there.

We went in one of those sweet shops a couple of weeks ago. £5 for some Japanese fizzy drink DD wanted! Nothing had a price on so I wouldn’t let her pick anything else. The music was some kind of rap and I heard the lyrics “bend your sister over” before we went to pay where the smell of weed coming from behind the counter was overpowering.
So if that sounds like your sort of thing I highly recommend visiting! 😂

Regarding being on Oxford St, has anyone heard the phrase ‘hiding in plain sight’?

Sunbed shops can be both legitimate and used for laundering at the same time as it’s impossible really to track how many people are using it / vs the cash that goes through (it’s not like selling a product where there are cost of sales and physical goods)