I think certain jewelry store and mattress store chains are money laundering fronts. Thoughts?

[Ethelred]

There are single towns with multiple mattress stores all across America and many of them are the same company on the same block in the same town. People buy mattresses every decade or so and the stores are always empty. Nothing adds up. I realize mattresses are cheap to make and are marked up high in store so you would only need to sell 4 or so a week; but I doubt even half of the stores sell that much so it doesn't explain why there are so many. Also a lot of towns in the US have multiple jewelry stores on the same block as well even though people don't by expensive jewelry very often at all. In fact there are malls I go to with upwards of four jewelry stores even though they're always empty. I'm interested to see what everyone thinks!

[jshm2]

It's been debunked many times that they are "fronts".

What you're probably confused about is the costs of warehousing vs the costs of instore storage.

Many of these places pay very little costs as they are old owners. Thus they actually might not have many customers but actually serve the business as being "stock stores" instead. It's an old business model and doesn't really work as well in these days of international shipping and warehousing. But for "old industry" it's still profitable.

[NamerOfStars]

I can easily see why you'd think that- I myself remain convinced that Radio Shack was a front for something (though I've no idea what), given that they stayed in business for so long when even Circuit City couldn't. They DID eventually leap into the cell phone market, but there was a good ten years after they should've collapsed before that market emerged.

[purplepoppy]

It's the same with electrial appliance stores. They're stuff is twice the price of the major retaillers and it's not a case of paying extra to save a long drive because you can buy online. Half the stuff in the window looks dated too. Yet every small town seems to have one of these shops

[Massageman]

We buy all our mattresses from a local shop who builds on premises at about half the cost of the chains.

I have a deal with the local police- I don't worry about money laundering, and they don't worry about my mattresses.

[bean2k21]

i've had encounters with jewelry store owners
one wrote me a bad check
never knew a mattress guy
but for certain he'll lay you flat

[boobliker]

I had one over the road from were i work in the last year only sold one so yes!

[In_Trance]

Probably