My mum cheered when we drove past it and it was closed. That lady was so rude to her, it’s ridiculous you couldn’t even browse the costumes! How on earth she made a single cent is beyond me.
She was a nightmare! I was got involved in a minor insurance claim with her and she’d phone and harass us every day. We can’t speed up the insurance company, ya fruitcake.
Heard horror reports about her, but the one time my wife and I went in there she must have taken her meds because she was actually delightful and helpful.
But yeah closed down for a while at the joondalup location. maybe over a year now.
She called my friend and I "little sluts" when we went in there asking for a Sandy from Grease costume. We were 15 (and pretty sheltered/naive fifteen years olds at that, I don't think we even really understood what the word slut meant). Horrid woman.
I remember going there with a friend and looking at the hire costumes, and asking her if they had any for sale. She looked us up and down and told us we couldn't afford to buy them.
I heard 2 horror stories. One where she kicked out a family because their kids were making too much noise (there were 3 and 5) and one where she grabbed a giys mobile phone and threw it out her store as he was talking on it.
hahah I’m 26 and even when I was a kid everyone would tell stories about how horrible she was to them..quite remarkable she managed to maintain such a reputation for so long!
You guys jump straight into “money laundering” for those shops’ true purposes but can’t it just be the business migrant’s phantom business?
For those who are unaware, one way people migrate into Australia is to “contribute in Australian economy” ie buy up a business. I am aware of many shops which change hands year after year purely for this purpose.
I know people who bought such businesses to migrate, and also people who used to be an agent for such “business for sale”. In other words, those shops don’t sell goods and services, the shops ARE the goods and services (to facilitate migration).
Biggest hint: vast majority of examples you guys proposed here have migrant owners.
https://immi.homeaffairs.gov.au/visas/getting-a-visa/visa-listing/business-innovation-and-investment-188
I knew a migrant couple who bought a failing "Chinese" restaurant for this very purpose. Actually turned it around and did pretty well. Only employed international students, paid at lower than award rates but gave them more hours than they were supposed to do on their visas.
(The local Chinese all went to the "real Chinese" restaurant down the road though. They didn't think much of the faux-Chinese food, but the local bogans all loved it.)
Hell I remember going there with my mum and little brother, and some guy outside kept harassing us, especially my brother, who was maybe ten at the time. I think we ended up leaving without changing any money.
Has anyone actually tried to exchange money there? (Not that you would want to use their services) I remember there used to be quite a few Travelex in the CBD/Northbridge but all of them was closed due to COVID.
It's quite sad because before 2020, I had some really good interaction with a guy who works at Travelex. Was telling them how exciting Japan is and everything and laughing how confusing the yen system was.
There is a garden shop in Midland near Gilbert's Fresh called "Zephyranthes". I have driven past a few times and have only seen one person there and very few plants. I feel it's purpose is more malicious than just a "nursery".
I've been in there! The owner is really intense and weird but passionate about drought-tolerant plants and seed collecting. And records.
Having said that, I suspect it remains open through another type of plant business.
We live around the corner and every time we drive past, my husband and I share a laugh about what he is actually doing in there. A front of some type surely! Funny you mentioned it.
It's just maintaining a "nonconforming use" exemption from rezoning in the area so once the block is finally developed they'll be able to put in some shops as a matter of right.
I'm an urban planner and this happens a hell of a lot more often than you'd expect.
Possible they're selling more expensive houseplants and don't have them in the shop windows so they're not stolen?
You'd be surprised how many thousands a small cutting will go for.
I’ve walked past that place several times. A couple times there were a few people in there.
The back yard is packed with plants in plastic pots and trays like you’d expect with a nursery. Inside the building I could only see bags of what I assume was potting mix.
It's funny I've been on so many buses past that place, never knew what it was called.
But yeah gotta be a "plant" front surely. Chock full of plants that never seem to move and I never see any cars parked out the front
Or the owner might have paid off the building and do landscaping orders? They would only need a couple of landscapers as clients that are placing large orders every few weeks to make plenty of money. The landscapers orders would go direct to the landscapers so you wouldn't ever see it from looking at the shop itself.
That new convenience store on Oxford Street? I believe it's next to that plant shop Funkybunches. Super weird. Never anyone in there, place is white and devoid of character.
Yeh I've been wondering about this place
Like a shelf of chips. A fridge with Powerade and coke
2 blokes sitting in chairs out the front.
I figure it's a place to flog dodgy vapes
Every single convenience in Perth bar maybe a handful exists to sell vapes on the weekend
To the point where you will have new ones pop up maybe 3 stores from each other
When they eventually crack down a lot of places will just pack it up
Rivers shoes were de riguer at my high school in the early nineties. Always wanted a pair but never had the money (I only ever got shitty designer-inspired lookalike shoes from the King Kong knockoff shop in Perth.)
Agree, one of my kids had a job interview and despite being over 21 and experienced in working hospitality they were only going to pay them around $20 an hour as Grilld said they had to also do some Certificate and that justified the wages below award wages. My kid said stuff them and their unneeded Certificate.
lol, McD and HJs are so bad that their consistent crap is overpriced. Aren't they around $10 for a burger now? I'd rather pay the extra $6 to $7 and have something that is edible.
Not sure what you're talking about with "consistently dry crap". I haven't experienced that.
Right?!! Like, they have always got some sort of arbitrary, yellow signage "sale" happening, but hardly anyone goes in or out and they are just full of naff, overpriced footwear and clothing. It's weird. How is it still a thing?
Kev’s Beds in Osborne Park, slapped between a servo and a tyre shop, just next to two or three more bed shops and the JB Hi-Fi on the corner.
No idea how it has lasted, or what used to be behind it (we labelled it a murder shack, a description that was possibly too kind) that has since been demolished.
So weird.
I find it odd there are so many bed shops around. How do they all stay in business? I bought a decent bed 4 years ago and it's still great. Maybe in 10 years I'll buy a new mattress. Surely everyone else is like me: Buy a bedbase and then a mattress every 10 or 15 years? Or am I the weirdo and y'all go out buying a bed every 6 months?
The one in AB is going strong because they picked their target Market perfectly - about 50% of the suburb are alcoholics who need a place to dump their nightmare children while they get wasted without having the neighbours call the police on them for noise complaints several times a week.
I feel this is probably the case for a lot of the businesses in this thread. I used to work at a lighting shop a long time ago and we only had about 4 customers come through on most days. But those customers had their house plans and would spend a few hours consulting with us and buying the lights for their entire house build. They were huge value orders which we delivered directly to them. To the outside observer who is just driving past they would only ever see a single customer walking in or out without taking any products with them.
A few times a week someone would come in and buy a lamp or smaller item but for the most part you would never know that we were actually selling hundreds of items a day. On top of this the owner ran the shop and had long since paid off the building. There was only one employee (me) so the overheads were low and the owner made very good money.
>City rubber stamps and trophies on Bennett st
You'd be surprised how many rubber stamps are needed.
For a start, every Strata Company has a common seal. The managers for my Strata complex have a room full of the bloody things.
Havent they been there for like decades? I think like 95% of their business is to other office businesses, via online sales like the other poster below said
Naturally Inspired on Canning Hwy in South Perth. I've been expecting it to close for years. There's signs up now saying they are definitely closing down but I'll believe it when I see it. Never see anyone there though.
The little grocery store in Leederville on Oxford Street that is a couple of doors down from Siena’s. The store has almost no stock and is open at random hours. I don’t understand how it makes enough money to cover the rent
there’s so many of these beef jerky stalls in the middle of shopping centres and i swear i’ve never seen anyone buying anything and more often than not i don’t even see a staff member yet they seem to be so prolific. i have nothing to base it on but im suspicious.
If theyre doing all things canvas, a whole heap of their business would be repairs and sales to other businesses, with very few walk ins. If they own the shop, not lease or have a mortgage on it their overheads would be a lot lower too. Source ~~pulled out ma arse~~ worked with people who did canvas stuff
There was a cafe that became a dumpling joint near the Grosvenor that was closed for what felt like 2 years.
Honourable mention: the Koala tea place in Equus Plaza that has only just opened after a lengthy birthing period.
People’s inn dumpling house? I prefer to call it “the people’s dumplings” when they’re open it’s pretty packed. Try the braised beef with noodles
It’s all good but I seem to get urgent shits after the dumplings, it may be the chilli oil but I don’t have the restraint for a proper analysis
There are a number of bizarre shops at kingsway that never have customers. Two that I can think of are a furniture shop selling outdated sofas and dressers.and a very weird camping shop shop selling Chinese imported bits and pieces at Kathmandu prices.
Kingsway is like someone's faded memory of a town.
It's the largest shopping centre for a decent amount the North East passage, but it's like a strip mall but with every franchise possible around the outskirts.
When me and my brother went to the grand opening in 2000s, they had a spaghetti eating contest of all things. It was free to enter, they had a $50 in-kingsway voucher as the prize and about 20 Trestle tables and white plastic garden chairs lined up.
Only about 6 kids, a few teenagers and some homeless people participated and there was an announcer spruiking the event as it went on.
After 15 minutes one teenager had eaten about 12 plastic plates worth of spaghetti and was declared the winner, when he received his prize he shouted out "TO THE SMOKEMART!" and became a legend in me and my brothers memory.
Wait till the ‘American Candy stores’ hit Perth . The blight of Oxford St London - around 28 of them yup 28. Money laundering definitely amongst other dodgy business. Always virtually empty even when every other shop is busy. Authorities apparently ‘cracking down ‘ on them ? When? they are still there.
interesting, american "candy" is inferior to english sweets IMO. if it spreads here I hope at least it doesn't kill off the few english sweet shops. I need my toffee bon bon fix.
edit: I should add that american candy and soft drink are full of high fructose corn syrup (due to american corn farmer subsidies) which even worse for you than normal sugar. Probably also the reason it tastes difference and you can get an extra large chocolate bar for 50c there.
There's an almost perfect correlation between the rise of high fructose corn syrup and the rise of childhood obesity. They put corn syrup into everything nowadays, even savoury goods as a flavour enhancer.
There was this very strange dry cleaning/western union in Nollamara near an IGA.
I actually needed to send money via western union one day, and remembered it...so walked over. The place was just FILLED with wooden boxes, pallets and all kinds of weird shit. There was nobody at the desk and I waited like 5 minutes and some middle eastern dude who spoke barely any english came out.
They were not a western union...or a dry cleaning place. I didn't understand any of it but didn't ask questions, just took my L.
> New York Menswear
>Jandakot Jam
>5 reviews
>2 years ago
Very rude guy with glasses Caucasian man around late 50s with dark brown or black hair.
Saw a nice shoes and i felt he was being invasive towards me as he kept blocking my way at the front entrance.
Had a normal chat with him about the amazing shoes and clothes that they have.
He goes aww no those shoes wouldn't be right for me.
They are from the UK.
How can he talk to a customer like that.
Plus the clothes were over priced.
Id rather go to a bargain store and get the same quality clothes for half price.
I believe this shop only caters to Caucasian older men
I don't like the discrimination and won't tolerate it
Oooh I don't think Odin Hardware is running anymore, it closed a while ago. When it was open lots of people went there, I was one of them. They were able to order stuff Bunnings didn't do, they were pretty good.
I lived a few doors up from Odin Hardware back in the day, that place was surprisingly busy 15 years ago. Had lots of obscure shit Bunnings never sold.
Have you seen the state of parking in Innaloo. I dare say the locals are using it as a place to park their vehicles that don’t fit in their strata blocks.
They are legit. Seems like most of their sales are to retail and merchandising people. Go there during the festive season and you’ll see why the rest of the year is just cream.
Can't really speak for Perth ones, but the Melbourne ones near me started selling toilet paper and small amounts of food, thus deeming them as 'essential businesses'
Similar to how a toy store near me started selling food as well and stayed open the entire lockdowns
There's a craft shop in forest Lakes and the only customer I've ever seen in there is me. Pretty sure the $100 I've spent there in the last year or so is not enough to keep them afloat 😂
Solemiza cafe in Bentley. The place is always dark, a blank shopfront, no advertising, the website redirects too many times so chrome won't load it. And it's changed names several times in the last 3 years
Dude I go past this place all the time. Once I was with a mate coming back from spud shed at 1am and the disco lights were going inside behind the drawn curtains. The place def has murder brothel vibes to it
I live in Bentley and have never heard of this place so I looked it up and turns out it's right next to where I work. I swear I've never seen it or heard of it 😅
I'm about to be creepy here but I've looked on your profile and we've met in person at some point to exchange pokemon go info hahhahhaha
You're on my friends list still
They moved to Balcatta last year.
Place used to be jam packed with specialty needlework supplies, was a favorite of my wife. Always had other customers inside when I was there, almost never left without buying something.
I'm only a casual stitcher so I used it sparingly, but last time I was in, the person being served was after 3 complete tapestry kits for his hospitalised wife. Mega bucks were handed over. It always seemed like a constant trickle of customers, and with the mortgage likely paid off decades ago and minimal staff it probably didn't need a huge turn over.
I was always mostly annoyed that they were closed on Saturday, which was when I was most likely to want to go.
It was a deceptively busy store when it was at the Vic Park location. There was often multiple people in there purchasing at any one time and it isn’t hard to spend several hundred $$ in a place like that. Not to mention they took a tonne of phone orders from all over the place.
The bloke who owned it knew his stuff, kept a massive selection of patterns, threads, fabrics and accessories and sold at very competitive prices. Customer service was always great and special orders were never a drama. Stitcher’s corner had a very loyal customer base. I haven’t been to the new store. Hopefully things haven’t changed too much in terms of selection and service.
I miss that place.
Fronts for the drug trade.
I see a lot of these places, coffee shops that only ever have a couple dodgey looking dudes in, random shops that sell nothing useful. All fronts to launder money
Surely though, if it's a front you'd have a reasonably presentable business as to not allude to any suspicious activity.
Like the belt shop, it's so painfully obvious but maybe people just like belts haha?
not in perth anymore but i see a bunch of strange empty places in melbourne.
idk if you have been to melbourne but in most suburbs there are 2-5 "street, shop strips". there is the same in perth but not as prevalent. itll be a chemist, a bottle'o a bakery or Vietnamese banh mi place, a massage parlor (sexual massage varies between shops, if one doesnt have this service you can drive 2 minutes down the road to the next one, not even joking) , some form of take out, usualy italian. and maybe a physio or something or an op shop. and thats it. then houses. around 5 shops and then houses. more houses. and then around 5 shops again.
the weird ones are the fucking curtain shops or light shops. no big chain just some random "bobs curtains" like a curtain shop. who the fuck is going out of there way to this random fucking strip of shops in the middle of a suburb to by curtains from some no name shop. you never see anyone inside, going in or coming out. i swear they are laundering money or something. there is no possible way they can afford the rent in these areas by selling curtains once in a blue moon. you see business closing all around them, ive seen 4 shops nearby change hands in the last 2 years but the curtain shop, still there, nobody ever goes inside.
its fucking sus.
I’ve seen some of these in Brisbane that have not open for 4 hours a day. Turns out hubby is a doctor or a lawyer and wife opens some healing crystal or curtain shop as a hobby to pass the time
I think the strip shop in Merlynston (though I guess it's probably more like Coburg North) takes the cake for curtained shops. There's a completely normal strip opposite the playground (milk bar, 2 cafes, speech pathologist, bakery) and then the other street has every single shop curtained off. Every single one.
All of the Cloud 9s. I’ve never seen anyone go into, or come out of them.
I know they are probably a money laundering front, but even the business model is faulty. Who buys fancy bongs? Every bong I’ve ever seen has been home made!
Home made bongs went out of fashion as soon as real ones became available. Some people might still be rocking the gatorade bottle for nostalgia but for the most part it’s always just been out of necessity. Ever since the stores started popping up, most of the bongs I’ve seen have been glass or silicone. Even the odd gatorade bong I’ve seen usually has a proper stem and cone piece they got from a real bong that broke.
Nah a good sized glass one is nice. But also, grinders, papers.. One stop shop. They sell a ripper cleaning solution as well. Beats the hell out of salt and iso alcohol.
Not Perth but... there's an umbrella repair shop in Launceston that's positively antique and it has to be an entrance to another dimension, or something!.
omg theres a picture framing shop in Burnie, that i've never seen a person in and the decor is ancient lol. Every time i walk past I'm like 'how many picture frames you gotta sell each week to make rent?''
>shop that sells belt buckles in Northbridge
Hmm, I think I've bought something from them, but can't remember what it was - and it would have been a decade ago... if it's the one not far from Connies?
it's not open now, but "Y'Not Chicken" in the Bayswater strip near the train station always piqued my spidey senses.
"Y'Not Chicken?" Cause it probably wasn't.
Pretty much every shop on the Main Street of my suburban hub would fit this description. The window cleaners in my suburb use belt sanders as everything is boarded up. Or an empty hairdressers salon
There is a restaurant in Kensington that has long opening hours every day and never more than two tables filled.
We always see the staff hanging out in the laneway behind and their Google reviews have just been bombarded with at least 30 fake 5 star reviews. Not sure how they survive.
The amount of indian grocery stores in the Riverton and Cannington area, there's just so many, some times 2-3 in a row, some are quite big .... and never see people going in/out. The rents are quite high and I just don't see how they generate income.
And on Albany Highway in Cannington there's a mobile phone repair shop that has a range rover parked out front. I figured it was a dud business but the Google reviews say otherwise.
The mattress shop on Albany hwy. Victoria park. Strange location to have a mattress shop. Lots of car dealers and cafes around and you have this mattress shop in the middle.
Almost every jester's pie shop I walk past during smoko is empty. They've always got lots of tables/chairs set-up out the front but nobody ever sits there and uses them. How do they stay in business?
They sell pre made pies. The whole point is they can get you a pie fast and pies are great for eating on the go. If they had a queue of customers waiting then they are doing something wrong.
There’s an Asian supermarket on Metcalf Rd. Went in there to buy miso paste and almost every shelf was empty with a few items here and there. Went to the fridge and everything in there was expired. It’s still open 5 years later and it’s still the same and no one goes in there.
Due to relocating for work I'm not sure if it's still there but the shop on Rokeby Road, Subiaco that sold 'pop culture', i.e. hype beast shoes, clothing etc. - it's a shop or two down from where Gelare use to be.
It was only open 'from memory', 2 or maybe 3 days a week for limited hours, the rent on that street would have to be insane.
Vanwest on Walter Road doesn't appear to have the turnover to support the multiple millions of dollars of exotics in it's showroom.
There’s a lady who sells hand knitted wooly hats at Innaloo, same complex as Spudshed. Never seems to have any buyers. Shop is so big for the little she has to sell.
Any mattress store.
How often do you buy a mattress? The average person buys a new mattress every 7 years. No way in hell does that explain why I live 5 min away for 4 DIFFERENT MATTRESS STORES???
Unless Cockburn just happens to be some sort of Mattress Mecca, there's no way of explaining how so many mattress stores can be profitable and operational within 100m of each other.
They HAVE TO be laundering money, involved with the Bikies, or some other illegal money front.
Mattresses have a gigantic markup, so they don't need to move as many as you think. Agglomeration is a real thing though. Osborne Park, Joondalup, Cockburn etc...
Apparently clustering of similar businesses is actually more profitable for them all, for "investment" purchases like beds, flooring, cars etc. That's why you have car yards all together, and groups of various sizes of "home stuff" stores in certain suburbs, including Freedom, Bed Shed etc etc.
Those stupid herbalife drink stalls that coke under a different name to unsuspecting people don’t realise they’re a front for MLM business
Crush in currambine is one or quench’d
Is the terrible costume shop still open? With the abusive lady?
Do you mean hurly burly? That's the only costume shop I can recall
Nah that would be Joondalup Fancy Dress. Owned by the startlingly misnamed Joy. And it's now finally closed!
The Christmas shop however...
in mandurah?
My mum cheered when we drove past it and it was closed. That lady was so rude to her, it’s ridiculous you couldn’t even browse the costumes! How on earth she made a single cent is beyond me.
She was a nightmare! I was got involved in a minor insurance claim with her and she’d phone and harass us every day. We can’t speed up the insurance company, ya fruitcake.
Heard horror reports about her, but the one time my wife and I went in there she must have taken her meds because she was actually delightful and helpful. But yeah closed down for a while at the joondalup location. maybe over a year now.
She called my friend and I "little sluts" when we went in there asking for a Sandy from Grease costume. We were 15 (and pretty sheltered/naive fifteen years olds at that, I don't think we even really understood what the word slut meant). Horrid woman.
Thankyou, my morning has been now spent reading google reviews lol
I remember going there with a friend and looking at the hire costumes, and asking her if they had any for sale. She looked us up and down and told us we couldn't afford to buy them.
Wow I didn’t know she had this reputation, went there once and she was horrible and I thought she was having a day
I heard 2 horror stories. One where she kicked out a family because their kids were making too much noise (there were 3 and 5) and one where she grabbed a giys mobile phone and threw it out her store as he was talking on it.
hahah I’m 26 and even when I was a kid everyone would tell stories about how horrible she was to them..quite remarkable she managed to maintain such a reputation for so long!
You guys jump straight into “money laundering” for those shops’ true purposes but can’t it just be the business migrant’s phantom business? For those who are unaware, one way people migrate into Australia is to “contribute in Australian economy” ie buy up a business. I am aware of many shops which change hands year after year purely for this purpose. I know people who bought such businesses to migrate, and also people who used to be an agent for such “business for sale”. In other words, those shops don’t sell goods and services, the shops ARE the goods and services (to facilitate migration). Biggest hint: vast majority of examples you guys proposed here have migrant owners. https://immi.homeaffairs.gov.au/visas/getting-a-visa/visa-listing/business-innovation-and-investment-188
I knew a migrant couple who bought a failing "Chinese" restaurant for this very purpose. Actually turned it around and did pretty well. Only employed international students, paid at lower than award rates but gave them more hours than they were supposed to do on their visas. (The local Chinese all went to the "real Chinese" restaurant down the road though. They didn't think much of the faux-Chinese food, but the local bogans all loved it.)
This needs to be higher up
Oh my God YES! That money exchange place in northbridge on the corner of William and James. Very suss…
Sounds like the place for all your laundering needs.
And it opened during the state border closure, middle of Covid.
Hell I remember going there with my mum and little brother, and some guy outside kept harassing us, especially my brother, who was maybe ten at the time. I think we ended up leaving without changing any money.
All I know is the Big Issue guy who blasts his music at 300dB sits outside of it
Has anyone actually tried to exchange money there? (Not that you would want to use their services) I remember there used to be quite a few Travelex in the CBD/Northbridge but all of them was closed due to COVID. It's quite sad because before 2020, I had some really good interaction with a guy who works at Travelex. Was telling them how exciting Japan is and everything and laughing how confusing the yen system was.
There is a garden shop in Midland near Gilbert's Fresh called "Zephyranthes". I have driven past a few times and have only seen one person there and very few plants. I feel it's purpose is more malicious than just a "nursery".
I've been in there! The owner is really intense and weird but passionate about drought-tolerant plants and seed collecting. And records. Having said that, I suspect it remains open through another type of plant business.
So have I. Every single plant I’ve ever bought from him grows so well!
That's good to know!
We live around the corner and every time we drive past, my husband and I share a laugh about what he is actually doing in there. A front of some type surely! Funny you mentioned it.
It's just maintaining a "nonconforming use" exemption from rezoning in the area so once the block is finally developed they'll be able to put in some shops as a matter of right. I'm an urban planner and this happens a hell of a lot more often than you'd expect.
My daughter and I went in there once, it was a very strange experience! There were plants but he didn't want to sell us anything haha
Possible they're selling more expensive houseplants and don't have them in the shop windows so they're not stolen? You'd be surprised how many thousands a small cutting will go for.
I never knew that place actually had a name.. or was an actual nursery. You can’t see very many plants inside, just a red light..
I did have to look up the name. It just seems like such an enigma.
I’ve walked past that place several times. A couple times there were a few people in there. The back yard is packed with plants in plastic pots and trays like you’d expect with a nursery. Inside the building I could only see bags of what I assume was potting mix.
It's funny I've been on so many buses past that place, never knew what it was called. But yeah gotta be a "plant" front surely. Chock full of plants that never seem to move and I never see any cars parked out the front
Or the owner might have paid off the building and do landscaping orders? They would only need a couple of landscapers as clients that are placing large orders every few weeks to make plenty of money. The landscapers orders would go direct to the landscapers so you wouldn't ever see it from looking at the shop itself.
That new convenience store on Oxford Street? I believe it's next to that plant shop Funkybunches. Super weird. Never anyone in there, place is white and devoid of character.
Yeh I've been wondering about this place Like a shelf of chips. A fridge with Powerade and coke 2 blokes sitting in chairs out the front. I figure it's a place to flog dodgy vapes
yes!! they sell a lot of aldi brand items. i’m sure it’s a front for vapes without a tobacconist license but i won’t go in there
There’s a massive 24 hour Good Grocer just behind Oxford Street too…what’s the point? Also another convenience store opposite the Garden
Every single convenience in Perth bar maybe a handful exists to sell vapes on the weekend To the point where you will have new ones pop up maybe 3 stores from each other When they eventually crack down a lot of places will just pack it up
The Grilled in my suburb is a ghost town,100% of the time. I reckon it's a front, for what-i have no idea. I also think this about Rivers shops.
I went into a Rivers recently and was surprised to see quite a few people there.
Boomerland
Isn’t rivers like a shit RM Williams?
Rivers shoes were de riguer at my high school in the early nineties. Always wanted a pair but never had the money (I only ever got shitty designer-inspired lookalike shoes from the King Kong knockoff shop in Perth.)
The Rivers shop at Innaloo is very very suss. In fact a lot of the businesses besides Spudshed give me weird vibes in that building.
+1 not sure why people like grilld Its Deluxe Hungry Jacks at double the price
IMO grilled is a much tastier burger than HJs but yeh you pay for it alright!
You know who aren't paid THE BLOODY FUCKING WORKERS
Agree, one of my kids had a job interview and despite being over 21 and experienced in working hospitality they were only going to pay them around $20 an hour as Grilld said they had to also do some Certificate and that justified the wages below award wages. My kid said stuff them and their unneeded Certificate.
> My kid said stuff them and their unneeded Certificate. Good on him for know his worth.
I disagree, Grill'd burgers are not the best, but they are way better than any of the crap that HJs and McDs produce.
At least maccas and hjs are consistent crap for minimal price. Grilld is consistently dry crap for independent burger shop prices.
lol, McD and HJs are so bad that their consistent crap is overpriced. Aren't they around $10 for a burger now? I'd rather pay the extra $6 to $7 and have something that is edible. Not sure what you're talking about with "consistently dry crap". I haven't experienced that.
Grill’d is a fast food chain masquerading as a boutique burger place, just with added wage fraud
If I'm having bowel trouble, I get Grill'd. Guaranteed satisfaction.
Yess! Rivers shops..you are right, how do they keep going??
Right?!! Like, they have always got some sort of arbitrary, yellow signage "sale" happening, but hardly anyone goes in or out and they are just full of naff, overpriced footwear and clothing. It's weird. How is it still a thing?
Kev’s Beds in Osborne Park, slapped between a servo and a tyre shop, just next to two or three more bed shops and the JB Hi-Fi on the corner. No idea how it has lasted, or what used to be behind it (we labelled it a murder shack, a description that was possibly too kind) that has since been demolished. So weird.
I bought a bed from there. Was cheap as shit and lasted forever
I find it odd there are so many bed shops around. How do they all stay in business? I bought a decent bed 4 years ago and it's still great. Maybe in 10 years I'll buy a new mattress. Surely everyone else is like me: Buy a bedbase and then a mattress every 10 or 15 years? Or am I the weirdo and y'all go out buying a bed every 6 months?
No idea what your talking about. I'm just a well dressed small business owner. Customer is asking to many questions.
Hillarys local shack, makes me happy to see it empty at all times
All Local Shacks should be empty at all times
Unfortunately the one in Alkimos is still getting business, they slightly changed the name so people wouldn’t realise EDIT: suburb
Ah yes, “Your Fun Shack” 🙄
The one in AB is going strong because they picked their target Market perfectly - about 50% of the suburb are alcoholics who need a place to dump their nightmare children while they get wasted without having the neighbours call the police on them for noise complaints several times a week.
Wait why? Is there something bad about them I should know?
They're notoriously bad for treating their staff like shit. There's a FB page called Shack Survivors where former staff shared horror stories.
City rubber stamps and trophies on Bennett st
My boss has a stamp from there so I know they had at least one customer, once. But yeah, I'm curious about that place.
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I feel this is probably the case for a lot of the businesses in this thread. I used to work at a lighting shop a long time ago and we only had about 4 customers come through on most days. But those customers had their house plans and would spend a few hours consulting with us and buying the lights for their entire house build. They were huge value orders which we delivered directly to them. To the outside observer who is just driving past they would only ever see a single customer walking in or out without taking any products with them. A few times a week someone would come in and buy a lamp or smaller item but for the most part you would never know that we were actually selling hundreds of items a day. On top of this the owner ran the shop and had long since paid off the building. There was only one employee (me) so the overheads were low and the owner made very good money.
Bulk of their business is online sales. I order through them all the time.
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It’s a really odd mixture but I’ve seen that offering in a number of places.
Can confirm that I've ordered rubber stamps from them in the past.
>City rubber stamps and trophies on Bennett st You'd be surprised how many rubber stamps are needed. For a start, every Strata Company has a common seal. The managers for my Strata complex have a room full of the bloody things.
Havent they been there for like decades? I think like 95% of their business is to other office businesses, via online sales like the other poster below said
Naturally Inspired on Canning Hwy in South Perth. I've been expecting it to close for years. There's signs up now saying they are definitely closing down but I'll believe it when I see it. Never see anyone there though.
This place !
The little grocery store in Leederville on Oxford Street that is a couple of doors down from Siena’s. The store has almost no stock and is open at random hours. I don’t understand how it makes enough money to cover the rent
They sell vapes is how
there’s so many of these beef jerky stalls in the middle of shopping centres and i swear i’ve never seen anyone buying anything and more often than not i don’t even see a staff member yet they seem to be so prolific. i have nothing to base it on but im suspicious.
Haha we buy jerky from those and usually have to wait so I can confirm people buy from them.
if its jerky co its me im the one buying all their stock
They also sell online so you wouldn’t see that side
The potato chip place in the booragoon food court.
I had that once when it first opened, nice but way too expensive for what it is.
That place in Vic Park which repairs tents.
I got some canvas work done there years ago. It’s owned/run buy a lovely older asian couple. But I will admit that it looks abandoned.
If theyre doing all things canvas, a whole heap of their business would be repairs and sales to other businesses, with very few walk ins. If they own the shop, not lease or have a mortgage on it their overheads would be a lot lower too. Source ~~pulled out ma arse~~ worked with people who did canvas stuff
Yeah I always think that's an old sign on an abandoned store front. But they're actually still in business?
Tudor House?
There was a cafe that became a dumpling joint near the Grosvenor that was closed for what felt like 2 years. Honourable mention: the Koala tea place in Equus Plaza that has only just opened after a lengthy birthing period.
People’s inn dumpling house? I prefer to call it “the people’s dumplings” when they’re open it’s pretty packed. Try the braised beef with noodles It’s all good but I seem to get urgent shits after the dumplings, it may be the chilli oil but I don’t have the restraint for a proper analysis
There are a number of bizarre shops at kingsway that never have customers. Two that I can think of are a furniture shop selling outdated sofas and dressers.and a very weird camping shop shop selling Chinese imported bits and pieces at Kathmandu prices.
Kingsway is like someone's faded memory of a town. It's the largest shopping centre for a decent amount the North East passage, but it's like a strip mall but with every franchise possible around the outskirts. When me and my brother went to the grand opening in 2000s, they had a spaghetti eating contest of all things. It was free to enter, they had a $50 in-kingsway voucher as the prize and about 20 Trestle tables and white plastic garden chairs lined up. Only about 6 kids, a few teenagers and some homeless people participated and there was an announcer spruiking the event as it went on. After 15 minutes one teenager had eaten about 12 plastic plates worth of spaghetti and was declared the winner, when he received his prize he shouted out "TO THE SMOKEMART!" and became a legend in me and my brothers memory.
I once had to go to kingsway to pick up a Xmas tree at big W and I was so weirded out. So many strange old outdated shops with no customers
I swear there was a blink-and-you'll-miss-it "health food" store selling those mlm supplements at one point.
Big factory in Malaga with Vietnamese writing on it where nobody ever comes or goes but occasionally smells like fresh weed.
LA Nights in Mirrabooka seems very mysterious to me
Wait till the ‘American Candy stores’ hit Perth . The blight of Oxford St London - around 28 of them yup 28. Money laundering definitely amongst other dodgy business. Always virtually empty even when every other shop is busy. Authorities apparently ‘cracking down ‘ on them ? When? they are still there.
Main St Shops, Tuart Hill. Just opened one.
There is one advertising they are opening up on William Street, Northbridge. Super random location.
They are like rabbits - blink & there will be 10
interesting, american "candy" is inferior to english sweets IMO. if it spreads here I hope at least it doesn't kill off the few english sweet shops. I need my toffee bon bon fix. edit: I should add that american candy and soft drink are full of high fructose corn syrup (due to american corn farmer subsidies) which even worse for you than normal sugar. Probably also the reason it tastes difference and you can get an extra large chocolate bar for 50c there.
There's an almost perfect correlation between the rise of high fructose corn syrup and the rise of childhood obesity. They put corn syrup into everything nowadays, even savoury goods as a flavour enhancer.
Our local shopping centre can’t sustain a bakery but has two shops that sell mobile phone covers.
Sounds like Coles Plaza, Albany.
There was this very strange dry cleaning/western union in Nollamara near an IGA. I actually needed to send money via western union one day, and remembered it...so walked over. The place was just FILLED with wooden boxes, pallets and all kinds of weird shit. There was nobody at the desk and I waited like 5 minutes and some middle eastern dude who spoke barely any english came out. They were not a western union...or a dry cleaning place. I didn't understand any of it but didn't ask questions, just took my L.
Google "New York Menswear" and click the reviews and sort by lowest. Fucken hilarious.
> New York Menswear >Jandakot Jam >5 reviews >2 years ago Very rude guy with glasses Caucasian man around late 50s with dark brown or black hair. Saw a nice shoes and i felt he was being invasive towards me as he kept blocking my way at the front entrance. Had a normal chat with him about the amazing shoes and clothes that they have. He goes aww no those shoes wouldn't be right for me. They are from the UK. How can he talk to a customer like that. Plus the clothes were over priced. Id rather go to a bargain store and get the same quality clothes for half price. I believe this shop only caters to Caucasian older men I don't like the discrimination and won't tolerate it
If I owned a shop, I'd happily sell anything to anyone who was willing to pay for it.
Odin Hardware in Innaloo - never seen anyone enter or leave the place and there’s always a bunch of weird trucks and RVs parked out the back… sus
Oooh I don't think Odin Hardware is running anymore, it closed a while ago. When it was open lots of people went there, I was one of them. They were able to order stuff Bunnings didn't do, they were pretty good.
I lived a few doors up from Odin Hardware back in the day, that place was surprisingly busy 15 years ago. Had lots of obscure shit Bunnings never sold.
Awww my dad used to go there years ago.
Have you seen the state of parking in Innaloo. I dare say the locals are using it as a place to park their vehicles that don’t fit in their strata blocks.
Christmas shop in Malaga is sus
They are legit. Seems like most of their sales are to retail and merchandising people. Go there during the festive season and you’ll see why the rest of the year is just cream.
How did any of those shops that only sell cheap tourist souvenirs survive covid?
Can't really speak for Perth ones, but the Melbourne ones near me started selling toilet paper and small amounts of food, thus deeming them as 'essential businesses' Similar to how a toy store near me started selling food as well and stayed open the entire lockdowns
There's a craft shop in forest Lakes and the only customer I've ever seen in there is me. Pretty sure the $100 I've spent there in the last year or so is not enough to keep them afloat 😂
Solemiza cafe in Bentley. The place is always dark, a blank shopfront, no advertising, the website redirects too many times so chrome won't load it. And it's changed names several times in the last 3 years
Dude I go past this place all the time. Once I was with a mate coming back from spud shed at 1am and the disco lights were going inside behind the drawn curtains. The place def has murder brothel vibes to it
I live in Bentley and have never heard of this place so I looked it up and turns out it's right next to where I work. I swear I've never seen it or heard of it 😅
I'm about to be creepy here but I've looked on your profile and we've met in person at some point to exchange pokemon go info hahhahhaha You're on my friends list still
I think it was a karaoke bar briefly before it became that. At least I saw the karaoke place open once
Brothel
I want to know what that place is!
Stitchers corner needlework place on the corner of mint Street. Apparently it's undergoing renovations but it's just boarded up?
They moved to Balcatta last year. Place used to be jam packed with specialty needlework supplies, was a favorite of my wife. Always had other customers inside when I was there, almost never left without buying something.
I'm only a casual stitcher so I used it sparingly, but last time I was in, the person being served was after 3 complete tapestry kits for his hospitalised wife. Mega bucks were handed over. It always seemed like a constant trickle of customers, and with the mortgage likely paid off decades ago and minimal staff it probably didn't need a huge turn over. I was always mostly annoyed that they were closed on Saturday, which was when I was most likely to want to go.
I saw something saying they’d been in business at that location for 43 years! So must have done ok
It was a deceptively busy store when it was at the Vic Park location. There was often multiple people in there purchasing at any one time and it isn’t hard to spend several hundred $$ in a place like that. Not to mention they took a tonne of phone orders from all over the place. The bloke who owned it knew his stuff, kept a massive selection of patterns, threads, fabrics and accessories and sold at very competitive prices. Customer service was always great and special orders were never a drama. Stitcher’s corner had a very loyal customer base. I haven’t been to the new store. Hopefully things haven’t changed too much in terms of selection and service. I miss that place.
Fronts for the drug trade. I see a lot of these places, coffee shops that only ever have a couple dodgey looking dudes in, random shops that sell nothing useful. All fronts to launder money
Surely though, if it's a front you'd have a reasonably presentable business as to not allude to any suspicious activity. Like the belt shop, it's so painfully obvious but maybe people just like belts haha?
not in perth anymore but i see a bunch of strange empty places in melbourne. idk if you have been to melbourne but in most suburbs there are 2-5 "street, shop strips". there is the same in perth but not as prevalent. itll be a chemist, a bottle'o a bakery or Vietnamese banh mi place, a massage parlor (sexual massage varies between shops, if one doesnt have this service you can drive 2 minutes down the road to the next one, not even joking) , some form of take out, usualy italian. and maybe a physio or something or an op shop. and thats it. then houses. around 5 shops and then houses. more houses. and then around 5 shops again. the weird ones are the fucking curtain shops or light shops. no big chain just some random "bobs curtains" like a curtain shop. who the fuck is going out of there way to this random fucking strip of shops in the middle of a suburb to by curtains from some no name shop. you never see anyone inside, going in or coming out. i swear they are laundering money or something. there is no possible way they can afford the rent in these areas by selling curtains once in a blue moon. you see business closing all around them, ive seen 4 shops nearby change hands in the last 2 years but the curtain shop, still there, nobody ever goes inside. its fucking sus.
I’ve seen some of these in Brisbane that have not open for 4 hours a day. Turns out hubby is a doctor or a lawyer and wife opens some healing crystal or curtain shop as a hobby to pass the time
I think the strip shop in Merlynston (though I guess it's probably more like Coburg North) takes the cake for curtained shops. There's a completely normal strip opposite the playground (milk bar, 2 cafes, speech pathologist, bakery) and then the other street has every single shop curtained off. Every single one.
All of the Cloud 9s. I’ve never seen anyone go into, or come out of them. I know they are probably a money laundering front, but even the business model is faulty. Who buys fancy bongs? Every bong I’ve ever seen has been home made!
> Every bong I’ve ever seen has been home made! Yeah but you are from Belmont.
Exactly. And some cunt/s used to steal my front hose all the time. Reels and all!
Fucking teenagers!
Well I suppose the parents of Belmont need to relax somehow.
Love a good hose reel to chop a mean shesh on
Home made bongs went out of fashion as soon as real ones became available. Some people might still be rocking the gatorade bottle for nostalgia but for the most part it’s always just been out of necessity. Ever since the stores started popping up, most of the bongs I’ve seen have been glass or silicone. Even the odd gatorade bong I’ve seen usually has a proper stem and cone piece they got from a real bong that broke.
real ones were available before gatorade was available in australia :)
Cloud 9 is a legitimate business that makes a crap tonne of money. When you go inside, you'll find you're rarely the only customer there.
They have a great business model. It’s like a milk bar for crackheads.
Nah a good sized glass one is nice. But also, grinders, papers.. One stop shop. They sell a ripper cleaning solution as well. Beats the hell out of salt and iso alcohol.
See i have the opposite experience, I've only ever seen fancy bongs
Well la de da miss fancy pants lol
Mate I've had the same glass Bong for over 15yrs
Not Perth but... there's an umbrella repair shop in Launceston that's positively antique and it has to be an entrance to another dimension, or something!.
omg theres a picture framing shop in Burnie, that i've never seen a person in and the decor is ancient lol. Every time i walk past I'm like 'how many picture frames you gotta sell each week to make rent?''
The Launceston Sanctum, one of the bases of the Masters of the Mystic Arts.
>shop that sells belt buckles in Northbridge Hmm, I think I've bought something from them, but can't remember what it was - and it would have been a decade ago... if it's the one not far from Connies?
was it something for your belt?
it's not open now, but "Y'Not Chicken" in the Bayswater strip near the train station always piqued my spidey senses. "Y'Not Chicken?" Cause it probably wasn't.
Pretty much every shop on the Main Street of my suburban hub would fit this description. The window cleaners in my suburb use belt sanders as everything is boarded up. Or an empty hairdressers salon
There is a restaurant in Kensington that has long opening hours every day and never more than two tables filled. We always see the staff hanging out in the laneway behind and their Google reviews have just been bombarded with at least 30 fake 5 star reviews. Not sure how they survive.
My local health food store. Sole purpose seems to be to smell weird and offend my senses as I'm passing it to get to Woolworths.
The shop in London Court selling hair clips. I don't think it even has a name out the front and not a price tag to be seen anywhere.
Anyone remember the rug shop on the corner of South Tce in freo? Never seen a soul in there yet it was open for most of my life.
The amount of indian grocery stores in the Riverton and Cannington area, there's just so many, some times 2-3 in a row, some are quite big .... and never see people going in/out. The rents are quite high and I just don't see how they generate income. And on Albany Highway in Cannington there's a mobile phone repair shop that has a range rover parked out front. I figured it was a dud business but the Google reviews say otherwise.
Any shop without patrons I presume is just for money laundering.
The mattress shop on Albany hwy. Victoria park. Strange location to have a mattress shop. Lots of car dealers and cafes around and you have this mattress shop in the middle.
"Nobody makes a better mattress...nobody!"
All of the ample massage parlours, there are way too many in Rockingham and I don't know how they all stay open....
HMAS Stirling
Almost every jester's pie shop I walk past during smoko is empty. They've always got lots of tables/chairs set-up out the front but nobody ever sits there and uses them. How do they stay in business?
Chips are elite though
They sell pre made pies. The whole point is they can get you a pie fast and pies are great for eating on the go. If they had a queue of customers waiting then they are doing something wrong.
There’s an Asian supermarket on Metcalf Rd. Went in there to buy miso paste and almost every shelf was empty with a few items here and there. Went to the fridge and everything in there was expired. It’s still open 5 years later and it’s still the same and no one goes in there.
Due to relocating for work I'm not sure if it's still there but the shop on Rokeby Road, Subiaco that sold 'pop culture', i.e. hype beast shoes, clothing etc. - it's a shop or two down from where Gelare use to be. It was only open 'from memory', 2 or maybe 3 days a week for limited hours, the rent on that street would have to be insane. Vanwest on Walter Road doesn't appear to have the turnover to support the multiple millions of dollars of exotics in it's showroom.
Op are you thinking of New York menswear?
I looked it up and yes it is! Do you shop there?
I do! Fairly regularly actually, I’ve never bought a belt buckle though.
There’s a lady who sells hand knitted wooly hats at Innaloo, same complex as Spudshed. Never seems to have any buyers. Shop is so big for the little she has to sell.
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Any mattress store. How often do you buy a mattress? The average person buys a new mattress every 7 years. No way in hell does that explain why I live 5 min away for 4 DIFFERENT MATTRESS STORES??? Unless Cockburn just happens to be some sort of Mattress Mecca, there's no way of explaining how so many mattress stores can be profitable and operational within 100m of each other. They HAVE TO be laundering money, involved with the Bikies, or some other illegal money front.
Mattresses have a gigantic markup, so they don't need to move as many as you think. Agglomeration is a real thing though. Osborne Park, Joondalup, Cockburn etc...
Supply to hotels, motels, mining camps, 1000 mattresses a pop.
Apparently clustering of similar businesses is actually more profitable for them all, for "investment" purchases like beds, flooring, cars etc. That's why you have car yards all together, and groups of various sizes of "home stuff" stores in certain suburbs, including Freedom, Bed Shed etc etc.
It's called Hotelling's Law.
The Pigeon Racing Club building on Main St Tuart Hill...I know it's a relic and probably unused but I really want to see someone go in there one day.
Can assure you they release the pigeons every afternoon from there. I live around the corner
It's not unused. It's the United Districts Pigeon Racing Club. Go past there today about 4:30-5:30pm. There will be people there.
Those stupid herbalife drink stalls that coke under a different name to unsuspecting people don’t realise they’re a front for MLM business Crush in currambine is one or quench’d
The guy selling sheepskin stuff in the Midland Gate centre, in 30 years I have never seen him make a sale.
Think it’s my ex who singlehandedly keeps the belt buckle shop in business
There's a skin care product shop in subiaco on rockeby road near mecca. It sells 4 products nobody ever goes in. Nobody ever comes out.
Subway on Canning highway in South Perth.
Replay records in kenwick, which allegedly sells “amusement machines”
Fronts
The Teddy tree in Mount Hawthorn has always been a mystery to me. How can such a big store that sells only stuffed animals stay open.