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>There are those who say these shops are a front for dubious trading, maybe even money laundering, and that some overlord is repeatedly opening and closing a se

>There are those who say these shops are a front for dubious trading, maybe even money laundering, and that some overlord is repeatedly opening and closing a selection of outlets to keep on the right side of business legislation. See also: https://whynow.co.uk/read/candy-shops-oxford-street https://whynow.co.uk/read/candy-shops-oxford-street https://old.reddit.com/r/london/comments/m3lh95/those_american_candy_shops_on_oxford_streets/ https://old.reddit.com/r/london/comments/m3lh95/those_americ... https://old.reddit.com/r/london/comments/cnkcaz/private_eye_on_west_end_souvenir_shops/ https://old.reddit.com/r/london/comments/cnkcaz/private_eye_...

dataengineer56 4y ago
I was expecting one of these links to be the link in the submission to be honest. The OP's link doesn't even ask the question as to why there are 11 sweet shops on one of the world's most famous shopping streets. These pages are much more interesting.
gilleain 4y ago
It seems more likely that they exist for the same reason the numerous shops selling various small cheap items (phone box shaped fridge magnets, hats with "I love London", etc) exist. It's a way to fill a commercial unit until a more permanent tenant arrives. So they shut down and reopen elsewhere because the situation was always temporary.
lordnacho 4y ago
I support the money laundering hypothesis. Something similar has happened in Copenhagen, where you also see an unnatural amount of candy stores. There's been several busts related to VAT fraud, it can't be the only form of criminality related to it. Just do the napkin math of what the rent is and how many sweets are bought in a shop, and the catchment of each shop. For reference I had a look at a large restaurant unit in the suburbs. £120k rent and rates (local business tax) per year. That's £10k worth of sweets you'll need to sell each month, just to cover rent, and it's not Oxford Street in the middle of London. (My guess is rent on Oxford Street is a low multiple.) That's a thousand people a month who have to spend a tenner on sweets over 30 days, 30-odd people a day including weekends. Initially plausible, since there's a lot of footfall, but: - Someone who buys sweets in one shop is not gonna buy again in another down the road. There's so many of these shops on and around Oxford Street. - Most people aren't into sweets. Kids are, but they are only a small proportion of Oxford Street footfall. - The shops have a bunch of staff too. Guessing minimum wage, but that will add ~20K per head per year when you add employment related taxes. - Fitting the shop costs a few 10K. - Sweets themselves cost something, probably not a huge amount compared to the sale price, but something. Compare them to the Apple shop, which certainly sells enough stuff to pay rent. Their shop is constantly heaving with people, and their items for sale can cost thousands. These candy stores, when you walk by, are pretty much empty, and they sell something that can be satisfied for a quid.
- Freak_NL 4y ago
  Amsterdam has this with Nutella-pancake-waffle-icecream parlours and vacuum-packed Gouda shops (which displace actually good cheese mongers that cater to locals and visitors alike with a good selection of cheeses). Nobody really seems to know for sure, but it seems to be a combination of a shotgun approach to finding the golden location for a souvenir/tourist-experience shop and money laundering. These are, as the article points out, chains of shops with a murky web of owners behind it. The Amsterdam municipality has stopped granting any new permits for these tourist shops now.
  - lordnacho 4y ago
    Synergies with crime are massive. If you can make the business almost work legit then you can pump the amount of money through the books by quite a bit. At the same time if you are in a country where there's some sort of employment related benefit or you get higher unemployment after having worked, you can put a bunch of your gang on the payroll.
- christkv 4y ago
  This happens all the time with other stores. - Kebab shops who declares tons and tons of sales but nobody is ever seen entering the store and it's always empty. - China goods stores that are the same. Classic money laundering for drugs and other illegal activities. I guess candy stores is the new thing.
  - Veen 4y ago
    It's not just in big cities either. My small provincial town has several shops and take-aways that appear to do no business at all. They're open for a couple of afternoons a week and never have any customers. There's a pizza place run by a single elderly man who gets annoyed if you go in and ask for a pizza (although he will treat you to a lecture about how wonderful Vladimir Putin is).
- blowski 4y ago
  I would guess the sweets are traded internationally to have invoices that launder the money. Since the sweets never go bad, when the shop goes bankrupt, they can be resold to some other part of the laundering outfit. If you're interested in learning more about money laundering, check out the Dark Money Files podcast. https://www.thedarkmoneyfiles.com https://www.thedarkmoneyfiles.com
grenoire 4y ago
This is it in Amsterdam too, from souvenir shops stocking plastic garbage to stores full of phone accessories. It's known that these are all fronts, and somehow managed to survive the series of lockdowns. It's the big city alternative to cash-heavy biz like car washes or laundromats.
teddyh 4y ago
Maybe the rent increases have made these the only viable business models. EDIT: The business models I am referring to are “dubious trading, maybe even money laundering”, not “candy stores”.
- Tsiklon 4y ago
  I think you’re being overly generous. These shops are very very prevalent on Oxford Street, to the point of there being ten to twelve in the course of several hundred meters. They all have cheap signage, incredibly expensive stock and, other than tourists, very little footfall. They all look quite sketchy.
  - gilleain 4y ago
    Only one point is 'off' though: 1) "cheap signage" - so they are minimising costs? 2) "expensive stock" - maximising profits 3) "low footfall" - this does seem odd I still think that they get some deal on the rent, but they could also be dodgy at the same time. Would be nice if they were replaced by better shops.
    - dataengineer56 4y ago
      The way it works (generalising, read links for better info) is: 1. The landlord loses his long-standing tenant during lockdown because they can't afford rent anymore. 2. Instead of letting the shop go empty, the landlord creates their own separate sweet shop company and effectively pays rent to themselves. 3. Towards the end of the tax year, the shop is declared bankrupt. The landlord can take some tax benefits for having a failed tenant who can't pay the bills. 4. Typically the shop would have to auction everything they own (signage, shelves, tills, products) to claim back money, but no one wants to buy American sweets at a business auction. 5. The landlord puts the sweets into storage (they have long expiry dates and don't take up much space) and repeats the same trick next year.
  - teddyh 4y ago
    I meant “these” as in “dubious trading, maybe even money laundering”, not “candy stores”. Post edited to clarify.
mpalfrey 4y ago
Came here to make this exact comment. These are more than likely dodgy.
DrBazza 4y ago
It just feels like yet another murky chain of property ownership. How can these shops possibly sell enough candy to its target market of kids to pay the rent, when there are no kids on Oxford St.? Something from 'under the counter' instead? Or just a case of the "landlord" filling it until someone better comes along because Westminster City Council absolutely have to make Oxford St. look like it's busy and bustling as it's allegedly the UK's most popular shopping street? It would lose it's reputation if it looked like any other UK high street, that is to say, full of closed shops and nail bars. To be honest, it wasn't much different in the 80s and 90s. More major shops, but still lots of weird ones that had no right to exist on Oxford St. but were there nonetheless. In 2022, it's far more obvious.
- Freak_NL 4y ago
  The presumed target audience probably isn't children, it is mostly older teens and adult (British) tourists who may recognize American candy from social media and US films/series. But as others point out, that is likely just a front for money laundering.
  - DrBazza 4y ago
    I think that Westminster Council's needs and requirements on businesses and landlords on Oxford Street is probably underestimated though. But I agree, there's something really shady going here.
- bidirectional 4y ago
  Oxford St is full of kids, probably one of the main places they congregate in central London.
wdb 4y ago
Yes, I always wonder how many travel bags + souvenirs shops you need on street. On Queensway a pretty short street there are so many of these shops that it is getting ridiculous.

dataengineer56 4y ago

I was expecting one of these links to be the link in the submission to be honest. The OP's link doesn't even ask the question as to why there are 11 sweet shops on one of the world's most famous shopping streets. These pages are much more interesting.

gilleain 4y ago

It seems more likely that they exist for the same reason the numerous shops selling various small cheap items (phone box shaped fridge magnets, hats with "I love London", etc) exist. It's a way to fill a commercial unit until a more permanent tenant arrives. So they shut down and reopen elsewhere because the situation was always temporary.

lordnacho 4y ago

I support the money laundering hypothesis. Something similar has happened in Copenhagen, where you also see an unnatural amount of candy stores. There's been several busts related to VAT fraud, it can't be the only form of criminality related to it. Just do the napkin math of what the rent is and how many sweets are bought in a shop, and the catchment of each shop. For reference I had a look at a large restaurant unit in the suburbs. £120k rent and rates (local business tax) per year. That's £10k worth of sweets you'll need to sell each month, just to cover rent, and it's not Oxford Street in the middle of London. (My guess is rent on Oxford Street is a low multiple.) That's a thousand people a month who have to spend a tenner on sweets over 30 days, 30-odd people a day including weekends. Initially plausible, since there's a lot of footfall, but: - Someone who buys sweets in one shop is not gonna buy again in another down the road. There's so many of these shops on and around Oxford Street. - Most people aren't into sweets. Kids are, but they are only a small proportion of Oxford Street footfall. - The shops have a bunch of staff too. Guessing minimum wage, but that will add ~20K per head per year when you add employment related taxes. - Fitting the shop costs a few 10K. - Sweets themselves cost something, probably not a huge amount compared to the sale price, but something. Compare them to the Apple shop, which certainly sells enough stuff to pay rent. Their shop is constantly heaving with people, and their items for sale can cost thousands. These candy stores, when you walk by, are pretty much empty, and they sell something that can be satisfied for a quid.

Freak_NL 4y ago
Amsterdam has this with Nutella-pancake-waffle-icecream parlours and vacuum-packed Gouda shops (which displace actually good cheese mongers that cater to locals and visitors alike with a good selection of cheeses). Nobody really seems to know for sure, but it seems to be a combination of a shotgun approach to finding the golden location for a souvenir/tourist-experience shop and money laundering. These are, as the article points out, chains of shops with a murky web of owners behind it. The Amsterdam municipality has stopped granting any new permits for these tourist shops now.
- lordnacho 4y ago
  Synergies with crime are massive. If you can make the business almost work legit then you can pump the amount of money through the books by quite a bit. At the same time if you are in a country where there's some sort of employment related benefit or you get higher unemployment after having worked, you can put a bunch of your gang on the payroll.
christkv 4y ago
This happens all the time with other stores. - Kebab shops who declares tons and tons of sales but nobody is ever seen entering the store and it's always empty. - China goods stores that are the same. Classic money laundering for drugs and other illegal activities. I guess candy stores is the new thing.
- Veen 4y ago
  It's not just in big cities either. My small provincial town has several shops and take-aways that appear to do no business at all. They're open for a couple of afternoons a week and never have any customers. There's a pizza place run by a single elderly man who gets annoyed if you go in and ask for a pizza (although he will treat you to a lecture about how wonderful Vladimir Putin is).
blowski 4y ago
I would guess the sweets are traded internationally to have invoices that launder the money. Since the sweets never go bad, when the shop goes bankrupt, they can be resold to some other part of the laundering outfit. If you're interested in learning more about money laundering, check out the Dark Money Files podcast. https://www.thedarkmoneyfiles.com https://www.thedarkmoneyfiles.com

grenoire 4y ago

This is it in Amsterdam too, from souvenir shops stocking plastic garbage to stores full of phone accessories. It's known that these are all fronts, and somehow managed to survive the series of lockdowns. It's the big city alternative to cash-heavy biz like car washes or laundromats.

teddyh 4y ago

Maybe the rent increases have made these the only viable business models. EDIT: The business models I am referring to are “dubious trading, maybe even money laundering”, not “candy stores”.

Tsiklon 4y ago
I think you’re being overly generous. These shops are very very prevalent on Oxford Street, to the point of there being ten to twelve in the course of several hundred meters. They all have cheap signage, incredibly expensive stock and, other than tourists, very little footfall. They all look quite sketchy.
- gilleain 4y ago
  Only one point is 'off' though: 1) "cheap signage" - so they are minimising costs? 2) "expensive stock" - maximising profits 3) "low footfall" - this does seem odd I still think that they get some deal on the rent, but they could also be dodgy at the same time. Would be nice if they were replaced by better shops.
  - dataengineer56 4y ago
    The way it works (generalising, read links for better info) is: 1. The landlord loses his long-standing tenant during lockdown because they can't afford rent anymore. 2. Instead of letting the shop go empty, the landlord creates their own separate sweet shop company and effectively pays rent to themselves. 3. Towards the end of the tax year, the shop is declared bankrupt. The landlord can take some tax benefits for having a failed tenant who can't pay the bills. 4. Typically the shop would have to auction everything they own (signage, shelves, tills, products) to claim back money, but no one wants to buy American sweets at a business auction. 5. The landlord puts the sweets into storage (they have long expiry dates and don't take up much space) and repeats the same trick next year.
- teddyh 4y ago
  I meant “these” as in “dubious trading, maybe even money laundering”, not “candy stores”. Post edited to clarify.

mpalfrey 4y ago

Came here to make this exact comment. These are more than likely dodgy.

DrBazza 4y ago

It just feels like yet another murky chain of property ownership. How can these shops possibly sell enough candy to its target market of kids to pay the rent, when there are no kids on Oxford St.? Something from 'under the counter' instead? Or just a case of the "landlord" filling it until someone better comes along because Westminster City Council absolutely have to make Oxford St. look like it's busy and bustling as it's allegedly the UK's most popular shopping street? It would lose it's reputation if it looked like any other UK high street, that is to say, full of closed shops and nail bars. To be honest, it wasn't much different in the 80s and 90s. More major shops, but still lots of weird ones that had no right to exist on Oxford St. but were there nonetheless. In 2022, it's far more obvious.

Freak_NL 4y ago
The presumed target audience probably isn't children, it is mostly older teens and adult (British) tourists who may recognize American candy from social media and US films/series. But as others point out, that is likely just a front for money laundering.
- DrBazza 4y ago
  I think that Westminster Council's needs and requirements on businesses and landlords on Oxford Street is probably underestimated though. But I agree, there's something really shady going here.
bidirectional 4y ago
Oxford St is full of kids, probably one of the main places they congregate in central London.

wdb 4y ago

Yes, I always wonder how many travel bags + souvenirs shops you need on street. On Queensway a pretty short street there are so many of these shops that it is getting ridiculous.