3 ms·

Where I live, there is a chain of "vacuum repair" shops. There are like 4 - 5 of them in an area no bigger than 60 square miles. I've always assumed they were a

Where I live, there is a chain of "vacuum repair" shops. There are like 4 - 5 of them in an area no bigger than 60 square miles. I've always assumed they were a money laundering front. Are that many people repairing their vacuums?

Terr_ 2y ago
Some of it might be a competition thing, where clustering is a Nash Equilibrium to prevent the other guy from taking unclaimed territory/customers. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jILgxeNBK_8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jILgxeNBK_8
clown_strike 2y ago
Doubtful, yet they'd probably rebuild your vacuum if you brought it to them. There are a glut of hyper-specialized businesses around here. Russians run all of the appliance repair shops. Israelis ran all cell phone repair places until COVID (now we have few at all). These all took digital payments. Iranians/Turks around here run a bunch of rug shops that never get any customers yet linger for decades. I don't know a single person that owns a rug. The Chinese run donut shops that are cash only, never see any foot traffic, sell terrible stale donuts, and don't even have seating. Vietnamese run all the nail salons and both change owners and personnel every few years. Disney race-swaps protagonists of old movies that predictably flop instead of creating the next Frozen, and Concord burned $400m on a game that only 25k people wanted ($1m revenue). How is this sustainable? It could be money laundering, but some of these businesses look like they're intended to fail. I'd sooner suspect some other financial engineering going on. H1-B fraud or SBA loans-for-foreigners schemes.
- renewiltord 2y ago
  170 firewalk studios employees collectively burning $400mm to get H1-Bs. What next? Are they going to buy the nation of Mexico so that they can cross the border illegally? They could all have EB-1c in if they wanted to at those rates haha.
- kjkjadksj 2y ago
  A little kink in the logic: prop 13 in california. If your folks bought a vacuum shop in 1970 you might be paying no mortgage and that 1970 tax rate today. Making all sorts of otherwise seemingly impossible businesses possible due to severely underpriced overhead relative to other areas.
glandium 2y ago
"I'm looking for a dust filter for a Hoover max extract pressure pro model 60" (from Breaking Bad)
cluckindan 2y ago
Could also be a vehicle for importing illegal drugs.

Terr_ 2y ago

Some of it might be a competition thing, where clustering is a Nash Equilibrium to prevent the other guy from taking unclaimed territory/customers. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jILgxeNBK_8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jILgxeNBK_8

clown_strike 2y ago

Doubtful, yet they'd probably rebuild your vacuum if you brought it to them. There are a glut of hyper-specialized businesses around here. Russians run all of the appliance repair shops. Israelis ran all cell phone repair places until COVID (now we have few at all). These all took digital payments. Iranians/Turks around here run a bunch of rug shops that never get any customers yet linger for decades. I don't know a single person that owns a rug. The Chinese run donut shops that are cash only, never see any foot traffic, sell terrible stale donuts, and don't even have seating. Vietnamese run all the nail salons and both change owners and personnel every few years. Disney race-swaps protagonists of old movies that predictably flop instead of creating the next Frozen, and Concord burned $400m on a game that only 25k people wanted ($1m revenue). How is this sustainable? It could be money laundering, but some of these businesses look like they're intended to fail. I'd sooner suspect some other financial engineering going on. H1-B fraud or SBA loans-for-foreigners schemes.

renewiltord 2y ago
170 firewalk studios employees collectively burning $400mm to get H1-Bs. What next? Are they going to buy the nation of Mexico so that they can cross the border illegally? They could all have EB-1c in if they wanted to at those rates haha.
kjkjadksj 2y ago
A little kink in the logic: prop 13 in california. If your folks bought a vacuum shop in 1970 you might be paying no mortgage and that 1970 tax rate today. Making all sorts of otherwise seemingly impossible businesses possible due to severely underpriced overhead relative to other areas.

glandium 2y ago

"I'm looking for a dust filter for a Hoover max extract pressure pro model 60" (from Breaking Bad)

cluckindan 2y ago

Could also be a vehicle for importing illegal drugs.