Turkish Barbers

[stonerblue]

It never ceased to amaze me how gullible/ignorant I am, I see a Turkish barbers and I just assume they're doing legitimate business

Maybe the young lad sat in the chair whilst some bloke sets about them with scissors is the giveaway..

 

[stonerblue]

Any business that is laundering money in a competent and diligent way will absolutely take card payments. And will welcome them greatly. The more card payments they receive, the more cash they can launder.

Yep.

 

[MCFC Wirral]

There are some staggering and utterly sanctimonious views on here. No business ever cooked the books or were a front for money laundering? I’d walk out of a restaurant or high street shop if they were a cash only business.

 

[Scottyboi]

For tax evasion and money laundering you should look at all the shiny 'beauty academies' that open 1 day a week..

The small high street in my town has at least 6 plus hair salons and 5 barbers, local population is like 14k always wonder how they can stay open. You would think people don't have enough money to constantly get nails and hair done at the minute.

 

[Mr Kobayashi]

There are some staggering and utterly sanctimonious views on here. No business ever cooked the books or were a front for money laundering? I’d walk out of a restaurant or high street shop if they were a cash only business.

Because you can't be arsed to get cash or because of a moral stance?

 

[TinFoilHat]

There are some staggering and utterly sanctimonious views on here. No business ever cooked the books or were a front for money laundering? I’d walk out of a restaurant or high street shop if they were a cash only business.

Maybe that business is owned by a diligent person with an aversion to new tech. Yet they can fill in their accounts perfectly by hand because they have the mental and organisational capacity to do so?

I prefer cash transactions because no fucker can log what I'm legitimately buying and use it to try and control my spending habits, or sell me shit I don't need.

 

[BlueMoonAcrossThePond]

 

[lazerblue]

theres more barbers than pubs now!

 

[TinFoilHat]

theres more barbers than pubs now!

I wonder if that's a society thing?

I notice my local Turkish barbers, which is run by Kurds. Has become a social hub for late teenagers and young adults more than the local pub next door.

I use them and it feels like people have adapted the American barbershop culture to the area as they spend the time laughing, talking and taking the piss out of everyone and everything when I've been there.

 

[I'm With Stupid]

I remember watching a video about how Oxford Street in London had been taken over by a load of American sweet shops that charged extortionate prices and never had any customers. Apparently a lot of them moved in after covid, because they were struggling to rent units, and then a bunch of them got done for money laundering.

Here's a story about it.

 

[stonerblue]

There are some staggering and utterly sanctimonious views on here. No business ever cooked the books or were a front for money laundering? I’d walk out of a restaurant or high street shop if they were a cash only business.

Sanctimonious you say...

 

[Rascal]

Anyone near Gatley i can recommend Fletchers.

 

[Stephen230]

Slightly off topic but why do chippys only take cash? Must be the only place left where you can't use a card.

The banks charge the business every time they accept a card payment. I guess in a business doing a lot of very small transactions, they don’t think it’s worth it to them.

It’s also why a lot of corner shops have a minimum spend for card transactions I assume.

If you go in a shop that doesn’t have a minimum and buy something for like 30p and put it on a card, they’d be better off if you’d stole it.

 

[inbetween]

The banks charge the business every time they accept a card payment. I guess in a business doing a lot of very small transactions, they don’t think it’s worth it to them.

It’s also why a lot of corner shops have a minimum spend for card transactions I assume.

If you go in a shop that doesn’t have a minimum and buy something for like 30p and put it on a card, they’d be better off if you’d stole it.

There are loads of payment providers nowadays who charge next to nothing so there's no excuse. Stripe charges 1.5% so if your chippy is a tenner that's 15p to use card. The chippy just needs to put the prices up 1.5% to cover the cost and nobody would even notice.

It's definitely for tax and other reasons because then they can decide what goes through the till... My local chippy accepts bank transfers under the table!

 

[Stephen230]

There are loads of payment providers nowadays who charge next to nothing so there's no excuse. Stripe charges 1.5% so if your chippy is a tenner that's 15p to use card. The chippy just needs to put the prices up 1.5% to cover the cost and nobody would even notice.

It's definitely for tax and other reasons because then they can decide what goes through the till... My local chippy accepts bank transfers under the table!

I’ve no experience whatsoever in running a business and how accepting card payments works.

I’m going off what my mate, who ran pubs for years tells me. He was one of the last to take cards because he told me he paid a fee to the bank of every card used. I’ve never heard of Stripe. But I got the impression if a punter used a Nat West card for example, he’d pay Nat West a fee. He didn’t get a choice. Other than accepting or not accepting each bank’s card. He wouldn’t accept American Express because he said they charged a way higher fee than the others.

Am I completely misunderstanding the way it works?

 

[inbetween]

I’ve no experience whatsoever in running a business and how accepting card payments works.

I’m going off what my mate, who ran pubs for years tells me. He was one of the last to take cards because he told me he paid a fee to the bank of every card used. I’ve never heard of Stripe. But I got the impression if a punter used a Nat West card for example, he’d pay Nat West a fee. He didn’t get a choice. Other than accepting or not accepting each bank’s card. He wouldn’t accept American Express because he said they charged a way higher fee than the others.

Am I completely misunderstanding the way it works?

You only have to look at it this way and this is partially why we're heading towards a cashless society. With taking card you have no risk, the transaction is instant and you always get the money and don't need to do anything else. For small businesses it also links nicely into accounting or book keeping software so less admin.

Compare this to cash, every penny taken into a till has to be cashed up, securely stored and then later deposited in the bank which isn't free and takes time. It's even harder when the number of bank branches is shrinking. You could pay somebody to handle the cash but that's mega expensive and then there's the risk of it being nicked, fake notes, wrong change etc.

I think if somebody chooses not to take card then there's probably something odd going on and it goes beyond not wanting to pay a 20p transaction fee. My chippy won't take card transactions but they will take bank transfers straight to the owners private bank account.. Make of that what you will.

 

[gordondaviesmoustache]

I remember watching a video about how Oxford Street in London had been taken over by a load of American sweet shops that charged extortionate prices and never had any customers. Apparently a lot of them moved in after covid, because they were struggling to rent units, and then a bunch of them got done for money laundering.

Here's a story about it.

Why would a retail premises that was laundering huge sums of cash through the business not pay its business rates? That doesn’t make any sense.

 

[Mr Kobayashi]

Why would a retail premises that was laundering huge sums of cash through the business not pay its business rates? That doesn’t make any sense.

Why pay an extra tax on your money when the business has a deliberately short lifespan anyway?

Rinse and repeat on and on.

There's no point spending any time or money chasing the debts when directors are fake and all the money has gone offshore and the brains of the operation live in places they aren't going to be extradited from.

 

[gordondaviesmoustache]

Why pay an extra tax on your money when the business has a deliberately short lifespan anyway?

Rinse and repeat on and on.

There's no point spending any time or money chasing the debts when directors are fake and all the money has gone offshore and the brains of the operation live in places they aren't going to be extradited from.

Why draw attention to yourself for less than 10% of what you’re laundering?

 

[stonerblue]

The banks charge the business every time they accept a card payment. I guess in a business doing a lot of very small transactions, they don’t think it’s worth it to them.

It’s also why a lot of corner shops have a minimum spend for card transactions I assume.

If you go in a shop that doesn’t have a minimum and buy something for like 30p and put it on a card, they’d be better off if you’d stole it.

The card machine company charges, not the bank (unless its a business account maybe). Mine (paypal) takes out it's fee as a % of each sale. I then transfer to my bank account.