"I recently visited Menlyn Park mall in Pretoria specifically for the weFix store. While waiting I did some browsing and noticed the sheer number of cellphone shops. It's like they're built from a kit that includes: a selection of ugly phone cases, garbage Bluetooth speakers, fluorescent lighting, and a South Asian shopkeeper who stands outside the shop. In one aisle there were three of these shops: two next to each other and one opposite them -- all with the shopkeepers standing outside by the doors.
There are at least two cellphone shops in Cresta and that's not counting the stalls in the middle of aisles.
The thing is, I never see customers in these shops. How can they afford to rent space in malls like Cresta and Menlyn with barely anybody going in to buy a cheap phone case? Or is rent in a mall really that low and people actually do buy a lot of phone accessories?"
This is a common sight you guys will be able to see in any Safrican mall big enough, filled with chinese crap and useless electronic devices like chargers and adaptors and stuff which ironically aren't cheap for knock-off bullshit brands and instead just feels like the Chink or paki are already stealing your shit out of your pocket, just for you being foolish enough to have crossed the Threshold of the store or kiosk.
You can make a mental note of the inventory, come back two years and fricking see the exact same merchandise inplace on the same spot. So the frickers are never moving any real volume of inventory for sale, so how the frick they are making a living remains a mystery?
The only reason you would be r-slurred enough to enter their shops is to emergency buy an adaptor or charger for you phone which died, and the official Vodacom or MTN shop is closed or half a city away- and even then you'd be wise enough to expect that shit to fail within the next 6 months.
I make a distinction between pakis and Indians here in SA, because ironically enough in SA indians tend to be Lower to middle class, even the muslim ones, and tend to hold well regarded stores, like fabric factories or factory cutlery stores, and they import their stuff directly from India. Indian spice merchants are very VERY popular as Bongs and Boers use that shit in their Braais
Point is Indians tend to be the favorable ethnicity to do business with, in the corporate world, because they have the association and steriotype of serious businessmen in the country, whereas Pakis and Chinamen have all of the negative associations of scamartists and swindlers.
These are of course vast generalizations, and dont apply to everyone.
But these paki/chinamen shops are regarded as shitbox labs or money laundering operations, as fricking nobody knows how in God's earth they make money?? The only Chinamen shops most people really trust is sushi shops!
today even the redditors are calling out the dodgy bastards
"Funny the layman on the street is able to identify businesses that have no business but SARS and law enforcement can't. Unless..."
ONLY MAYOS GET TAXED B-WORD
lots of conspiracy theories!
DRAMATARDS! Do you has these freaks in ur country?!
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
How crooked is your country that INDIANS are regarded as honest businessmen?
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
Crazy how fast we lost the stereotype of indians running businesses since he left
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
Yeah compared to Canadians having mass immigration, and bitching about that,
I and other safricans have a more positive attitude to indians and india. I don't know if this is because they are all middle class peeps ,and thus not beholden to degenerate behaviour
But if I had a choice of letting my country to have mass-immigration,
I would immediately choose Indians over pakis and arabs!
!bharatiya
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
It's all about frame of reference. Indians look like model citizens in African countries but despised anywhere with any actual civilisation.
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
I think maybe the SA indians are just of a higher stock of peeps, and behave generally as model citizens, It's also an open secret that Indians openly hate and are racist to black peeps here and go to great lengths to segregate themselves from the black population, they will build alcoves and serrated suburbs.
When mayos come in to shop at indian Fabric shops or spice-houses, then they are welcomed with friendly vibes, when a black person comes in they are followed with the utmost undisguised suspicion lmoa
And because the anti-racist movement in RSA since Nelson Mandela and democratization has focused near exclusively on the racism of whites, the racism of coloureds and Indians against black peeps and vice versa are pretty much under the radar lmoa!
I think the jeets the Canadian cucks are importing are low class redneck Hillbilly indians from the mother continent, and bring all their 3rd world bullshit with them
I've actually overheard SA indians shit-talk the filthy of mainland india, and we in RSA have our own troubles with trash and garbage disposal, so that's another comparison
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
More options
Context
More options
Context
Tells you everything you need to know
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
More options
Context
More options
Context
More options
Context
odd as this may sound there was a period of time before phone scammers and dodgy tech company outsourcing where indians were considered pretty straightforward and honest
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
That's the "positive" racial steriotype he have of indians in SA.
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
More options
Context
More options
Context
If you're low inhib enough to street shit you're probably socially outgoing. Maybe laying out a fat one in public is actually a sign of a real deal-closer (don't handshake them though).
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
More options
Context
Postcolonial tier
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
More options
Context
Well they are more honest than Chinese businessmen
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
More options
Context
More options
Context
Constant load shedding.
This raw fish will be fine
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
Mainland Euros are cucks and wimps, and died like flies during covid,
meanwhile proportionally very few Safricans died in the country,
because we are tempered by DRINKIN RAW SEWAGE πͺπͺπͺπͺπͺπͺπͺπͺπͺπͺπͺπͺ
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
Deep down you love Africa
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
More options
Context
More options
Context
I remember during Covid local Chinese restaurants was selling mask, Covid test and food
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
More options
Context
More options
Context
There's loads of these in the UK too. It's an open secret that a lot of stores are money laundries.
Altough many of them are candy stores for the same reasons pointed out in the OP (high markup goods that they pretend to sell for cash):
https://www.standard.co.uk/lifestyle/oxford-street-candy-shop-investigation-b1082733.html
The people in the OP are wrong about importing large volumes of crap though. You will never see one of these stores accepting a goods delivery. They just make fake invoices so they only need to buy enough crap to fill the store once. Much more efficient.
If you ever go in and look at the goods, they're usually all out of date.
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
Money laundering in London is out of control and absolutely shameless. There were 5 "dry cleaners" on a small street which never had any business whatsoever, police gave zero fricks.
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
Bong police exist to mandate wrongthinking and harass transphobes for mean internet comments, not to keep you safe chudlord!
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
More options
Context
To be fair wtf are bobbies going to do about an Albanian gang, one lone Albanian with a franken-AK made out of parts from 7 different combloc countries could smoke the entire London police force and still only get 10 years in jail
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
It's not that hard to get proper guns in the UK it's not a third world shithole... Yet.
It's just that it can be quite expensive with varying qualities of guns and having an AK isn't practical as most GM's aren't going into a full on war with another gang.
It's mostly Smgs like Mac-10/scorpios (Albos love the scorpio) and Pistols such as a glocks, 1911s, Revolver (great movie) and beretta. Plenty of shotguns pump actions are the preferred choice.
Overall though the most common weapon of choice is a machette and knives
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
More options
Context
More options
Context
More options
Context
And it always seems like they effing live in the store, they always weird me out.
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
More options
Context
More options
Context
Good post, too bad you're going to be under an ANC-EFF coaltion
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
More options
Context
"Aside from people visiting the shop for the reason that the shop exists then I don't see anyone there. Must be suspicious"
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
something weird going on here
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
More options
Context
More options
Context
Snoop! There it is.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/marketplace-tech-repair-snooping-1.7000775
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
More options
Context
There was a restaurant by my old place that was known for money laundering and they almost never had customers, but if you went in and asked they'd make you a darn good grilled cheese for next to nothing
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
More options
Context
Snapshots:
https://old.reddit.com/r/southafrica/comments/1d2dojm/about_these_cellphone_shops/:
undelete.pullpush.io
ghostarchive.org
archive.org
archive.ph (click to archive)
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
More options
Context
Good morning, SARS.
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
More options
Context