They seem to be opening everywhere. In our two nearest towns there are multiple shops in some streets.
They are expensively kitted out but I never/rarely see anyone in them.
They must have a purpose but I don’t know what it is.
Answers on a postcard please!
Cash businesses… easy way to wash money through a ‘legitimate’ business into the system.
Creative and suspicious thinking might offer some answers. Ditto nail-bars, vape shops and of course the now extinct sunbed parlours. Many are legitimate…but not all. I should say this is not idle speculation by the way, I have some direct knowledge of this.
Bruce
Google is your friend
I stopped at a small retail area in late July - an absolutely gloriously sunny day.
I couldn’t for the life of me figure out why there was a huge queue for a tanning parlour - why would you not just go and lie in the sun in a park?
Of course not all services are advertised. A friend of mine sold a high street shop to such a businees and discovered it was offerring more ‘personal’ services upstairs.
Bruce
I suppose they might not have wanted tan lines and decided against a breach of the peace!
Interesting - like the OP, I have been struck by the last number of Turkish barbers there seem to be now, far more than I remember there ever being old-fashioned English barbers (and hairdressing salons). One if my sons goes to one very regularly, and says he’s always busy, so perhaps a genuine barber (or at least one present) and yes, reflecting it, most that I’ve seen appeared to be empty when I passed.…
Personally the very name barber brings back unpleasant memories from teen years. And I have managed to avoid entering a barbershop since then.
Will I be reprimanded for suggesting that all the cash they earn could buy lots of small vessels!
Which brand is that - could do with washing some old smalls and getting cash out 
You’ve got to be well dodgy to get a jackpot payout like that. 
For a small town of around 16,000 we seem able to sustain a remarkable number of people doing hair and nails full stop really. The proportion of Turkish barbers has grown disproportionately and there’s now even a masseuse of debatable repute but the broader growth is down to a general driving down of incomes and hours in those professions where people largely think they may as well work for themselves.
Locally there have been a number of questions raised about the sudden proliferation of things Turkish. I’ve no doubt much of that is driven by overt racism but equally it’s been interesting to hear that GM police are of the view that 80%+ are nothing more than money laundering operations allowed to stay open because GMP don’t have control over what are quite lengthy, complex and cross border investigations.
I’ve yet to hear an explanation as to why so many are open 7 days a week.
I only find coins in mine.
Oh, and sometimes keys nuts, bolts and washers.
We have had two Turkish barbers open up recently and like you I can’t fathom out why they are open seven days a week.
If they are legit hair cutting businesses, then being open all weekend makes far more sense than only being open during the week and maybe Saturday mornings or whatever, the old-fashioned way. After all, a high proportion of working people only have the weekend to go to a hairdresser. The question is whether or not they have the trade at that time. If they don’t have any hairdressing on Sundays or otherwise seven days a week, then indeed when wonders what they are open for.
In my nearby high street there is about 8
I have a regular one I use and barbers there are a mix of Turks and Kurds and Syrians.
There friendly guys and do a good cut.
More tellingly they only take cash never card.
Funny enough I was talking to a work colleague who lives nearby and he was saying that he took his 14 year old son for a cut at another one
On going to pay also cash he was offered cocaine !
The barber said if you want any sniff we have the best.
Hardly appropriate in front of his young son and just so blantant what the shop was being used as an outlet for.
A couple of months ago there was a shooting in the highstreet and apparently it was related to a barber war
Draw your own conclusions…
Most barbers are empty if you walk past them during working hours or have one or two customers at most, so it is not just Turkish Barbers that are empty. As a regular visitor to Turkey over the years, I am used to seeing them being open from early morning until late evening and I wonder if they have just brought the traditional working hours here. As for whether they have other sources of income, I have no idea.
we know what they are open for
Martin
Try the special laundrette. 
