From: "Rich Gauszka" 

Your focus that a person of Middle Eastern persuasion is the one purchasing
the cell phones from the gas station is erroneous. While it probably is a
person requiring some anonymity that could be anyone from your neighborhood
drug runner to Karl Rove.


"Gary Britt"  wrote in message
news:44e13ac9$1{at}w3.nls.net...
> You can't buy brass knuckles and stolen OTC medication (which I assume is
> selling for less than Wal-Mart prices), crack pipes etc at Wal-Mart.  It
> makes sense there would be a market for these items somewhere.  What
> doesn't make sense is for us to believe that Abdul is buying cell phones
> at the gas station for a higher price than they can buy the same cell
> phone at Wal-Mart.  To believe that you have to believe Abdul doesn't shop
> at Wal-Mart for anything.
>
> Gary
>
> "Rich Gauszka"  wrote in message
> news:44e127c8{at}w3.nls.net...
>> Many of the local gas stations are owned by the Middle East immigrants so
>> the phones are being sold out of their stores. It's really a gray
>> area/sometimes shady  market that they serve and local media in the past
>> has exposed everything from brass knuckles, stolen OTC medication, to
>> crack pipes sold from the gas stations and party stores. We are talking
>> small entrepreneurs looking the other way while they make a buck.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> "Gary Britt"  wrote in message
>> news:44e12329{at}w3.nls.net...
>>> Rich, the claim below they are being sold to local gas stations, etc.
>>> seems completely insane to me.  Why buy from gas station when you can
>>> buy the same phone for less at Wal-Mart.  If the phones were being
>>> converted to something not sold at Wal-Mart or being shipped overseas,
>>> then at least the "its just an innocent business"
claim might make some
>>> sense, but it makes no sense at all that Arabs in Dearborn would rather
>>> pay higher price to gas station than buy from the Wal-Mart next door.
>>>
>>> Gary
>>>
>>> "Rich Gauszka"  wrote in message
>>> news:44e11943{at}w3.nls.net...
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> "Mike N."  wrote in message
>>>> news:7452e2dfqdtfhug4v0oc9cd4hrfbapn4r5{at}4ax.com...
>>>>> On Mon, 14 Aug 2006 19:34:47 -0400, "Gary
Britt" 
>>>>> wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>>Where are these cell phones sold, USA or overseas? 
Whose buying them
>>>>>>rather
>>>>>>than go to the local Wal-Mart themselves?  Why only
Arabs exploiting
>>>>>>this
>>>>>>"opportunity"?
>>>>>
>>>>>  And if they are indeed reselling them, what a bunch
of dummies as
>>>>> businessmen!   Why buy in qty 1,000 retail when they could get a
>>>>> significant break on that quantity by buying directly
from Tracfone.
>>>>>
>>>>>  More likely, they are just adding a level of obfuscation for
>>>>> purchasing
>>>>> and reselling untraceable cell phones.
>>>>
>>>> But I thought Gary Britt  loved the entrepreneur spirit?
>>>> 'An independent entrepreneur will buy the phones for, say,
$8 each. He
>>>> will sell them to a distributor for $12, making a $4
profit. Multiply
>>>> that by a thousand -- about the number of phones the three
men arrested
>>>> in Caro bought in total -- and you have a $4,000 profit.'
>>>>
>>>>
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060814/NEWS05/608140339/
1007/NEWS05
>>>> It may seem unusual for someone to buy hundreds of cell phones at a
>>>> time, but metro Detroiters of Middle Eastern descent say
that practice
>>>> is part of a long tradition of entrepreneurship in Arab-American
>>>> communities.
>>>>
>>>> From Dearborn to Troy to Sterling Heights, Arab Americans
are a major
>>>> part of the cell phone business in southeastern Michigan.
At least half
>>>> of the cell phone businesses in the region are owned by metro
>>>> Detroiters of Arab or Chaldean descent, say business owners in the
>>>> industry. Many new immigrants or emerging businessmen earn money by
>>>> buying the cell phones and then selling them to gas stations,
>>>> distributors or stores.
>>>>
>>>> It's called capitalism, Arab Americans say.
>>>>
>>>> In Michigan, "you can talk to almost any family in
the Arab-American
>>>> community, and they all have some relative in the cell
phone business,"
>>>> said Warren David, a Lebanese American from Northville.
>>>>
>>>> If police knew that, perhaps five Arab Americans would not have been
>>>> arrested last week on terrorism charges after they bought
hundreds of
>>>> cell phones, said David, who recently sold his cell phone
business to
>>>> an Iraqi American.
>>>>
>>>> "If they understood us a little more, they might not
jump the gun so
>>>> quickly," he said.
>>>>
>>>> In Ohio on Tuesday, a store employee called police after two
>>>> 20-year-old Arab-American men from Dearborn bought a large number of
>>>> cell phones at a Wal-Mart. The same thing happened Friday
in Caro after
>>>> three Arab-American men bought 80 phones at one store.
>>>>
>>>> In the Ohio case, Osama Abulhassan and Ali Houssaiky were
just trying
>>>> to make money by buying cell phones so they could sell them to a
>>>> distributor for a profit, family members said.
>>>>
>>>> "The two young men were engaged in a perfectly legal
practice based on
>>>> the most fundamental principles of our free market
economy," the
>>>> Abulhassan family said in an e-mail.
>>>>
>>>> Here's how the practice sometimes works, said Nasser
Beydoun, head of
>>>> the Dearborn-based American Arab Chamber of Commerce:
>>>>
>>>> An independent entrepreneur will buy the phones for, say,
$8 each. He
>>>> will sell them to a distributor for $12, making a $4
profit. Multiply
>>>> that by a thousand -- about the number of phones the three
men arrested
>>>> in Caro bought in total -- and you have a $4,000 profit.
>>>>
>>>> The distributor then will sell the phones at a higher price to gas
>>>> station owners, who in turn sell them at a marked-up price.
>>>>
>>>> Many people of Arab descent "are traders by
nature," Beydoun said.
>>>> "That entrepreneurship should not be linked to
terrorism just because
>>>> they are Arab American."
>>>>
>>>> For more than 100 years, the Arab-American community has
tried to turn
>>>> a profit on everything from trinkets to watches to electronic goods.
>>>>
>>>> In the 1980s, David recalled, blue jeans were the hot item. And his
>>>> Lebanese immigrant grandfather often bought and sold
hosiery to make a
>>>> living.
>>>>
>>>> In metro Detroit, Arab Americans are believed to dominate the cell
>>>> phone industry not only on the retail level, but also when
it comes to
>>>> wholesale dealers and accessory stores. Two of the area's
biggest cell
>>>> phone chains --  Wireless Toyz and Wireless Giant -- are
owned by Iraqi
>>>> Chaldeans.
>>>>
>>>> This practice also occurs with other goods. In Dearborn,
for example,
>>>> Arab-American entrepreneurs buy and sell incense, lighters
and flowers.
>>>>
>>>> There's a concern that what happened in Ohio and Caro could hurt
>>>> Arab-American business owners.
>>>>
>>>> Abed Ayoub, 26, a Dearborn resident who often works on legal issues,
>>>> said he knows of at least two cases in recent months in which FBI
>>>> agents questioned Arab Americans after they purchased
large numbers of
>>>> cell phones from stores.
>>>>
>>>> "They're just doing business, nothing more," Ayoub said.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>
>>
>
>

--- BBBS/NT v4.01 Flag-5