I love the fruits of research

[Bob Schroeck]

Not always the research itself, definitely the fruits.
One of the nagging questions that fan writers will occasionally bring up about Season One of Sailor Moon is, "How, with real estate prices in Tokyo being what they are, does the Dark Kingdom manage to open so many shops so quickly?"
The answer, it turns out, is easily enough found when you go looking.  Japan was in the middle of a nasty recession in 1992.  Just like the recent recession here in the US, businesses closed and property values dropped like a rock.  There would be closed, empty shops all up and down the market district in Azabu-juban.  If the Dark Kingdom is being aboveboard about it, they just have to do a short-term rental of a shop (like those ephemeral Halloween stores that show up in September and are gone by November 1).  And if they're not bothering to be aboveboard, they just break a shop open and move right in, and mind-whammy any real estate agent who comes by and complains. 
The sad thing is that it took me until this week to connect the recession to the Dark Kingdom shops.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

[robkelk]

If it's any consolation, I hadn't made the connection myself until you mentioned it here - and I was well aware (from Scramble Wars) that the bubble had burst in Japan at about that time.
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

[Black Aeronaut]

Innnnnteresting....

I think for my part I'll have any business like that going down due to mind-whammy shenanigans.

That said, I think there'd be a lot of mind-whammy going around... health inspectors, code inspectors, tax assessors, and other such notables...

[Bob Schroeck]

It does make more sense for them to just break in and use a space than bother with money and paperwork. They certainly wouldn't want a trail left to any of their active agents -- I mean, they tried that with the Dark Agency in Sailor V, which managed to masquerade as a real business for, what, nearly two years? And look how well that worked out. Lost effort, lost time, lost resources, all that time wasted actually running a business. Why bother putting in that much effort when a Potemkin village of a shop will do just as well for a life-energy smash-n-grab and leave fewer traces behind?
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

[DHBirr]

Wasn't it part of the first Austin Powers movie that the evil organization's "legitimate" front business had become genuinely, majorly profitable?  And I'm almost certain I've seen a variant on the same theme in some other work, although I can't place where.  
It'd be hysterical -- though, alas, almost certainly not fitting with what you've planned for the step -- to show some of Beryl's minions become truly enthusiastic about making a real profit with their "Potemkin" shop ... and succeed.  Especially if they also met or exceeded all the goals she'd set them at the same time.  Of course, I assume she's a bad boss who'd blame them anyway, on the grounds that the energy they put into making the firm pay for itself could've been devoted to stealing even more life-energy....
-----
Big Brother is watching you.  And damn, you are so bloody BORING.

[robkelk]

...  Of course, I assume she's a bad boss who'd blame them anyway, on the grounds that the energy they put into making the firm pay for itself could've been devoted to stealing even more life-energy....

You're just saying that because of what she did to Jadeite in canon.
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012