Modern times have also crippled extortion. Flashback to that sopranos episode where Patsy goes in trying to extort a Starbucks, wont work when you have all these corporate chains engulfing the whole Phlly area. Youre not gonna be able to go into a TGI Fridays, a Best Buy, some bagel shop based out of Ohio etc and extort protection money from a faceless owner.
Well the mob never really went after those national chains anyway. Unless you're talking about the indirect extortion of all businesses through inflated prices in the mob-controlled garbage industry up through much of the 1990's.
But, as recent cases in New York, Chicago, and New England have shown, adult business like strip clubs and porn shops are still favorites to be extorted by the mob. And in New York, extortion of companies in certain industries, like construction, the waterfront, etc., through the unions is still a problem.
No they didnt go after those places in the Scarfo days because they didnt exist. Today these places are popping up all over South Philly. What was once a hardware store is now a Dunking Donuts, What was once a building with a corner store is now demolished to make way for a Wallgreens, CVS, Burger King or whatever you have it. In Scarfos days South Philly was nothing but mom and pop type stores which were easy targets.
Forget about New Jersey, the cost of a liquor license is so high that no private owner can own them anymore. Somebody posted a few months back a report on how much of a hand Scarfo had in bars. Knowing the Jersey area myself I know what those bars are now, they are Ruby Tuesdays, Demolished and made way for a TGI Fridays, ect. Even if you do manage to squeeze something out of a private corner bar times have changed with the way liquor sales are monitored, bars are under such a microscope now since the Clinton administration that profit margins in the food and drinks biz have went down thanks to certain taxes he levied back in 97-98 (if there is anyone here that is or was in the bar/restaurant biz they know what im talking about)
As for unions in construction, here in Philly at least that is squashed. Most of it is controlled by politicians so the once lucrative practice of bid rigging is almost lost now that a certain number of jobs have to be allocated to minority firms.
Strip clubs also, sure the mob might have a hand in some of them but even here now we have chain strip clubs like Penthouse club and Rick's. Porn stores were a great score in the 80's but we are all on the internet now, when was the last time any of us paid for porn lol? We can get it free online now so that cash machine has died out as well.
