Curious about everyone’s opinion on...

[windeguy]

better quality coffee shops and bread products however the reason is that there are not enough repeat customers that can provide the stability of repeat business. We can dream though.

In Cabarete, we have Dick's Panaderia and The Belgian Bakery. While none are at the level of what my family used to have in their Polish bakery back when I grew up, they are pretty good compared to anything that exists today. Some people prefer Friends over those two and Friends is also good. Open and fourth one and die. A painful death.

 

[ChelseaRose]

I will try and send you some thai recipes as I do thai a lot here and is easy as all the ingredients easy to find. PM me your email and will send you some like hot and sour prawn soup. thai chilli chicken with basil and coconut cream, and others.

Matilda

oh my god I miss Thai food! Why in the world isn't there a single true Thai restaurant in Santo Domingo?!

 

[cobraboy]

oh my god I miss Thai food! Why in the world isn't there a single true Thai restaurant in Santo Domingo?!

There was one in the CZ but it closed after St. Martin got whacked with a hurricane. That's where the owner supposedly had another restaurant.

 

[AZB]

i was one of the few pioneering chiropractor in this country. I have worked in puerto plata, santiago and now in santo domingo. where ever I had worked, after a while I had noticed a dozen or so fake chiropractors all around me had opened up and claiming to be doing the same work as I am. the fake chiros were mostly dominicans and a few foreigners as well. I thought my work was unique and specialized. But i see that didn't prevent dominicans from opening up chiropractic fake offices near by me. so take the advice from the old timers here, don't come here asking for ideas; this means you have little clue of what works here and what not. in my experience, something like 90% of businesses opened up by foreigners fail within 6 months to 2 years. many have to beg their family to send them a return ticket to go back home.

 

[ljmesg]

I need a good neck guy. North Coast preferably closer to Cabrera.

 

[the gorgon]

i was one of the few pioneering chiropractor in this country. I have worked in puerto plata, santiago and now in santo domingo. where ever I had worked, after a while I had noticed a dozen or so fake chiropractors all around me had opened up and claiming to be doing the same work as I am. the fake chiros were mostly dominicans and a few foreigners as well. I thought my work was unique and specialized. But i see that didn't prevent dominicans from opening up chiropractic fake offices near by me. so take the advice from the old timers here, don't come here asking for ideas; this means you have little clue of what works here and what not. in my experience, something like 90% of businesses opened up by foreigners fail within 6 months to 2 years. many have to beg their family to send them a return ticket to go back home.

all you need to do to understand what AZB is saying is to go to Sosua beach today, then go back in two years. you will probably see ten percent of the businesses you saw two years ago.

 

[the gorgon]

I think I mentioned this before, but I ran into a guy that started a discotheque in Puerto Plata. The dominicans ate him alive.

He didn't speak Spanish nor had an abogado to help him. Employee problems first. Then the owner decided that he did such a good job fixing up the place that they doubled the rent which made the business unvia. On the home front, he was robbed. He bought some dogs to guard the house, but they loved the poison surprise and he was robbed again. The next set of dogs, he taught not to take food from strangers, and I met that lot. I thought they were going to take a part of my backside, but walked away without buying anything. He said that he lost about 100k Euros.

He gave up. Sold everything at a deep discount and disappeared from whence he came. It's a sad story because I think he really had his heart into it and didn't expect to make a lot of money. I think it would have been completely different if he had gotten use to the locals first and found a good bi-lingual abogado and manager.

there was a group of African American guys who tried to start a disco in that white building behind the new propane station near the chocolate factory. same thing happened to them. i predicted they would have lasted 3 months. i was wrong...they lasted all of a few weeks..some things are for locals.

 

[alexw]

In my opinion and I hope this doesn't offend anyone but it seems like the Dominicans will copy every idea from foreigners except the Chinese. I had a friend open up a french fry business on the conde. A month later there was six other ones on the Conde. Totally ruining the business of my buddies. but hey with the Chinese they don't dare mess with them.

 

[Fernandez]

Toilettes. Import lots of them.
Its BS everywhere you turn.
Keep your money - buy aapl on the dip.

 

[USA DOC]

Toilettes. Import lots of them.
Its BS everywhere you turn.
Keep your money - buy aapl on the dip.

....you have been to parties that were BYOB....bring your own bottle...here its BYOM....bring your own money.........

 

[windeguy]

In my opinion and I hope this doesn't offend anyone but it seems like the Dominicans will copy every idea from foreigners except the Chinese. I had a friend open up a french fry business on the conde. A month later there was six other ones on the Conde. Totally ruining the business of my buddies. but hey with the Chinese they don't dare mess with them.

Yes, this happens very often.

 

[AZB]

I need a good neck guy. North Coast preferably closer to Cabrera.

look up larry mason in cabarete. he is very good.

 

[AZB]

Another example:
In santiago there was an open parking lot that few people used. All of the sudden a new cart selling empanadas opened up and along side, a butcher opened up a meat bbq joint. both were selling very well and there was always a line to get your order. the meat guy was doing good with meat plates bbqed over carbons with yuca and tostones. I would have had to wait 15 minutes to get my order. then all of the sudden other dominicans jumped in to the game to make the same money. 2 more empanada carts opened up, 2 more meat places opened up side by side. all the customers got divided up. make the long story short, all went out of business. the owner of the parking lot opened up his own business with a fixed structure. he hardly ever gets any clients and the parking lot went back to being vacant. the dominicans killed each other's business in less than a year.
AZB

 

[cavok]

look up larry mason in cabarete. he is very good.

Yes. Excellent. He's in the plaza the more or less across the street from Banco Popular in Cabarete. Saw him about a month ago for a back problem. Two adjustments and I was fine.

 

[the gorgon]

Another example:
In santiago there was an open parking lot that few people used. All of the sudden a new cart selling empanadas opened up and along side, a butcher opened up a meat bbq joint. both were selling very well and there was always a line to get your order. the meat guy was doing good with meat plates bbqed over carbons with yuca and tostones. I would have had to wait 15 minutes to get my order. then all of the sudden other dominicans jumped in to the game to make the same money. 2 more empanada carts opened up, 2 more meat places opened up side by side. all the customers got divided up. make the long story short, all went out of business. the owner of the parking lot opened up his own business with a fixed structure. he hardly ever gets any clients and the parking lot went back to being vacant. the dominicans killed each other's business in less than a year.
AZB

another wonderful thing in the DR is that if you rent a space from a Dominican, and you start having success with your business, he tries to find a way to get you out, so he can do your business himself. it does not dawn on him that maybe, just maybe, the business is successful because of you. he thinks it is the building which makes for success.