The Speakeasies
Nearly all of the speakeasies which operated in the City of New York, to cite just one example, were operated by the bootlegging syndicates. Even those speakeasies which were operated independently of the syndicates were as often as not selling alcohol provided by one of the syndicate partner branches, and when one was closed by a raid, the customers simply moved to another speakeasy nearby. The bootleggers needed to maintain some control in order to maintain their customer base.
One New York bootlegger wrote in 1925 that a single Manhattan cross street in the mid-40s between Fifth and Sixth Avenue, the length of a city block, contained 32 speakeasies and restaurants which sold whiskey and other alcoholic beverages to their customers. According to the bootlegger, twenty-five of them were owned by a single firm, which operated its businesses out of a Times Square office. As with most bootlegging firms, rents on properties were paid for at least one year in advance, in order to keep the landlord off the premises and to ensure that if the place was closed by a raid, there would be potential opportunities to reopen after the proper authorities were bribed.
The majority of bootleggers saw nothing wrong with their activities when it came to providing alcohol to their customers, despite it being flagrantly illegal on many levels. Instead, they saw themselves as providing a product and services which made their customers happy, in the face of significant personal and financial risks. Most of the independent speakeasies came to recognize that they faced serious risks on their own, and if their establishment was closed their livelihood was gone. As Prohibition wore on, the majority allowed their businesses to be absorbed by the syndicates, protecting them from unemployment and competition.