It's a front...
It's like that old scam where people send off for happy-butt toys, don't get their product, and are too ashamed to file a complaint or a lawsuit...
Here's how it works, folks. When you steal money, you have to launder it. What better way to launder massive amounts of mob money than to set up a massive distributed network of retailers for products that no one really buys? Sure, you have the poor sod or two that actually DOES buy this stuff, but most of the purchases are made by criminals offloading their stolen loot. They launder their money through this system, which keeps them honest, since who would want their mob boss publishing market data about how many penis pills you buy a month? The redistributed cash is then allocated through proper channels and no one is the wiser. You'd think someone would catch on...