A shop is a place where goods or services are sold to customers. It can be a small local store or part of a larger chain.
“Shop” comes from Old English “sceoppa,” meaning a booth or stall. It originally referred to a simple structure where goods were displayed. Over time it broadened to mean any place of trade.
Shop and the British ‘shopping centre’ line up with the American ‘shop class’ at school—both go back to workspaces where people made and sold things. Shopping used to be much more about craft and production, not just buying. The word still quietly carries that history.
Shopping has been stereotypically associated with women, especially in consumer culture that targeted women as primary household purchasers. This has reinforced clichés about women being frivolous shoppers and men being rational buyers.
Avoid assuming that shopping is primarily a women's activity; refer to 'customers' or 'shoppers' without gender unless relevant to the analysis.
["store","retail outlet","buy (verb)"]
Complete word intelligence in one call. Free tier — 50 lookups/day.