Meaning & use
mom and pop store
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Meaning
nouncountableinformal
A small shop or business owned and run by a family, usually with few employees and a limited range of goods.
Grammar: Countable: you can say 'a mom and pop store' or 'mom and pop stores'.
Patterns
- a mom and pop store
- mom and pop stores
- run a mom and pop store
They bought their groceries from a mom and pop store on the corner.
The new supermarket forced many mom and pop stores to close.
My grandparents ran a mom and pop store for over thirty years.
Word forms
| plural | mom and pop stores |
|---|
Common combinations
- run a mom and pop store
- After retiring, they decided to run a mom and pop store by the beach.
- a local mom and pop store
- The festival was supported by several local mom and pop stores.
- a mom and pop operation
- The business started as a mom and pop operation but grew quickly.
Synonyms and how they differ
- family business
- A broader term that can refer to any business owned by a family, not just a small shop.
- small business
- A general term for any business with few employees; it does not necessarily imply family ownership.
- corner shop
- British, a small local shop, often but not always family-run.
Opposites
Word family
- mom-and-pop adjective
- Describing a small, family-run business, e.g. a mom-and-pop bakery.
Practice
Which sentence uses 'mom and pop store' correctly?
Choose one answer.
A mom and pop store is a small family-run shop, so it makes sense to say it sells homemade bread. The other options use it as if it were a product or a large chain, which is wrong.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “mom and pop store”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.