Do you use both “store” and “shop” when referring to a building that’s selling goods?

26 comments

1. Yup I use them both.

   And unlike a very vocal group of people on here I have zero issue at all with using Americanisms. In fact I find the whole “hate on American stuff” attitude that many on here insist on making 80% of their personality to be pathetic.

2. I’m from UK, I never use the word “store” always shop for me.

3. >Department stores are an example

   We might use that formally (and we don’t have many traditional department stores left) in very rare occasions, but we’d normally use the name of the shop instead; ‘I’m going to B&M for new curtains and some snacks,’ rather than ‘I’m going to the department store for…’

   Shop could mean anything from the local corner shop (Convenience Store in American) to a large out-of-town supermarket or retail park. ‘I’m popping to the shop for milk,’ would probably mean a corner shop but ‘I’m popping to the shops’ (plural) is more likely to be mean you’re off to do a weekly grocery shop, going into the town centre or visiting a retail park.

4. I know nobody who call shop a store. Department stores are department stores but I would still call it a shop

5. I don’t think I ever call a shop a store, unless it’s a specific type of shop, eg a superstore

6. Always use shop, I have never heard the term store outside the phrase “department store, and there aren’t many department stores left really

7. I’ve never said store

8. A department store will normally have multiple ‘retailers’ within it. A department store like John Lewis will have different departments for its own products but will also have departments where other retailers sell their products. To me a ‘shop’ is anything from a small corner shop to a large ‘supermarket’, I wouldn’t really use the term superstore ‘really’.

   Although if you told someone you were going ‘shopping’ that could really mean anywhere for anything 😂

9. Only in the context of ‘department store’. Otherwise never, I always say shop.

10. UK….shop. A store is where you *store* stuff. But then it becomes a storage place. So “I’ll put that in storage for later” is more common than “I’m going to the store”

    Nobody says store. Shop local, shop national, big shop, little shop, etc

11. I think it’s an American import thing, I used to work for toys r us, and they were “stores”, never shops because the company was American, so all of the literature was full of Americanisms. I assume the same thing has happened with other companies.

12. We say shop but know what you’d mean if you said store.

    Not sure if the opposite would be true in America.

13. It depends if it’s got it/known for its name. So I’d say “I’m going to the Apple Store, my phone’s on the blink.”

    But I wouldn’t say “I’m going to the store to grab my weekly stuff today.” It would be shop

14. Always shop.

15. The concept of a department store is an American import hence the terminology.

16. Outside “department store” the only type of example sentence I can think of where it feels natural to use it is something like “they have 53 stores nationwide”. I guess then you’re referring to individual buildings whereas normally you’re referring to the whole entity.

17. When referring to a “department store”, it’s more of a title/noun these days than anything else.

18. “Department store” is an American phrase and it was adopted into British English to describe a specific type of shop with several distinct departments selling different types of things.

    Other than that, retail trading establishments for sale of goods are “shops” in British English.

    A “store” is a place dedicated for keeping things, not for selling them.

19. A shop is where you shop, i.e. buy things. A store is where you store things, i.e. keep them for later.

    People who use store instead of shop have been watching too many American TV programmes.

20. Only ever “shop”, never “store”.

21. Some of the older generations, and those gone by would often refer to going to the store (this would generally mean something like the Co-Op which would have multiple departments) I’m talking those born in the 40’s and earlier – but now I only ever hear shop or shops.

22. No, for me a store is a place where things are stored. i.e a storeroom, stores.

    A shop is a place you buy things.

23. One example that people seem to be forgetting here is the use of the term “store manager”.

    But yeah, as others have said, we predominantly use the term “shop”, over “store”.

24. I’ve picked store up from my partner. She works for Lidl and it seems to be the done thing in the company to refer to it as a store.

25. I’d say department store, otherwise, shop.

26. Stores are bigger, like a superstore.