variety store

noun

1. a retail store, as a five-and-ten, carrying a large variety of goods, especially low-priced articles.

Word History and Origins

Origin of variety store¹

An Americanism dating back to 1760–70

Idioms and Phrases

A retail shop that carries a large selection of usually inexpensive merchandise, as in What this town needs is a good variety store. [Second half of 1700s]

Example Sentences

That was 2019, nearly a decade after entrepreneur Wang Ning opened Pop Mart as a variety store, similar to a pound shop, in Beijing.

From BBC

Some items fell off the shelves at Will and Grace Filipino Variety Store in Naalehu.

From Seattle Times

Variety store chain Family Dollar is reckoning with a major headache after recalling Advil products shipped and stored at the wrong temperature over 10 months.

From Washington Times

It may be tempting to cast that life in terms that emphasize his own humility: He grew up in Boston’s Roxbury neighborhood, the son of middle-class immigrants from Guyana who ran a variety store.

From Washington Post

He was accused of passing a TSA screening checkpoint, entering a boarding gate concourse and taking a pair of sunglasses from a variety store before he was arrested.

From Seattle Times