the.com/mom and pop
the store that knows your order before you finish saying it.
means a small, independently owned business, usually family-run, unbothered by shareholders or quarterly earnings calls.
from american slang from early 1900s, when countless corner shops were literally run by a married couple living above the register.
opposite forcebig-box chains standardizing everything, everywhere, always
legal fictionstill counts as a business even with one employee
peak erapre-1960s, before shopping malls ate main street