A one-stop shop is a business model offering customers the convenience of having multiple needs met in a single physical location, as with a department store or big-box store carrying a wide variety of products. The term originated in the United States in the late 1920s or early 1930s to describe this kind of retail convenience, though it is also used in public administration for a government office that offers multiple services in one centralized location. The phrase has since spread as informal shorthand for any website, app, or service where people can find most of what they need in one place.
Facts
Core MechanismA one-stop shop lets customers meet several needs in a single physical location instead of visiting separate providers, the convenience department stores and big-box stores offer through a wide product range; the same convenience-consolidation mechanism was later adopted by government agencies as an element of New Public Management. 1 Partially Attested
Origin YearSource states the term originated in the late 1920s or early 1930s; 1930 recorded as a representative year inside that stated range, not a precise date. Connections
Associated With
Amazon markets itself as an everything store, selling across nearly every retail category from a single storefront, a widely cited one stop shop example.
Walmart, selling groceries, apparel, electronics, pharmacy and general merchandise under one roof, is the retail industry most commonly cited one-stop-shop example.
Sources
1. Wikipedia, One-Stop Shop
WikipediaLead section, second sentence
The term originated in the United States in the late 1920s or early 1930s to describe a business model offering customers the convenience of having multiple needs met in one physical location, as with department stores and big-box stores, which offer a wide variety of products.
Lead section
A one-stop shop (OSS), in public administration, is a government office where multiple services are offered, allowing customers to access these services in a centralized location rather than in different places.
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