The Irish- and British-English noun pound shop designates a shop that sells a wide range of goods at low prices, typically one pound or less.
The noun pound shop is also used (especially attributively) to mean: of the type or quality found in a pound shop, cheap, second-rate.
For example, the British journalist and author John Crace (born 1956) used the noun pound shop attributively, in the sense of second-rate, of the then Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Boris Johnson (born 1964), in Big Dog’s contempt comes back to bite him, published in The Guardian (London and Manchester, England) of Wednesday 19th January 2022:
Most Tories were as unimpressed with their leader as the opposition MPs. None who spoke showed any flicker of support, preferring to keep things neutral. Though not David Davis. He went nuclear. Enough was enough. Quoting both Oliver Cromwell to parliament and Leo Amery to Neville Chamberlain, he said to a hushed chamber: “You have sat too long here for any good you have been doing. In the name of God, go.”
This wasn’t your average Tory malcontent. It was a respected old-timer, an arch Brexiter and longtime Johnson supporter who saw through Big Dog’s pantomime theatrics. Boris tried to shrug off the attack but was visibly shaken. He even said he had no idea where such a famous quotation came from. It makes you wonder if he actually wrote—let alone read—the passages in his book about Churchill that cover the early years of the war *. Johnson the Great Pretender. Who can’t even cut it as a pound-shop Churchill.
[* This refers to The Churchill Factor: How One Man Made History (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 2014), a biography of the British statesman Winston Churchill (1874-1965), by Boris Johnson.]
The earliest occurrences of the noun pound shop that I have found are as follows, in chronological order:
1.1-: From Sth. Staffs. Pools, published in the Walsall Observer (Walsall, Staffordshire, England) of Friday 19th October 1979 [No. 5,790, page 42, column 1]:
South Staffs. Pools tote, week No. 35: Nos. 13 and 37. Next draw at The Pound Shop, Bridge Road, Tipton, on Wednesday.
1.2-: From the Express and Star (Wolverhampton, Staffordshire, England) of Friday 19th October 1979 [page 60, column 5]:
SOUTH STAFFS TOTE
Week 35
Winning numbers
13 and 37
Next draw to be held at
Mrs Williamson
The Pound Shop
Bridge Road, Tipton
on Wednesday, 24th October at 3 pm
2.1 & 2.2-: From Classified advertisements, published in the Sentinel (Derry, County Derry, Northern Ireland) of Wednesday 8th July 1981:
2.1-: [page 18, column 4]:
Personal
CONFIDENTIAL—Men only! A new stock of Magee Suits, Jackets and Trousers is on show at The Budget Magee Shop, Main Street, Limavady. See your there, Magee.
CONFIDENTIAL—Ladies only! Don’t miss the Budget Pound Shop, Main Street, Limavady, for bargains in Ladies’ Slacks, Skirts, Dresses, Suits and Coats. Prices from £1.00 to £10.
2.2-: [page 21, column 6]:
For Sale
[…]
BUDGET Magee Shop—for Magee Suits, Jackets, Trousers, the prices will surprise you—Budget, Main Street, Limavady.
BUDGET Pound Shop—for Ladies’ Slacks, Skirts, Dresses, Suits and Coats. Prices from £1.00 to £10. Budget, Main Street, Limavady.
3-: From the following advertisement, published in the Sentinel (Derry, County Derry, Northern Ireland) of Wednesday 29th July 1981 [page 6, column 1]:
BUDGET
POUND SHOP
This Weekend
STOCK CLEARANCE OF LADIES’ CLOTHES
Coats from £4
Suits from £3
Dresses from £3
Blouses from £1
Slacks from £1
including many top names!
EVERYTHING MUST GO!
BUDGET
a tweedy acheson STORE
MAIN STREET
LIMAVADY
4-: From The Heart of England (London: Hamish Hamilton Ltd, 1983), by the British novelist and travel-writer Honor Tracy (1913-1989) [chapter 7, page 66]—the following takes place in Worcestershire, England:
Although politics are rarely mentioned here, on polling day the entire community turned out to vote […]. […] Since a Conservative victory by now was clearly in the bag, I had gone to the Pound shop to lay in a bottle or two for the purposes of celebration.
5-: From the Marylebone Mercury (London, England) of Friday 28th October 1983 [page 5, column 5]:
£40 FINE
ART student Sasha Andrews didn’t paint a very pretty picture when she appeared in the dock for shoplifting.
But it was her first offence, and magistrate Sir Bryan Roberts took a lenient view of the matter.
He fined her £40.
Andrews, 18, of Leinster Square, Paddington, pleaded guilty to stealing a jacket, worth £9.60, belonging to The Dress Pound Shop, in Notting Hill Gate, on October 10.
6-: From the following advertisement, published in the New Ross Standard (New Ross, County Wexford, Ireland) of Friday 2nd August 1985 [Special Notices: page 14, column 3]:
—NOW OPEN—
THE WEXFORD
POUND SHOP
THE BULLRING
EVERYTHING ONLY £1
FANTASTIC BARGAINS TO SUIT EVERYONE
Note: There have been variants of pound shop. For example, the Drogheda Independent (Drogheda, County Louth, Ireland) of Friday 29th November 1991 [page 21, column 4] published an advertisement for a shop in Balbriggan, called Around A Pound Shop. And the Hull Daily Mail (Hull, Yorkshire, England) of Monday 12th December 1994 [page 16, column 5] mentioned a shop in Hull, called Everything Under A Pound Shop.
The following are the earliest occurrences that I have found of pound shop meaning: of the type or quality found in a pound shop, cheap, second-rate:
1-: From an advertisement for Quinn’s Shoparound Centre, in Dublin, published in the Evening Herald (Dublin, County Dublin, Ireland) of Thursday 9th January 1986 [page 15, column 2]:
THE SWAG SHOP
MUSICAL DOOR BELLS were £4.99 Now £2.69. GLASS VASES, Crazy Price 29p. SCALEXTRIC TYPE CAR RACING SETS were £19.99 Now £8.99. VALENTINE’S DAY CUDDLIES were £6.99 Now £4.99 (200 only).
Vast Selection of Pound Shop Lines
OUR PRICE 89p
2-: From The Kerryman (Tralee, County Kerry, Ireland) of Friday 6th October 1989 [page 4, column 3]:
Thieves caught in Killarney
A DAY out in Killarney for a gang of professional shoplifters was spoiled by gardai on Monday when the five ladies from Limerick were arrested and all the goods recovered.
Described as “an organised gang” by a garda spokesman, they took £1,000 of goods from one shop alone. Asked what kind of goods they concentrated on, he replied, “Leather jackets and Waterord [sic] Glass. Only the best. No pound shop stuff, no Taiwanese merchandise.”
Six leather jackets were taken from Quills.
3-: From an article by Bernie O’Toole about rising unemployment in Ireland, published in The Star (Dublin, County Dublin, Ireland) of Monday 10th May 1993 [page 6, column 5]:
The mounting jobless toll yesterday brought an angry response from the Irish National Organisation of the Unemployed.
The Organisation’s incoming chairman Barry McClatchie lashed out at the Government’s various efforts to bring down the dole queues.
Mr McClatchie claimed that the Coalition parties job creation policies looked more like “a pound shop”.
“There’s a huge range of items with no logical connection, all of them cheap and of doubtful quality,” he said.
4-: From an article by George Jacob about a spate of retail closures in Bray, published in the Bray People (Bray, County Wicklow, Ireland) of Friday 2nd September 1994 [page 17, column 4]:
There has been concern amongst traders at the emergence of a growing number of ‘Pound Shop’ type businesses in the town, which although totally legitimate ventures in their own right, are regarded as ‘downmarket’ within the retail trade.
5-: From an article by Ita O’Kelly Browne about the opening of Dublin’s first discount perfume store, published in the Irish Independent (Dublin, County Dublin, Ireland) of Tuesday 18th October 1994 [page 9, column 1]:
The big perfume houses […] jealously guard their products with the same covetousness as haute couture designers, for very obvious financial reasons.
But not for much longer will the perfume houses be allowed to remain on their pedestals as luxury perfume gets the equivalent of the Pound Shop no frills treatment?
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