One Stop Shop

As the name implies, a one stop shop is a place of business that provides customers with a variety of services or products in a single location. Back in the 1920s, the phrase was coined concerning an auto repair service. People were at the time hunting for bargains and the shop found a phrase that seemed to stick. Today, this phrase, one stop shop, has produced countless success and is widely used to bolster marketing efforts.

The term one stop shop has been used to entice customers and provide companies with increased attention for decades. It has become a business model that has good results as well. Many single product specific merchandisers have diversified their product line as a result. Grocery stores have included pharmacies and banking, as well as automotive products. This is a result of the one stop shop theory increasing revenue and providing convenience to consumers. This is by far the least example of how this business example has pervaded the economy. In the 1990s, many so-called mega stores began to be built under the business model of a one stop shop.

With today's inflationary economy, price is always the bottom line. Many dollars of gas can be used to try to find the best price for goods and services. The one stop shop business model is still widely used, only now it has been adapted to only those goods and services within the niche of the products being sold. While such stores as Wal-Mart and Target provide a limited variety of products, there are shopping malls and "strip malls" that have a multitude of products within one location. With almost 50,000,000 sites on the Internet offering one stop shopping, it is clear the that the term is here to stay.