"No man of sense ought to be ashamed of being called a shopkeeper" - Napoleon

This is a global project - everyone is invited to add their retailing ancestors to this project (profiles must be set to public). Project collaborators, feel free to update the project description, adding notes, documents, images, resources ... and inviting more collaborators.

See Notable Retailers

Notes

From Researching the history of shops

By the late 17th century England and Wales had about 40,000 shopkeepers, according to the estimate of pioneer statistician Gregory King.

From Jews of Brooklyn

"If today most people consider Jewish candy stores just a place to buy sweets, sixty years ago they were an important element in the social fabric. These places were gathering places, meeting places, centers of the community ..."

From Britain: a History of Shopkeeping, Empire and Racial Tensions

"My interest in the corner shop is personal – my parents’ shop formed the backdrop to my daily life. Growing up, the shop served as my playground, library, kitchen, bus stop, and office, and continues to play a huge part in my experience of that most elusive of concepts – ‘home’."

See Notable Retailers

A - Z of Shopkeepers and Retailers

Bakers

Barbers

Those who cut, dress, groom, style and shave males' hair

Booksellers

Butchers

• Pork Butchers
  
• Poulterers
  

Cheesemongers

Confectioners

Cordwainers

• Cobblers
  

Department Stores

Drapers

originally a retailer or wholesaler of cloth mainly for clothing. A draper may also operate as a cloth merchant or a haberdasher.

• Dressmakers
  
• Haberdashers - selling small articles for sewing, such as buttons, ribbons, zips etc.
  
• Tailors
  

Fishmongers

Florists

Grocers

Gunsmiths

those who repair, modifiy, design, or build firearms

Hairdressers

Those who cut or style hair in order to change or maintain a person's image. See Hairdresser

Hardware Stores

Jewellers

Locksmiths

Milliners

Newsagents

Opticians

• Oculist
  
• Optometrist
  

Pawnbrokers

Lending money on portable security - Lending money on portable security - see History of pawnbroking

Pharmacists

• Druggists
  

Post Offices

Restauranteurs

• Teashops
  

Tobacconists

Victuallers

Resources

• Shops and Shopkeeping
• The Political Economy of Shopkeeping in Milan
• Shopkeeper in Colonial America
• Jewish Shopkeepers in the American South
• Coolies, Shopkeepers, Pioneers: The Chinese of Mexico and Peru (1849–1930)
• City of London Livery Companies
• Shopkeepers for a Nation
• general store, general merchandise store, general dealer or village shop
• Wikipedia - the department store "Aristide Boucicaut founded Le Bon Marché in Paris in 1838, and by 1852 it offered a wide variety of goods in "departments" inside one building."
• The Wonderful World of the Department Store in Historical Perspective: A Comprehensive International Bibliography Partially Annotated
• Female shopkeepers & tradeswomen
• Ranker - List of famous shopkeepers
• Trading Posts In the United States in the early 19th century, trading posts used by Native Americans were licensed by the federal government and called "factories".
• Trading Posts & Mercantiles in Montana
• United Indian Traders Association
• The Bodega: A Brief History of an Urban Institution The Internet wants to know: what's a bodega? Any New Yorker can answer that question. But first we're going around the corner, you want anything?
• Old Occupation Names
• GENUKI - Occupations United Kingdom and Ireland