bucket shop

See also: bucketshop

English

Alternative forms

• bucketshop

Etymology

bucket + shop

Noun

bucket shop (plural bucket shops)

1. (finance, derogatory, obsolete) A stockbroking firm which takes small orders from clients and takes them on its own account rather than actually transmitting them to the market. Prevalent in the US 1870s to 1920s; often set up as shop-fronts in the 1920s.
2. (derogatory, finance) A stockbroking firm which sells stock to clients when it has an undisclosed relationship with that company or its owners.
3. (travel, dated) A travel agency selling discounted airfares, usually in defiance of existing minimum fare arrangements. Now usually refers to any small cheap agency.
4. (law) A legal services firm selling heavily discounted legal services and documents made in large volume from boilerplate text and clauses, sometimes as a white labelled loss leader.
5. (heraldry) A company that sells coats of arms associated with the customer's surname, regardless of whether the customer can claim any relation to the original armiger.

Usage notes

• In law, finance, and heraldry, traditionally understood as pejorative and with implications of fraud.

See also

• wirehouse