Meanings
plural big shops
- AustraliaUKidiomaticA large, regular purchase of groceries; as opposed to ad hoc or impulse purchases.
I do a monthly big shop and get bits in between. I think I would be better off planning meals for the week and going weekly.
2007 July 23, Angela, “Food shopping: Weekly or Monthly?”, in Netmums, retrieved 17 Nov 20164 more examples
These changes, experienced by all the "Big Four" supermarkets, suggest that the era of the once-a-week big shop is nearing an end.
2014 October 5, Katie Hope, “The death of the weekly supermarket shop”, in BBC NewsA lot of consumers are moving away from one big shop a week to ‘basket shopping’. They visit two or three times a week to top up.
2016 May 4, Emma Reynolds, quoting Brian Walker, “Woolies’ woes promise cheaper prices for customers”, in new.com.auIf they are trying to get people to enjoy their time there, whether going out for a meal, to the cinema or for a big shop, they don’t want to be keeping an eye on the clock.
2016 October 27, Aaron Sims, quoting Rosalind Eastland, “Shoppers speak out against car park fines in Yate”, in Gloucestershire GazetteIf your order is under the threshold, you’ll have to pay a delivery charge, which can vary from £1.49 to £6 depending on what you purchase. So try and do a big shop rather than lots of little ones.
2016 November 8, “Amazon launches Certified Refurbished store selling cheaper electronics”, in BT.com, archived from the original on 12 Nov 2016
Cite this entry
big shop. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/big%20shop
“big shop.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/big%20shop. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “big shop,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/big%20shop.
Source: big shop on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.