History Main / OnlyShopInTown

* In most of the ''{{Film/Tremors}}'' movies, Perfection, Nevada is served by Chang's General Store.

WeSellEverything and AnEconomyIsYou appear out of necessity, as the OnlyShopInTown has no other stores to spread the wares around. Can be an HonestJohnsDealership, but isn't always.

* Wroxham in Norfolk (pop. 1500) has about a dozen outlets of Roys of Wroxham, including Roy's Food Hall, Roy's Garden Centre, Roy's Toys & Games, Roy's DIY, Roy's Zone Young Fashion, Little Miss Roy's girls' outfitters - it's like Hazzard County there!

-->"''If you do not ask, you do not get. Is that your motto young sir? Well it is mine too.''"\\

* In ''Literature/TheGreatBrain'' books everyone goes to the ZCMI Store, the only general merchandise store in town. Abie Glassman decides to open a permanant store, retiring his [[MobileKiosk traveling wagon]], but everyone is used to going to ZCMI for everything so nobody patronizes his store. He starves to death.

[[folder:Live Action TV]]

* In ''Series/{{Mash}}'', BJ's father-in-law lives in Quapaw, Oklahoma, a town Hawkeye sarcastically describes as
-->'''Hawkeye''': A gas station, a grocery store and a fashionable restaurant called "Eats".

** Judges Guild's ''Dark Tower'' (1979). Avvakris' Trade Monopoly is the only general merchants supply house for miles around the village of Mitra's Fist, and the only place for {{PC}}s to buy standard supplies.

*** Issue #56 adventure "Janx's Jinx". The village of Davyd's Rest only has one store: the General Store owned by Prenilla. She has mainly food and leather goods, but has a 25% chance of having more exotic items like holy water.
** 2nd Edition TabletopGame/ForgottenRealms boxed set, booklet "Shadowdale". The town of Shadowdale has only one store: Weregund the Trader's general supply store. It carries a variety of supplies, but does not compete with the local smithy, weaver or woodworking shops.

* ''TabletopGame/GammaWorld'' adventure [=GW1=] ''Legion of Gold''. The town known as the Fortress of Horn has only one shop, a general store that sells food, equipment and other merchandise.

** ''The Fungi from Yuggoth'' adventure "Mountains of the Moon". The village of Huancucho in the Andes mountains of Peru has only one place to buy things: a small trading post which carries tools, canned food and other items.

** Each populated area (for example Castle Town, Goron City and Zora's Domain) in ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOcarinaOfTime'' tends to have its own little shop. Interestingly, they have unique shopkeepers (who have their own lines of dialogue), suggesting that Nintendo saw the shop as an important aspect of each such area.

** Some cities get only one merchant but in others you are bound to see many merchants. The dwarven city of Orzammar oozes with them and you get some [[MobileKiosk Dwarven travelers]] joining your trip.

* Played around in ''VideoGame/DemonsSouls''. Some maps have more than one merchant but every merchant sells all kind of items (outside the general potion management).
* Averted in ''VideoGame/RecettearAnItemShopsTale''. You are the owner of one of the shops in town and with the merchant credential you get discounts on the different shops in the market. Some shops are referenced even though you cannot see them.

* ZigZagged in the first ''VideoGame/UnchartedWaters'': in any big port you will have exactly one shop to trade in common goods, one to trade items and treasures (optional), and one to build and sell ships (each located on the exact same spot on the port's PointAndClickMap). The [[VideoGame/UnchartedWatersNewHorizons second game]] sometimes has several shops of the same kind per port but also plays it relatively straight for the most part.
* Averted in ''VideoGame/{{Drakensang}}'': Each of Ferdok's areas have several merchants selling different stuff, from armors, to weapons, to clothes, to potions, to magic ingredients to useful items and even useless crap too. The sequel even has to vendors (one for weapons, the other for armors) across the same small square, who'll often snark at each other when they're not doing business with you.

** In one episode Homer hires a builder called Surly Joe when the house's foundations were damaged, but gets outraged when Joe gave him an expensive estimate and tells him "Forget it! [[TemptingFate You're not the only foundation guy in town!]]" He goes inside, opens the phonebook to "foundation repair", and finds one advert: "Surly Joe's Foundation Repair, THE ''ONLY'' FOUNDATION REPAIR COMPANY IN TOWN".

* Wroxham in Norfolk (pop. 1500) has about a dozen outlets of Roys of Wroxham, including Roy's Food Hall, Roy's Garden Centre, Roy's Toys & Games, Roy's DIY, Roy's Zone Young Fashion, Little Miss Roy's girls outfitters - it's like Hazzard County there!

** Quarney's General Store in Lancre Town. In ''Discworld/LordsAndLadies'', Nanny Ogg corners Mr Quarney and asks him if the store is doing well. Quarney, recognising this as a prelude to costing him something, tries to claim business is bad, but since it's not like Lancrastians can shop around, Nanny isn't having any of it.

** The Android's Dungeon seems to be the only shop in Springfield where one can buy comic books. In a bit of {{Irony}}, the one day the ShopKeeper tried to gloat about it to customers threatening to buy comics elsewhere was the day a bigger comic book shop was opening across the street from his.

** Bedrock has only one caterer, which is why the owner, as he puts it, can afford to be "such a smart alec". And after Fred hires him to cater Pebbles' birthday party and his lodge's meeting and the guy gets the two mixed up, [[KarmaHoudini he actually gets away with it]], for the same reason.

** ''Magazine/{{Dungeon}}'' magazine issue #38 adventure "Horror's Harvest". The village of Delmunster has Wulch's General Store, which sells most of the items found in the AD&D ''Player's Handbook'' except for armor and weapons.

** ''Magazine/{{Dungeon}}'' magazine #5 adventure "The Rotting Willow". The village of Rotting Willow has only one shop, an establishment called Gerald's Store. It's full of a variety of items, all of which are for sale. PlayerCharacters have a 30% chance of finding any standard non-magical item in the store.

** 2nd Edition TabletopGame/ForgottenRealms boxed set, booklet "Shadowdale". The town of Shadowdale has only one store: Weregund the Trader's general supply store. It carries a variety of supplies, but does not compete with the local smithy, weaver or woodworking shop.

** ''The Asylum and Other Tales'', adventure "Black Devil Mountain". The town of Indian River only has one general store. When the owner found that the recently arrived {{NPC}} Albert Goddard was living on Black Devil Mountain, he refused to sell anything to him and Goddard had to travel seven miles away to the town of Addison for supplies.

* ''TabletopGame/{{Rolemaster}}'' ''Shadow World'' setting supplement ''Star Crown Empire and the Sea of Fates''.

* ''TabletopGames/LejendaryAdventures'', introductory adventure "Moon Slaves". The town of Simton had only one general store, which belonged to Sylvester Mulhaven.

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** In one episode Homer hires a builder called Surly Joe when the house's foundations were damaged, but gets outraged when Joe gave him an expensive estimate and tells him "Forget it! You can't be the only foundation repair guy in town!" He goes inside, opens the phonebook to "foundation repair", and finds one advert: "Surly Joe's, the only foundation repair business in town".

[[folder: Real Life ]]

* Occasionally happens in rural areas, where a village will be served by one family-run grocery shop. [[CaptainObvious Not exactly common in cities.]]

** A fair number of villages in the UK will have a Post Office (which doubles as a small supermarket), and typically a Pub and a Church.

* The Scottish village of {{Balamory}} (from the children's show of the same name) is one: Suzie Sweet and Penny Pocket run its only shop. To be fair, this is a village with about ten adult inhabitants, with one building each.

* The [[AnimatedAdaptation TV series]] based on the ''Literature/{{Noddy}}'' books by Creator/EnidBlyton [[AdaptationExpansion added]] a doll named Dinah Doll, whose market is the only shop in Toyland.

** LRenard Dumont's trading post in ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfTarzan''.

When there's a [[EconomyCast low number of characters]] populating a [[CloseKnitCommunity small, communal setting]], individual characters will often be assigned roles within the community. Of these, a common one is to have the local economy pretty much completely controlled by a ShopKeeper who runs the only establishment where one can buy and sell goods. In other words, the OnlyShopInTown.

** ''Magazine/TheUnspeakableOath'' magazine issue #8/9, adventure "Dark Harvest". The only store in the town of Oak Valley, Iowa is Harv's General Store. Unfortunately for the investigators, the owner of the store is a member of the cult that infests the town.

** ''Magazine/TheUnspeakableOath'' magazine
*** Issue #8/9, adventure "Dark Harvest". The only store in the town of Oak Valley, Iowa is Harv's General Store. Unfortunately for the investigators, the owner of the store is a member of the cult that infests the town.
*** Issue #14/15, adventure "Call of Duty". TYhe Town of Durban has only one store, the Five and Dime general store. It has just about any common goods someone could want, and customers can use a Sears special order catalog to obtain more expensive items.

** ''Magazine/TheUnspeakableOath'' magazine issue #8/9, adventure "Dark Harvest". The only store in the town of Oak Valley, Iowa is Harv's General Store. Unfortunately for the investigators, the owner of the store is a member of the cult that infests the town.

** ''Magazine/TheUnspeakableOath'' magazine issue #8/9, adventure "Dark Harvest". The only store in the town of Oak Valley, Iowa is Harv's General Store. Unfortunately for the investigators, the owner of the store is a member of the cult that controls the town.