Stop n Go

... pure Americana ...

Oh yes, indeed!

No book needed for a short reading moment.

Yes, they provide a lot of reading material!

Stop n Go. Hmmm. Trying to grasp the concept and failing! Stop and go - at the same time? Unlike.Stop first (where?) and Go later (again where?). If it means 'Stop at our shop and then go' - isn't that what one normally does at a shop? Might as well say breathe in n breathe out. Or Left foot n right foot (except you all drive everywhere - perhaps there is a clue in that if only I could work it out).
Yours, puzzled!

Poor Andy, a terrible dilemma! Will you feel better if I go back and re-do the sign to say
Stop thn Go? In either case, it's NOW OPEN! Thank you for your thorough, if confused, analysis. ;-b

Thanks for trying to help me with this, Diane but Stop thn Go doesn't really do it either!. It's the whole concept of telling you to do something you would do anyway that is a tad confusing to me!

Andy, Andy, Andy. This is America. Explaining the obvious is a popular passtime, especially in advertising!

Hey Andy ... If I said, "a mom-and-pop 7-Eleven", would that help?

... this kind of store is a cultural idiom (I just made that up) ... ah, the ubiquitous American "convenience store": it is a little shop where you can quickly get what you want out of a small array of products, usually at slightly higher prices (coffee, pastries, crisps, soft drinks, tobacco)(depending on the jurisdiction: beer and cheap wine) ... The sign says "Deli Mart"; hah, the chance that this is a real "Deli" (delicatessen) with imported and/or kosher meat and cheese, is slim-to-none ...

Diane and Wally,
You know full well that I'm playing devil's advocate a bit here! (Even so, Wally, 'mom and pop, 7 eleven' doesn't mean all that much to me either!).
Have just read a short but good book and I thoroughly recommend it to you both. I laughed out loud a few times on the train and bus!
It's called; 'That's Not English' by Erin Moore. It's subtitle is 'Britishisms, Americanisms and What Our English Says About Us'. Printed (first edition 2015) in the UK by Vintage (Humour) - part of the Random House publishing empire. She's American by the way - living in the UK.
I hope it is available in the US.
Best wishes,
Andy

I think I've seen that title, Andy, and I'll bet it's entertaining! I really love odd details of language, especially the "two Englishes!" (Yes, I know you are exaggerating your puzzlement.) As for little stores like this, no matter what they're named, don't you have them in the UK? I discovered that Japan is the Empire of Convenience Stores (and the other phenomenon: vending machines), including the American chain 7-11.

They are called 'corner shops' Diane, even if not on a corner.
Unfortunately they are often given the derogatory name 'Paki shops' in the UK and the same shops in Spain are called 'Chinos'. These terms are mainly used unthinkingly rather than maliciously but even so they are not terms that I would use.

Corner shops or corner stores in Australia.