Basic Trope: There's only one shop in town.
- Straight: Bob's General Store is the only shop in Troperville.
- Exaggerated: Bob's General Store isn't just the only shop in Troperville, it's the only shop in the entire country.
- Downplayed: Bob's General Store is the only shop in the northeast district of Troperville.
- Justified:
- Troperville is a really small town.
- Bob is a ruthless businessman, able to drive any competition out of business.
- Inverted: Bob's place is the only building in Troperville that isn't a shop.
- Subverted: Charlie believed that Bob's General Store is the only shop in town. Then, when checking a town guidebook, he learns about Alice's shop, which he previously didn't know about.
- Double Subverted: But when Charlie decides to go shopping at Alice's shop, he finds that it's closed down.
- Parodied: Alice wants to go shopping, so she asks Charlie where she can find each item she's looking for. Charlie always answers "Bob's", no matter how absurd the item Alice asks for.
- Zig-Zagged: People regularly try to open up shops in Troperville to compete with Bob's, but none of them are able to stay in business for long before closing down.
- Averted: There are other shops in town aside from Bob's.
- Enforced:
- The set designers were only able to build a single set for a shop.
- The existence of any shop other than Bob's isn't important to the plot.
- Lampshaded: "Is this the only store in town?"
- Invoked: The Mayor of Troperville writes strict zoning regulations, so that only one plot of land in the entire town can legally be used for a shop.
- Exploited: The fact that Bob's General Store is the only store in town means Bob has no competition, so he can raise his prices considerably without losing customers.
- Defied: Alice decides to open her own shop, so Bob's is no longer the only shop in town.
- Discussed: "This looks like one of those small towns, that would only have a single shop."
- Conversed: ???
- Implied: Bob's is the only shop in Troperville that's seen or mentioned by its residents onscreen.
- Deconstructed: Being the only store in town, Bob has no competition, so he's able to raise prices, underpay his staff, and get away with it. And if you make Bob angry, he can deny you the right to shop at his store, forcing you to make the multi-hour drive to the next town when you need to go shopping. Basically, he's able to run the town.
- Reconstructed: But being that Bob's a decent guy with small town values, he doesn't take advantage of his position.
Get the main trope page at Only Shop in Town - not like there are any other shops in this town
