bucket shop

noun

1. Stock Exchange. an unsound, unethical, or overly aggressive brokerage house.
2. Slang. any shady commercial agency, as one dealing in illegally priced theater tickets.

bucket shop

noun

1. an unregistered firm of stockbrokers that engages in speculation with clients' funds
2. any small business that cannot be relied upon, esp one selling cheap airline tickets

Word History and Origins

Origin of bucket shop¹

An Americanism dating back to 1870–75; originally a cheap drinking establishment, allegedly so called because liquor was mixed or sold in buckets

Example Sentences

There could be lessons in the story of 19th-century bucket shops, which allowed regular people to gamble on, but not in, the market, before rolling out to dinner in horse-drawn buggies.

From New York Times

She said she had opened Wisteria as an alternative to supermarkets and other florists with what she called “the bucket shop mentality” — premade bouquets sitting in big black buckets.

From New York Times

At the time, the Long Island bucket shops were pumping obscure stocks to whoever would buy them.

From New York Times

This was the sad outcome of Golden starting a Wall Street “bucket shop” in 1926 after being introduced to the brokerage business by his sister, Clara, “Wall Street’s first modern-day female stockbroker.”

From Washington Post

Retail forex has grown markedly since the early days of the internet when bucket shops proliferated and enforcement was the only recourse.

From Forbes