Wiktionary
a. (context business English) Buildings and property for the conduct of business, particularly in the sale of retail goods to the general public. (qualifier: Used to contrast an Internet-based sales operation that lacks customer-oriented store fronts and a "traditional" one for which most capital investment might be in the building infrastructure.) (since the mid-1990s) alt. (context business English) Buildings and property for the conduct of business, particularly in the sale of retail goods to the general public. (qualifier: Used to contrast an Internet-based sales operation that lacks customer-oriented store fronts and a "traditional" one for which most capital investment might be in the building infrastructure.) (since the mid-1990s) n. 1 (&lit brick and mortar English) 2 (context UK English) building, especially domestic housing.
Wikipedia
Brick and mortar (also bricks and mortar or B&M) in its simplest usage describes the physical presence of a building(s) or other structure. The term brick-and-mortar business is often used to refer to a company that possesses buildings, production facilities, or store for operations. The name is a metonym derived from the traditional building materials associated with physical buildings: bricks and mortar. The term was originally used by Charles Dickens in the book Little Dorrit.
More specifically, in the jargon of e-commerce businesses, brick-and-mortar businesses are companies that have a physical presence and offer face-to-face customer experiences. This term is usually used to contrast with a transitory business or an internet-only presence, such as an online shop, which have no physical presence for shoppers to visit and buy from directly, though such online businesses normally have non-public physical facilities from which they either run business operations, and/or warehousing for mass physical product storage and distribution. Concerns such as foot traffic, storefront visibility, and appealing interior design apply mainly to brick-and-mortar businesses rather than online ones.
The divergence between brick-and-mortar businesses and online businesses has expanded in the 21st Century as more and more entrepreneurs and established organizations create profitable products known as web and mobile apps. Many web and mobile apps are digitally distributed and offer value without delivering a physical product or direct service, thereby eliminating the need for manufacturing, warehousing, and distribution. Furthermore, the advent of reliable, affordable remote business collaboration tools diminishes the need for physical business operations infrastructure for many web and mobile product businesses.
The term brick-and-mortar businesses is also a retronym in that most stores had a physical presence before the advent of the Internet. However, the term is also applicable when contrasting businesses with physical presence and those that operated strictly in an order-by-mail capacity pre-Internet. Some stores such as Best Buy, Walmart, and Target are primarily known as brick-and-mortar businesses but also have online shopping sites.
Brick and mortar may refer to:
- Brick and mortar - e-commerce concept
- Brick and Mortar (band) - New Jersey-based popular drum and bass duo
- The song "Bricks and Mortar", which is the second track on the album " In This Light and on This Evening" of the Stafford-based English post-punk band Editors
- The song "Bricks and Mortar", which is the twelfth track on the album " In the City" of the English band The Jam
Usage examples of "brick and mortar".
Nevertheless, as the Baudelaire orphans stumbled around the cell, dropping each half of the battering ram and listening to the sound of the crows flying in circles outside, they stared at the huge cloud of dust as if it were a thing of great beauty, because this particular huge dust cloud was made of pieces of brick and mortar and other building materials that are needed to build a wall, and the Baudelaires knew that they were seeing it because Violet's invention had worked.
With the crass commercialization of the Net - will people continue to volunteer and collaborate - or will corporate, brick and mortar, behemoths take over?
He then began to scale down the wall, carefully finding footholds and handholds in the aged brick and mortar.
The horizontal rudder would not work, and the craft was rushing nearer and nearer, every minute, to the pile of brick and mortar.
Although most funds were merely electrons, a brick and mortar location remained a necessity.
It smelled of rock and fresh brick and mortar, and the special firebrick and calcinated limestone that lined it.
She looked back at the mill and saw that the entire outer wall had followed the collapse of the offices inward, piling tons of brick and mortar on top of the witch.
Chimneys of brick and mortar still stood, but the homes they had warmed were gone.
All three fell toward the wall, but while Akabar's and Dragon-bait's shoulders hit the barrier with a thud, Alias's hand and wrist plunged right through the brick and mortar.
Then he put aside the amusing fantasy and returned to the problem at hand: how to get rid of a lot of brick and mortar in a hurry.
Then he put aside the amusing fantasy and returned to the problem at hand how to get rid of a lot of brick and mortar in a hurry.