noun
shop; store; merchant; shopkeeper
Dated term for a shop or merchant. In modern Japanese, 店 (みせ) or 商店 (しょうてん) are more common for 'shop', and 商人 (しょうにん) for 'merchant'.
江戸時代の商屋の様子が資料に残っている。
Records remain of what merchant shops were like in the Edo period.
この通りには昔、小さな商屋が並んでいた。
Long ago, small shops lined this street.
Compound of 商い (あきない, 'trade, commerce') + 屋 (や, 'shop, dealer'). The exact historical derivation is uncertain, but it follows a common pattern for naming types of shops or merchants.