brick and mortar

• brick-and-mortar
• bricks and mortar, bricks-and-mortar

brick and mortar (not comparable)

1. (business) Buildings and property for the conduct of business, particularly in the sale of retail goods to the general public. (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.) [from mid-1990s]

   Brick and mortar retail stores face online competition.

   • 2000, Judy Kong, in a report on the ICE Conference, "Non Traditional Clicks and Mortar Businesses: (Dinosaurs) Learn to Fly":

     E-commerce is not the kiss of death for big, traditional brick-and-mortar business.

• Often used attributively, especially in the form brick-and-mortar.

• physical
• traditional
• old-fashioned

• online
• internet

brick and mortar (uncountable)

1. (UK) Buildings, especially domestic housing.
2. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see brick,‎ and,‎ mortar.