mom-and-pop adjective small-time, small-scale US,1943 From the image of a small grocery store owned and operated by a husband and wife.
Evelle and the Cashier, a late-middle-aged man (perhaps the proprietor of this small mom-and-pop store) face each other across the check-out counter. — RaisingArizona, 1987
You run a mom and pop arms smuggling ring. — Mike Judge and Joe Stillman, BeavisandButt-HeadDoAmerica, p. 35, 1997