“What do you call a shoe store with only one owner?”/“A sole proprietorship.”

The business concept of a “sole proprietorship” has a pun:
 
Q: What do you call a shoe store with only one owner?
A: A sole proprietorship.
 
The joke was cited in Stan Kegel’s “Puns of the Weak: 8/17/01” on the newsgroup alt.humor.puns, where the pun was credited to John Sousa.
 
 
Google Groups: alt.humor.puns
Puns of the Weak: 8/17/01
Stan Kegel
8/18/01
(...)
A shoe store owned by one person would be called a sole proprietorship.
(John Sousa)
 
Google Groups: alt.humor.puns
Puns of the Weak 1-31-03
Stan Kegel
1/31/03
(...)
What do you call a shoe store with only one owner?
A sole proprietorship. (Archives)
     
TranslatorsCafé.com
RE: Translating jokes
J. K.
Posted: Monday, August 30, 2004 05:20 GMT
(...)
6. What do you call a shoe store with only one owner? A sole proprietorship.
 
FARK.com
Fire at illegal Chinese shoe factory kills 37 workers. May God have mercy on their soles   (guardian.co.uk )
RiverKing
2007-10-23 10:15:30 AM
What do you call a shoe store with only one owner? A sole proprietorship. ...
 
Twitter
Claire
‏@uhmclaire
“What do you call a shoe store with only one owner? A sole proprietorship.” omg i actually laughed out loud awks
9:59 PM - 1 Mar 2012
 
The Amazingly Lame Joke of the Day
Tuesday, February 12, 2013
What do you call a shoe store with only one owner?
A sole proprietorship.
Posted by Tim Wycislak at 12:58 PM
 
Twitter
Robert Gomez
‏@Robert_A_Gomez
I want to own my own shoe store. It’ll be a sole proprietorship.
11:05 AM - 28 Mar 2016