Is "お寿司屋さん" personification?


"寿司屋" means just a "sushi restaurant". I've heard "お寿司屋さん" spoken a few times.
As far as I know, only a person's name can be suffixed with "さん". So, is
"お寿司屋さん" a personification?




「お寿司屋｛すしや｝さん」 is composed of 「お」,「寿司｛すし｝」,「屋｛や｝」 and 「さん」.

Here, 「屋｛や｝」 is affixed to the name of some merchandise
(「寿司｛すし｝」「魚｛さかな｝」「石｛いし｝」 etc.) or service （「クリーニング」「修理｛しゅうり｝」 etc.） to mean:

  * A shop selling the merchandise or providing the service or all those shops as a whole

  * The owner of a shop selling the merchandise or providing the service

When 「…屋｛や｝」 refers to a shop, adding 「さん」 to it is in effect treating it as a
person (although I feel that native speakers may not have a very personified
image in their mind when using it). That shows slight intimacy (I guess
intimacy can mean very close relationship in English but that's not the case
here) with and a certain degree of respect (since 「さん」 is in itself a suffix
for that) to the shop. It's generally colloquial and used a little bit more
often by female speakers.

The 「お」 at the very beginning is a 丁寧語｛ていねいご｝ adding politeness, towards the
one that is talked to, to the whole expression.

Bonus:

「さん」 can be seen to be directly suffixed to company names as well. But
according to [this page](http://nhg.pro.tok2.com/reserch-3/reserch1-119.htm),
its level of acceptance varies a lot among native speakers.




「お寿司屋｛すしや｝さん」 is composed of 「お」,「寿司｛すし｝」,「屋｛や｝」 and 「さん」.

Here, 「屋｛や｝」 is affixed to the name of some merchandise
(「寿司｛すし｝」「魚｛さかな｝」「石｛いし｝」 etc.) or service （「クリーニング」「修理｛しゅうり｝」 etc.） to mean:

  * A shop selling the merchandise or providing the service or all those shops as a whole

  * The owner of a shop selling the merchandise or providing the service

When 「…屋｛や｝」 refers to a shop, adding 「さん」 to it is in effect treating it as a
person (although I feel that native speakers may not have a very personified
image in their mind when using it). That shows slight intimacy (I guess
intimacy can mean very close relationship in English but that's not the case
here) with and a certain degree of respect (since 「さん」 is in itself a suffix
for that) to the shop. It's generally colloquial and used a little bit more
often by female speakers.

The 「お」 at the very beginning is a 丁寧語｛ていねいご｝ adding politeness, towards the
one that is talked to, to the whole expression.

Bonus:

「さん」 can be seen to be directly suffixed to company names as well. But
according to [this page](http://nhg.pro.tok2.com/reserch-3/reserch1-119.htm),
its level of acceptance varies a lot among native speakers.

