0

In an article I cannot understand what this sentence means. What does "that do $4k per square foot" mean?

"Away, founded four years ago, raised $50 mm last year to grow, including building out a network of physical stores that do $4k per square foot."

Article Link: https://www.quora.com/What-will-the-next-generation-of-retail-look-like/answer/Ron-Johnson-491

otegami
  • 47
  • Hello, otegami. Have you found a sense for 'do' given in any dictionary that seems to fit? Reasonable research, and posting the results, is necessary for a good question on ELU. – Edwin Ashworth Aug 24 '19 at 16:12
  • To be fair (and not my downvote), I expect you'll post a 'no relevant senses found at Lexico, CED, Collins, AHD etc (with links). I'll add an answer. – Edwin Ashworth Aug 24 '19 at 16:20
  • What you've quoted is not grammatical. At least not unless Away is a proper noun. Even if it is a proper noun, raising money to grow is semantically dubious. (And I don't have a clue what $50 mm means.) – Jason Bassford Aug 24 '19 at 20:14

1 Answers1

1

Do has a bewildering array of uses, and we'll shy away from any auxiliary usages here. We'll look at nearby senses.

'Do' can mean arrange, bring to a final condition:

Have you done your hair this week?

'Do' can mean work on and complete (a task / brief):

I've already done my homework.

'Do' can mean make, produce (something concrete[!?]):

Catherine does a mean korma.

'Do' can mean achieve: reach and often sustain, especially when talking about targets, and speed and other rates:

I've done it! I've done the London Marathon!

We were doing seventy.

He was doing 10 000 steps a day and lost two stone in weight.

The shop was doing £3000 a week. (this informal)

In the last example, if the shop had floorspace of 300 sq ft, it would be doing £10 per square foot (per week).

The other senses are general reference, and I can't find a dictionary example of 'doing $2000' etc meaning grossing $2000 (per week, say).

Pursuing the store theme, 'do' is informally used for 'sell', at least in the UK:

Do you do Weetie-bricks?

Edwin Ashworth
  • 83,272