dime-store, adj. — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

dime-store adj.

[ext. of SE use; i.e. the poor quality of the goods sold in such stores]

(US) cheap, second-rate.

1938		Newsweek 31 Jan. 36: ‘Best buy’ was a dime-store product.
1941		J. Archibald ‘Alibi Bye’ in Popular Detective June 🌐 Kelly picked up the haberdashery and tossed it out into the hall. ‘Follow it, you dime-store dick.’.
1962		L. Block ‘Naked and the Deadly’ in One Night Stands (2008) 245: I was just a lousy dime-store stripper.
1972		D. Jenkins Semi-Tough 99: An Eight was a Young Dose of the Clap, but pretty in a dimestore kind of way.
1976		L. Bangs in Psychotic Reactions (1988) 194: Every time he slings out some cheap trough of chintz dimestore decadence, the little scads eat it up.
1999		Indep. Rev. 7 July 4: Dime-store psychologists suggest that nude modelling can raise self-esteem.