Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. a male shop assistant (or ? shopkeeper).

1849		Morn. Post (London) 10 Sept. 2/1: You have a faithful portrait of the ‘shoppy’. He talks turfy, recounts hunting reminiscences of home [...] and drowns desk and accounts in sherry-cobbler and brandy p—nee.
1867		J. Tillotson Boy’s Yrly Bk 119: He tries to bounce young Shoppy with the difference between a medical gentleman and a fellow that deals in tea and sugar. If Sabretash alludes to him as Bolus, he alludes to Shoppy as Tea- canister or Butter-tub.
1914		Sport (Adelaide) 7 Feb. 7/2: What's the use of Pal C. in the Moonta shoppies’ cricket team? Anyone can get a blob; Bill F. is worth two of him .

2. a female shop assistant.

1909		P. Webling Story of Virginia Perfect 6: Her manner towards him [...] had none of the affectation of the ordinary ‘young lady in business’, or the vulgar intimacy of a poorer class of ‘shoppie’ .
1916		‘Taffrail’ Pincher Martin 114: She’s in Skeets the draper’s. [...] Never could stand them shoppies; they give themselves such airs.
1934		H.A. Vachell Nether Applewhite 8: Her sparkling eyes, her fine figure, were gifts rarely bestowed upon urban ‘shoppies’.

3. (Aus., also shopper) a shoplifter.

1975		Bulletin (Sydney) 26 Apr. 46: The expression [i.e. tug one’s coat] describes from the system of signals shoppies use in large stores.
1990		Tupper & Wortley Aus. Prison Sl. Gloss. 🌐 Shopper. A professional shoplifter. Sometimes shoppy.