‘couple of’

A `couple’ doesn’t have to mean two days. It could be more. If you say that you’ll be gone a couple of days, what you mean is that you will be gone for a few days. So when you say that a couple of shops were open, it can mean that more than two shops were open.

The word `couple’ is often used to mean two or more. In other words, a few shops were open, but not many.

Source: ‘Know Your English’ (The Hindu) – August 29, 2006.