These characters in shop are so strange (3)
I believe the answer is:
odd
'strange' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'these characters in shop are' is the wordplay.
'these characters in' indicates the central letters.
'shop' becomes 'booth' (booth is a kind of shop).
'are' becomes 'dd' (I can't justify this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
The middle letter of 'booth' is 'o'.
'o'+'dd'='ODD'
'so' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for odd that I've seen before include "It's certainly not even" , "Casual" , "Extraordinary" , "Peculiar sort of number?" , "standing out from the crowd?" .)