My mother would always just say, “going to the store.” She never said, “going shopping.” She was the child of immigrants, and the word *shopping *wasn’t a word she ever used. Nowadays, I tend to say, “going grocery shopping.” I guess I picked that up from others and from tv/movies.
In movies I’ll hear, “I’m going to the market,” or “going marketing,” or “doing the marketing,” although I can’t remember hearing anybody IRL say that. Sometimes in British shows, a person will say, “I’m going to the shops,” but that seems not to be limited to grocery shopping but just shopping in general. Like we recently used to say, “I’m going to the mall.” Do people still go to malls? It’s not a *thing *like it used to be, a destination all its own.
What are the expressions/terms/idioms for grocery shopping in other languages?
“Getting groceries” or “Going to the grocery store” (or the name of the store will be used - we have a lot of choices, and each implies a different focus of the mission.)
“Going to the store” would be meaningless here, because that phrasing could mean any type of store. “Going shopping” means something other than groceries; you go shopping if you’re going to the mall, not a grocery store.
“Going to the store” is my default because other kinds of stores are visited only infrequently and they would be specified. “Going to (name of grocery store)” is a close second.
Yeah, to me “going to the store” implies going to the supermarket for groceries, while “going shopping” means shopping for something else, like clothing or Christmas presents. “Going shopping” is a more leisurely activity that may involve visiting multiple stores. I would expect someone who was “going to the store” to be back in less than an hour, while “going shopping” might easily take several hours.
I generally say “going to Food Lion” because that’s where I get groceries most of the time. Occasionally, it’ll be “going to Aldi” but that’s usually combined with other errands since it’s farther away.
Mountains of north-eastern PA — “hit the store”. It went for anything we couldn’t grow or make on our own or get from a neighbor. Milk came from Potowski but for the cereal for our breakfast we had to “hit the store down Kingston” and for clothing we often “hit one of the shops in Plymouth”.
means more than just beer. It can include snacks, candy, maybe even cold cuts, hamburger meat & buns. It implies getting ready for a small party with friends.
Usually “going to the store” for buying groceries, although sometimes it’s “going to the grocery” or “going to the grocery store”, if there’s a question of whether there’s another store involved.
If it’s somewhere like a Target or Wal-Mart that sells more than just grocery store stuff, that’ll be called out specifically in most cases.
“Going to the store” or “Stopping at the store” here in western PA. The name of the store is left out, because we usually get some stuff from the nearby farm market (whatever we need that they have), then the remainder of stuff from either Naser’s (for meat) or Giant Eagle (for most everything else).