# What was/is your family's terminology for going out to buy groceries? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [March 11, 2019, 12:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-is-your-familys-terminology-for-going-out-to-buy-groceries/830941 "2019-03-11T12:16:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Happy\_Lendervedder](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/happy_lendervedder/32/8488_2.png) [@Happy\_Lendervedder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Happy_Lendervedder)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2019, 4:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-is-your-familys-terminology-for-going-out-to-buy-groceries/830941/61 "2019-03-14T04:18:11Z")
> [@ThelmaLou](#): > > WHOA! > > Doug?? OMG. Talk about getting it right from the horse’s mouth… > > I love _WAIT! WAIT!_ You’re doing God’s work there. 🙂 Yeah, that’s pretty awesome. Like, nerdy NPR awesome, which is one of the best kinds. ---
**Author:** ![tim-n-va](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tim-n-va/32/3001_2.png) [@tim-n-va](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tim-n-va)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2019, 7:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-is-your-familys-terminology-for-going-out-to-buy-groceries/830941/62 "2019-03-14T07:32:30Z")
I say “going grocery shopping”. Mid-60s in central Appalachia my mom said she was “going to trade”. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2019, 11:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-is-your-familys-terminology-for-going-out-to-buy-groceries/830941/63 "2019-03-14T11:37:40Z")
“Going shopping” for this South African for the monthly supermarket groceries trip. “Going to _the_ shop” meant going to the corner cafe (that’s South African for a small non-chain convenience store), for snacks or bread&milk or cigarettes. “Going to _the_ shop_s_” meant an expedition to the nearest small CBD. “Going into town” meant going to the main Cape Town CBD. There was only one place called “town” when I grew up. ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2019, 2:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-is-your-familys-terminology-for-going-out-to-buy-groceries/830941/64 "2019-03-14T14:06:04Z")
> [@Happy\_Lendervedder](#): > > Yeah, that’s pretty awesome. Like, nerdy NPR awesome, which is one of the best kinds. I love this board. > [@tim-n-va](#): > > I say “going grocery shopping”. Mid-60s in central Appalachia my mom said she was “going to trade”. That is a new one on me. Really interesting. > [@MrDibble](#): > > “Going shopping” for this South African for the monthly supermarket groceries trip. > > “Going to _the_ shop” meant going to the corner cafe (that’s South African for a small non-chain convenience store), for snacks or bread&milk or cigarettes. > “Going to _the_ shop_s_” meant an expedition to the nearest small CBD. > “Going into town” meant going to the main Cape Town CBD. There was only one place called “town” when I grew up. Love the subtle nuances. Speaking of nuances, can anyone relate to this: putting a purchase “on the book”? My mother (born 1924) grew up in Johnstown, PA. They would go the little neighborhood mom & pop store. Not like today’s convenience stores-- much smaller. Not even as big or well-stocked as a Walgreen’s. (I went there once when I was about 12.) They charged purchases and got billed once a month/week. But when they were sent there, the expression was, “Go get some corn flakes and _put it on the book_.” Also, when someone was sent to the store to buy sanitary napkins (big family 5 girls, 5 boys), the directive was, “Go get some corn flakes.” 🙂 Presumably when the kid of either gender got to the store, they asked for Kotex, or maybe they asked for “corn flakes” with a wink and the proprietor knew what they meant. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2019, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-is-your-familys-terminology-for-going-out-to-buy-groceries/830941/65 "2019-03-14T16:00:31Z")
> [@ThelmaLou](#): > > [SIZE=“1”]Speaking of nuances, can anyone relate to this: putting a purchase “on the book”? Definitely. That was usual for the corner cafe. ---
**Author:** ![JohnM](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/848f3c/32.png) [@JohnM](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnM)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2019, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-is-your-familys-terminology-for-going-out-to-buy-groceries/830941/66 "2019-03-14T18:10:44Z")
Our family term for doing the weekend shopping is “hunting/gathering” and includes grocery shopping, occasional alcohol shopping (Pennsylvania, so can’t do that at the grocery store except for wine and small amounts of beer), seasonal visits to the farmers’ market, specialty food shops like Trader Joe’s, infrequent trips to Costco, and any trivial errands to other stores. One summer in college I had a job in th parts department for a coal mine, and one of my co-workers called going to the grocery store or getting take out by the same term, “making groceries.” I thought it was just an idiosyncrasy until getting ready to make this post, when I looked it up and found that it is New Orleans [vernacular](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cajun_English#Makin'_(the)_groceries). This was in southern West Virginia, so maybe he had a connection to NOLA, or it’s an example of parallel linguistic evolution. ---
**Author:** ![Teuton](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/teuton/32/3864_2.png) [@Teuton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Teuton)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2019, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-is-your-familys-terminology-for-going-out-to-buy-groceries/830941/67 "2019-03-14T19:20:38Z")
I’m British, and I go shopping, or go to the shops (even if I’m only going to one) ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2019, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-is-your-familys-terminology-for-going-out-to-buy-groceries/830941/68 "2019-03-14T20:07:28Z")
> [@Baron\_Greenback](#): > > In Scotland, and I believe also in North-East England, you’d “go and get the messages” or say “I’m away for my messages” or similar. I will confirm this. Once when we were living in Switzerland and there was a Scottish family in the building that we became rather friendly with (shared a language, more or less) the wife said to us one day “Grant has gone to get the messages.” Huh? Finally, she explained. It sounded–and still sounds–totally bizarre to me. Growing up in Philadelphia in mid-century, me mother always said “go shopping” unless she named a particular grocery of which there were three within a half block. Later when we finally got a car, we went to a supermarket and she might have talked of going to the market to distinguish it from the small groceries. Now I think my wife and I are as likely to say that we are going to the market as going chopping, but both sound thoroughly normal to me. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2019, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-is-your-familys-terminology-for-going-out-to-buy-groceries/830941/69 "2019-03-14T20:13:36Z")
Huh. I guess I’m the only one with “Going food shopping.” But more often it would be “I’m going to ShopRite.” ---
**Author:** ![SciFiSam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/47e85d/32.png) [@SciFiSam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SciFiSam)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2019, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-is-your-familys-terminology-for-going-out-to-buy-groceries/830941/70 "2019-03-14T23:57:22Z")
> [@Teuton](#): > > I’m British, and I go shopping, or go to the shops (even if I’m only going to one) Same, though often these days we’re more specific and say I’m stopping by the Co-Op, want anything? Or I’m going to the big Sainsbury’s, want stuff? Because we know that specific things are available at different places; that is, the Co-Op is small so you won’t be getting tons of veg but they have a good bakery so you might ask for something from there. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-is-your-familys-terminology-for-going-out-to-buy-groceries/830941.md?page=3)