“Going into town”. If Mr.Wrekker is going in he says “Get your list ready”
It makes me so happy when he says that, you can’t know.
My midwestern friend always says she’s “going Krogering”.
“Going to the market” makes me think you are going to some open air market where you buy your meat off a hook from a stall.
“Going to the store” is too generic. What kind of store?
We normally just say “going to get groceries” or “going to the grocery store.”
When I return sometimes I shout “The fearless and skilled hunter has acquired much food! We will not starve this winter!” The kids just ignore it now.
You’ll have to explain this one. I’m single and I say, “I’m going grocery shopping.” Unless you mean saying it out loud when there’s no one there calls your sanity into question. In my case, I might be saying it to my dog or one of my three cats, and those words are music to their ears.
I guess you are, but I’ve definitely heard it in movies. I’ve been watching an old movie, Bunny Lake Is Missing, and Carol Lynley says early on, “I’ve got to do my marketing.” And later the police detective Laurence Olivier refers to marketing, too. So, you’re in good company.
That’s funny. 
My good friend and I used to say, “Let’s go get malled” (rhymes with “bald”).
My Daddy used to say “I’m going to see a man about a horse”, which could mean any number of destinations.
Round here, that means, “I’m gonna go take a piss”.
“Going to the store” is the default around (SE Louisiana). Using that idiom, it’s implicit that the nearest, handiest, most-visited grocery store is the destination. To mean “going to a grocery store further afield”, it’s normally required that the store name to be mentioned explicitly.
Every now in then, in media aimed at tourists, you’ll see references to “making groceries” as what people in New Orleans say when they mean “go and buy groceries”. Presumably that’s a rough translation of the French “faire le marché.” Maybe “making groceries” was something some people said locally 100 years ago, but no one uses that expression conversationally anymore except in jest or whimsy.
Another one for “Going to the store”. Northeastern US 1970s-1980s.
Like the OP, I never heard anyone IRL say “marketing”, “to the market”, or even “supermarket”, except in movies or on TV.
Come to think of it, and maybe oddly, I don’t really recall hearing someone actually saying “grocery” or “grocery shopping”. We were familiar with the term alright, but nobody used it in my environs. Kinda’ like Christmastime where you see “Season’s Greetings” on displays or printed matter. Nobody actually uttered those words.
To me, a rough translation of “faire le marché” would be “doing the market.” As described here:
It’s funny how media aimed at tourists often say something is routinely done locally when no locals ever do it o say it. Maybe it’s so when the tourists use that expression (or whatever) they’ll be outing themselves as tourists.
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.
Messages? That *does *sound odd.
Dutch has something similar - entirely unrelated to the Scots - with boodschappen
No-one seems to have any firm idea where the Scots usage comes from. It’s not as common as it was, but universally understood.
Maybe it dates from a time when the general store and post office were under the same roof?
“The store” always meant the local supermarket. Trips to, say, the drugstore or the hardware store were called “the drugstore” and “the hardware store,” respectively. The only “local” store I can think of that was referred to by its name was the ice cream store; trips to a supermarket other than the local one were also referred to by the store’s name.
That wouldn’t really fit with the way shops developed here, I don’t think.
I still laugh when I think about and remember this incident:
Years ago this place I worked at had this technician from Germany around to advise us as to a piece of equipment we bought. He spoke english well enough I guess, albeit with a heavy German accent. Curious fellow, “square” and literal, but with a jovial and dare I say, even goofy side.
A few of us at work were talking casually with him once about stuff, and I remember he was no doubt trying to say “been there - done that” but he mangled it into something like “Yes, I have been there, and as well, I have done that”.
He “knew” the joke, but could only express it in what one might call “school english”.
Still cracks me up.
I have always heard this as a euphemism for taking a piss. It turns out that the animal involved can be either a horse or a dog, and that it is also commonly used to indicate that you are going somewhere for a drink (the alcoholic kind). Whatever the usage, it is usually used to conceal your true intentions.
Makes me wonder if your daddy was stopping by the local bar when he went out on these occasions.
“Messages” really confused the hell out of me when I first heard it too.
The Scots Dictionary entry has examples dating back as far as the 1700s, and seems to have some overlap with the idea of a ‘message boy’ - someone who could bring you both information AND ‘stuff’. So then I guess if a ‘message boy’ doesn’t come with the information-and-or-stuff you require, you have to be your own message boy - ‘do the messages’
My parents would generally say they’re ‘going shopping’ or ‘doing a food shop’ to mean the supermarket, with ‘going into town’ being for clothes and the like.
When I have occasion to tell anyone, I’ll always include the name of the shop. Being the only person in a houseshare with a car for some years, mentioning it was tantamount to an offer of a lift, so the specific destination was relevant. I might say it in the form ‘I’m Aldi-ing later’ or ‘I’m off down Tescos, want anything?’
“Going to the store.” Or possibly “Going to [name of store].”