What Do You Call the Corner Store?

https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/what-do-you-call-the-corner-store

by bryanrasmussen • 7 years ago

31 56 7 years ago

atlasobscura.com

Scoundreller2• 7 years ago

Reminds me of a time in Eastern Europe where my ESL cousin asks me: "What is the place called where two walls meet?"

me: "The corner?"

Cousin: "Yes, the corner. We are going to the corner bar".

I'm like... close enough.

reificator• 7 years ago

If someone said we're going to the corner bar I'd not feel like that was a weird thing to say in the least.

Well, apart from the fact that I don't drink.

gumby2• 7 years ago

If you doing drink you can skip that stage and go straight to the fighting.

Sharlin• 7 years ago

What did he mean? Just a bar at the corner? What would be the idiomatic equivalent?

Scoundreller2• 7 years ago

Yes, just a bar at the corner, or probably the neighbourhood bar.

Like saying the "Corner store", except nobody really says "Corner bar".

chrisdhoover2• 7 years ago

I’ve adopted the Brit way and call the corner bar the boozer. Sometimes I’ll call it the local

jgibson• 7 years ago

The article claims: "In the cities of New Zealand and Australia, the convenience store is known as a milk bar"

As a native kiwi, I've never ever heard it called a "milk bar". Dairy is the more common term. What say you aussies?

elliottkember• 7 years ago

Same here. I think once again we've been lumped in with the Australians.

LIV2• 7 years ago

Aussie with a kiwi wife here. She says they only ever called it a Dairy

At least in semi-rural NSW I've only ever used "corner shop" or these days it's generally a "servo" but never a "milk bar"

Must be a Melbourne or Adelaide thing those guys are weird

Taniwha• 7 years ago

Milk Bar is a word from NZ of the '50s, we don't use "superette" either - they've always been "dairys".

Prior to the mid-70s we had few if any supermarkets - everyone had a local dairy (general store) and a local butcher, as well as daily milk deliveries to the house. These days our cities are full of corner stores converted into cheap flats, there are none left within walking distance from here, but 2-3 that I regularly visit.

comradesmith• 7 years ago

Yep, only ever called them dairies, and in NZ every residential neighbourhood in towns big and small has one. It's not just a big city thing as the artical suggests it may be for other nations.

Mesmoria• 7 years ago

Milk bar is an older term, maybe 50's and 60's. We only ever call these places "The Shop" - not very romantic.

Australian.

kibibu• 7 years ago

Aussie here. Definitely always called them milk bars.

Most of them have closed though, given that more people have cars and are willing to drive a bit further to save a dollar on their loaf of bread at the supermarket.

cam_l• 7 years ago

Yeah, still called them milko's in the 80s, even though milk was delivered to your door. By the 90s both the milk runs and the milko's were gone.

The only ones i remember surviving were also takeaways. Which now that i think about it, is probably also a colloquialism.

minikomi• 7 years ago

Deli in SA

ElCapitanMarkla• 7 years ago

I haven't heard that term for a while. Back in my home town in NZ we had 3 dairies. The original dairy which would have been around since the 50s was known as the "Milk Bar".

zmapuser• 7 years ago

Calling it a party store is common in the suburbs of Detroit. In the city itself it is almost unanimously just called a liquor store. If it sells gas then you just call it a gas station.

OJFord• 7 years ago

'Corner shop' and 'offy' are mentioned for UK/London, I'd add 'convenience' as a noun, and in semi-contrast to TFA's opener about being laughed out of the room for calling it a 'convenience store/shop'.

Also 'local convenience'/'local shop' (more so outside of cities where it's more truly a local shop, not just the nearest 'food & wine' convenience) - but never just 'the local', that is 100% a pub.

cameronh90• 7 years ago

I have never heard anyone in London call it a 'convenience'. Only American-English speaking transplants sometimes call it a convenience store.

What part of London are you living in where people call it a convenience? I mostly hear corner shop or offie.

mabbo• 7 years ago

In Toronto and its many smaller surrounding cities, the convenience store is known as a variety store.

glances at CN Tower We call it a what? I mean, I've probably heard that term, but they're convenience stores.

obarthelemy• 7 years ago

I'm old and French and used to live in Paris, so I call it "the corner Arab" which is a bit dated because such shops are no longer 100% owned+operated by Northern Africans. Mine still is though. I asked them if they found the moniker racist, they laughed "non, it's true".

sdegutis• 7 years ago

In my experience, the only people who get offended at good-natured "political incorrectness" are people who have a social or political agenda that political correctness is part of.

gumby2• 7 years ago

...as well as those who are inured to it and can’t be bothered raising the issue so just go along.

jdietrich• 7 years ago

There's a very fine line between good-natured stereotypes and genuine bigotry; stereotypes are the first step on the path to dehumanisation.

okcando• 7 years ago

The politically incorrect thing was already a part of a "social or political agenda". That a person can't or won't object because it would be too radical or controversial or, like, a total buzz kill, dude, raises questions about what the value of the epithet is to the people trying to protect it.

yardie• 7 years ago

I’ve always referred to them as the alimentaire. At least that is what’s written on the canvas.

hotsauceror• 7 years ago

Having lived here and there in the US, I've called and heard them called thus:

* 7-11 (used as a generic)

* party store

* ice house

* bodega

* the corner store

* convenience store

chrisdhoover2• 7 years ago

Growing up in suburbs it was 7 by god Eleven, or 7 by god for short. These were not on the corner though, they were a car ride away to an arterial road. Sometimes we went to Highs because Highs did ‘t card.

When I moved to the city the store to buy beer, because seriously that’s all we would buy there, was called the market or the corner store. I’m going to the market to buy a suitcase, come with?

rconti3• 7 years ago

Can you expand on where "by god" came from? Usually people don't make the names longer for no particular reason. Is it related to the "oh thank heaven for 7-11" commercials?

cal5k2• 7 years ago

My favourite has to be Quebec's "depanneur", or "dep" for short. It's one of those Francophone words that is also pervasive in Montreal english... like "terrace" for patio.

unixhero2• 7 years ago

Terrace us used in UK English as well.

cal5k2• 7 years ago

Fair enough! But anglos also pronounce it with a french accent in Montreal, which I find particularly endearing.

billyt555• 7 years ago

"Curb Market" anyone?

pivo• 7 years ago

Boston in particular and New England as a whole has a wide array of words referring to the corner store. The most interesting is spa

And of course "spa" is pronounced "spar".

alehul• 7 years ago

Bostonian born & raised, never heard spa. Feels like an obscure thing WGBH wrote about, and looking at the article, appears it's mostly historical now.

We do call our liquor stores "packies," though, which comes from package store. :)

technothrasher• 7 years ago

Agreed, I've spent my whole life in the Boston area and never heard it called a spa. But water fountains are "bubblas" and those things you put on your ice cream are "jimmies".

But now that I think about it, I grew up in a town that, at least forty years ago was rural. The local shop was simply referred to as, "Clyde's" after the man who owned it.

craz8• 7 years ago

In the UK, and likely other places, there is actually a chain called Spar.

Perhaps they used to be in that area too, and the name stuck even if the business did not?

bryanrasmussen2• 7 years ago

there is a spar chain in Denmark, https://spar.dk/ spar in Danish means "Save", generally used in regards to money. I suppose it is related to the English spare.

phil248• 7 years ago

Here in California, I usually call it a liquor store, even if it doesn't sell liquor.

rconti3• 7 years ago

What's funny is (in the Bay Area) I never go to those little liquor stores, when every gas station and costco and safeway ALSO sells liquor, with the same hours, at better prices.

Certainly in many underserved neighborhoods, those liquor stores are more convenient, but there are also plenty of places where these run-down looking shops seem to thrive despite proximity to more affordable options with better selection, which I find strange.

i_am_proteus• 7 years ago

When I lived in the southeastern US, these places typically also had gas pumps.

So we usually called them "gas stations," even if they didn't actually sell fuel.

bryanrasmussen2• 7 years ago

in Denmark, to add to the list, it's called a Kiosk although originally the focus is very much on tobacco and magazine sales https://da.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kiosk

unixhero2• 7 years ago

Life hack: The Kiosks with a small smoking lounge and gambling section always have a very good beer selection!

rkachowski• 7 years ago

In Berlin it's mostly "späti" - short for "spätkauf" or "late purchases". There's a big culture around them.

EdwardDiego• 7 years ago

I loved the spätis when I visited. Being able to buy beer at 3am is definitely convenient.

swiley• 7 years ago

Man I wish we had that in Virginia.

jarboot• 7 years ago

In taiwan, they would call the 7/11s that were everywhere a "Sei-ben", a japan/chinese-zation of "seven"

danellis• 7 years ago

I was slightly confused when I saw "packie", thinking it might be a misspelling. In the North of England in the 80s, we used to call the corner store "the Paki shop", due to the large number of them owned by members of the Pakistani, Indian and Bangladeshi community. As a child, I followed my parents' example in this regard, and it wasn't until some years later that I found out how racist and loaded the term 'Paki' is. I was a little shocked that my family had been so casual in their use of the term.

jddj• 7 years ago

These shops are still very commonly called "Pakis" in Spain (at least, in the cities where I have spent time), even by young people.

Edit to add: Reading further down, there are some Americans saying that they called them packies because they "pack liquor". This isn't the case in Spain, and I'd be skeptical that it's the case there either.

Kipters• 7 years ago

In Sicily that would be "putìa" (same Latin origin as bodega), but I've heard them being called differently in other parts of Italy, specifically in Rome "bangladino" is widely used (because most store owners are from Bangladesh)

ErikAugust• 7 years ago

A "packie" is a package store, which is a liquor store. A corner store is only a "packie" if it sold liquor.

Source: Native Bostonian

susiecambria• 7 years ago

I called any liquor store "packie." A corner store was called by it's name.

Semi-rural/now suburban northeast Connecticut

primis• 7 years ago

I've never heard a corner store called a Deli in NYC unless it sold cold cuts. And Bodega is used more for the independently run stores. NYC has a lot of Duane Reade's / CVS's and they're generally called by name instead of generic corner stores.

moltar• 7 years ago

In Quebec it’s called deppaneur, or “dep” as a short form.

What Do You Call the Corner Store?

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