Regional terms for corner stores/bodegas

[mrnyc]

Originally Posted by edale

Pony Kegs are drive thru convenience stores! I haven't seen those much outside of Ohio.



I think most people call walk up beer/lotto/snacks places "corner stores". Cincinnati also never had 7/11, but rather a local convenience store chain (sometimes with gas station) called UDF. It stands for United Dairy Farmers, and they make their own ice cream and each of their stores sell ice cream and shakes and what not. It's the most prolific convenience store in the region, by far.

you can get liquor and ammo too at those drive thru booze joints in texas. or at least you used to be able to. and they had open container while driving. hell in nyc you had to keep it in a bag at least lol.

[mrnyc]

Originally Posted by proghousehead

This is false. Its been bodega for many years. Since the early 80s at least. Also, bodegas in nyc nowadays (and for many years now) associated with Arab Yemini and not Hispanics.

yeah mostly as the interim era korean deli seems to be faded away. but that depends on where you are. i work all over the city and there are still plenty of real deal old school bodegas in wash hts and the bx run by dominicans. no hipsters tread where i am talking about lol.

and btw there were also bodegas outside of nyc and in cle in a few places where i grew up a bit because heavy pr and dominican. i remember when my dad was on the fire dept and they all were big fans of cafe con leches.

[Buckeye Native 001]

Originally Posted by pj3000

It's like they have to have a weird name or something... UDF, Wawa, Sheetz, Couche-Tard (weird sounding in English), Toot'n Totum, Stinker, Kum & Go...

I don't see them in Arizona as much as I used to, but out here and along the West Coast, we have (had?) AM/PM. There's also QuikTrip (QT) based somewhere in the Midwest/Plains but of course we don't have one in Flagstaff. I don't buy their gas, but they've got insanely clean public restrooms.

[pj3000]

^ we had am/pms in Pennsylvania back in the 1980s. Haven’t seen one in a long time.

[mrnyc]

^ in the cle we used to have lawsons, which as some of you know lives on in japan.

another oldie but goodie was the aptly titled convenient store chain.

[dave8721]

Originally Posted by pj3000

Yeah, Wawa is a southeastern PA thing, and now mid-Atlantic thing. All over eastern PA, NJ, some around DC area. I've seen one in Miami too. Philly-area people go all crazy about Wawa like it's the second coming of Jesus H. Christ or something. It's a fucking gas station and they'll make you a hoagie that won't make you vomit... that's about as far as I'll go. Sheetz is the other big one in PA... I feel the same about them. I guess there's some sort of stupid convenience store rivalry.

They are popping up all around Miami. I don't quite get it either.

[Steely Dan]

Chicagoland (and perhaps elsewhere in the midwest, IDK) once had the ubiquitous convenience store chain originally called "white hen pantry" (later shortened to just "white hen"), but they got bought out by 7-11 a decade or so ago, so now we have even more of those! <sarcastic yay>

[Centropolis]

Originally Posted by Steely Dan

Chicagoland (and perhaps elsewhere in the midwest, IDK) once had the ubiquitous convenience store chain originally called "white hen pantry" (later shortened to just "white hen"), but they got bought out by 7-11 a decade or so ago, so now we have even more of those! <sarcastic yay>

does chicagoland have QT or is st. louis the NE-most outpost? i have yet to see one there.

they have a great coffee selection (for a gas station) although they got rid of cream dispensers...

they are also pricks about tearing down urban buildings...

[Centropolis]

nm heres the “QT empire...”


wikipedia.com

someday the u.s. will be sectional along gas station chain territories.

[sopas ej]

Originally Posted by Buckeye Native 001

I don't see them in Arizona as much as I used to, but out here and along the West Coast, we have (had?) AM/PM.

They still exist here and there in southern California, often attached to ARCO gas stations.

[Crawford]

There's a place called QD (Quality Dairy) that dominates in Mid- and West Michigan, though curiously nonexistent in Metro Detroit. Usually convenience store and gas station setups, and well known for coffee and donuts. Kind of a Wawa-Dunkin mashup.

[Centropolis]

Originally Posted by Crawford

There's a place called QD (Quality Dairy) that dominates in Mid- and West Michigan, though curiously nonexistent in Metro Detroit. Usually convenience store and gas station setups, and well known for coffee and donuts. Kind of a Wawa-Dunkin mashup.

caseys general store known for its TACO PIZZA. essentially geographically covers the entire midwest (illinois and iowa seem to be the core) except ohio and michigan and is also weirdly absent from metro areas.

ive more than once sheltered in a caseys during a tornado driving across illinois...

[PhilliesPhan]

I grew up in West Philly during the early-mid 2000s. They were called both "corner stores" and "Papi stores" in my neighborhood. In fact, I had never heard of the term "bodedga" until New Yorkers started moving to my city in droves!

[eixample]

Originally Posted by pj3000

And "bodega" is a relatively recent term in widespread use for any "convenience store" in New York. You had Puerto Rican bodegas since the 1950s probably, but NO ONE was calling Italian or Jewish delis and newsstands bodegas until probably the early 2000s. Having lived in NYC and having family there, and in the surroundings, bodega seemed to be reserved solely for Hispanic-owned markets. You'd certainly hear it used for places in upper Manhattan and the Bronx and some on the LES, but it was not the blanket term that is popular now.

A lot of it seems to do with non-NYC natives thinking it's some exotic term to use once they move there and patronize their neighborhood market, and act all "I just love my bodega, I can get anything there whenever I want" (spoken in a very affected tone)... like it's something that only exists in Manahttan and they're more worldy for having such novel luxuries.

I gotta say that I lived in NYC from 2001 to 2010 and this was my pretty much my exact understanding. I got the impression that long-timers didn't like the term bodega and it was more out-of-towners spreading that term around. By the time I left, it seemed that bodega predominated. Of course, that could have just been my limited friend/peer group or the few NY-centric media takes on this I heard. I wasn't taking surveys of fellow NYers at the time.

[Shawn]

Seven-Eleven, Circle K, am/pm, and Lawson all made it huge in Japan. Add to these the domestic-born giants of Family Mart, Sankusu, Poplar, and Daily Yamazaki, and you had many instances of busy intersections with a different brand's conbini at each corner.

That was when I arrived here in 2002. Now, Circle K and am/pm have been rolled into and split between Seven-Eleven (now Seven & i Holdings Co., Ltd., complete with a full-service consumer bank) and Family Mart. Sankasu rolled into Lawson. Daily Yamazaki and Poplar are almost gone. Japan consolidated down to pretty much three super convenience store chains, two of which were born in America but now are globally HQ'd in Tokyo (Seven-Eleven and Lawson, which is part of Mitsubishi).

[Razor]

Convenience stores, but I have also used and heard Corner store. it seems that when I was young, there were more mom and pop stores and the term "corner store" was used more. Nowadays, it's all chain stores like Quickie, Circle K , Macs, etc., so the term convenience stores are used almost exclusively. That or my wife would say something like, "can you stop at the Quickie on the way home?" It just seems that in my world that "corner store" was used more when there were more mom and Pop's, and less chain stores around.

[Crawford]

Isn't there a CBC sitcom called "Kim's Convenience"? So I guess convenience store is the nomenclature in Canada (or at least Toronto).

[toddguy]

Originally Posted by mrnyc

^ in the cle we used to have lawsons, which as some of you know lives on in japan.

another oldie but goodie was the aptly titled convenient store chain.

I love it when someone mentions Lawson's! They had really popular deli stuff. There was one right down the street when I was growing up.

[Acajack]

As a teen in Ontario we referred to them as Mac's Milk. They were ubiquitous. There was one just down the street. Never once bought milk there.

[austin242]

We call them mini marts, corner stores or convenience stores in Austin. In Austin though they really didn't even exist other than 7/11 and whatnot till about 10 yrs ago. Now the boutique corner stores/convenience stores are becoming quite popular. I guess it's not surprising considering in downtown we really don't have a proper grocery store unless you count Whole Foods. I guess we also fairly recently got a Trader Joe's but neither compare to H-E-B IMO.