Regional terms for corner stores/bodegas

[benp]

Originally Posted by eschaton

Do corner stores really even exist here though?

I mean, Pittsburgh is not the type of city that really has "scattered corner storefronts in a residential area" as a building typology. Either you have a commercial strip or you have nothing. And the type of businesses which end up on corners aren't really convience-store type places (unless they are literal gas stations).

I found several on the maps, here are just a couple:
https://goo.gl/maps/NPnSqdnPkTjii2D26
https://goo.gl/maps/HbAaLGSD2rCCLgF76

[eschaton]

Originally Posted by benp

I found several on the maps, here are just a couple:
https://goo.gl/maps/NPnSqdnPkTjii2D26
https://goo.gl/maps/HbAaLGSD2rCCLgF76

Ahh. Both of those are in black neighborhoods I seldom travel in.

This was the only example I could think of off the top of my head. Excluding some former gas stations like this.

[memph]

Originally Posted by Emprise du Lion

Is Circle K not also a gas station in Canada? Here in St. Louis it used to only be the convenience store attached to a different branded gas station, then seemingly overnight they bought out all the different gas stations they were attached to.

Circle K, Becker's and Mac's all got bought out by Quebec Depanneur chain Couche-Tard, and then Becker's and Mac's stores in Ontario (and I think elsewhere in Canada) got rebranded to Circle K. However, the locations are still reflective of the original Mac's locations which were mostly in small strip malls.

Ex:
https://www.google.com/maps/@48.4208...7i16384!8i8192
https://www.google.com/maps/@43.2387...7i16384!8i8192
https://www.google.com/maps/@43.6005...7i16384!8i8192

The one the kids at my high school went to for lunch break is still branded as Mac's though.
https://www.google.com/maps/@43.4795...7i16384!8i8192
They also bought up a lot of Esso On-The-Run locations though, so there's a Circle K gas station across the street.

So it mostly depends whether the Circle Ks were Beckers or Mac's in past lives or if they were On The Runs.

[SIGSEGV]

Originally Posted by Crawford

Another thing is that corner stores are kind of a dying breed.

Sprawl doesn't have corner stores. Small town America has very few, wiped out by Walmarts and Dollar Generals. The Sunbelt has few. Older urban cities have them, but 7-11s, Wawas and the like are taking over.

Even in NYC, bodegas are disappearing. The NYT did an analysis a few years back, and the number has dropped by half or something in the last few years. And we have few 7-11s. The remainder seem to be renovating into mini gourmet markets, in gentrifying areas, or barely hanging on in working class areas.

well, in sprawly areas gas stations usually function as "corner" stores, although they're more like at the corner of a subdivision than a street.

[volguus zildrohar]

In many Philly neighborhoods such places are called 'papi stores' because they're usually operated by Dominican immigrants here.


Google

[Centropolis]

Originally Posted by volguus zildrohar

In many Philly neighborhoods such places are called 'papi stores' because they're usually operated by Dominican immigrants here.


Google

heh, i didn’t know that.

[craigs]

Old-timey Bostonians will refer to a corner store that sells alcohol as a "packie." Apparently it's vestige of Prohibition, when alcoholic cans/bottles were sold in brown paper packages so they could not be easily detected by the police.

San Franciscans just call them "corner stores."

[Crawford]

Originally Posted by volguus zildrohar

In many Philly neighborhoods such places are called 'papi stores' because they're usually operated by Dominican immigrants here.

That's interesting. Dominicans are traditionally bodega owners in NYC too, though less so nowadays, and I've never heard the term "papi stores."

[lio45]

Originally Posted by montréaliste

In Montreal, since the mid seventies, they are called "Dépanneurs", or deps by French and English speakers alike. The word Dépanneur refers to something between a helper and a rescuer. When I was a kid in the sixties and seventies, they were called Tabagie which is an erroneous name for a tobacco shop or cigar store. In France, they are called "Tabac" which is straight "tobacco". Tabagie refers to the habit of smoking. A lot of corner stores were also called "Variétés" or variety store.

"Convenience store" is a pretty direct translation, I'd say. Local general store, serving the neighborhood, existing mainly pour dépanner / for the convenience of getting what you need right now and nearby. (You wouldn't normally do your actual shopping there.)

[Shawn]

In metro Boston, they're called "packies"* (short for "package stores"), which is how liquor was discreetly sold and transported back during the Temperance movement and Prohibition. "Getting a package" meant "picking up some booze down the street," inside a tied-up package bag.

* Unless you're specifically talking about a Cumberland Farms**, for which instead they're called "Cumbies".

** Unless you're specifically talking about going to a Cumbies with a Dunkin Donuts inside just to get coffee (which is common). Then you'd just say "I'm getting coffee, anyone want something?"; the Dunkin part is assumed.

[Don't Be That Guy]

Originally Posted by eschaton

Ahh. Both of those are in black neighborhoods I seldom travel in.

This was the only example I could think of off the top of my head. Excluding some former gas stations like this.

There's a surprising number of them throughout the city. Knoxville, Larimer, Homewood has quite a few. There's even a coupe in Highland Park, one being upmarket and another more like a New York bodega even though it's across the street from a $1 million house. Even the Morningside Market counts.

[eschaton]

Originally Posted by Don't Be That Guy

There's a surprising number of them throughout the city. Knoxville, Larimer, Homewood has quite a few. There's even a coupe in Highland Park, one being upmarket and another more like a New York bodega even though it's across the street from a $1 million house.

Bryant Street Market isn't at a corner, so it doesn't count as a "corner store."

Originally Posted by Don't Be That Guy

Even the Morningside Market counts.

Ack, I can't believe I forgot the one in my own neighborhood! In fairness, I knew it was there, but swore there was another building closer to the corner.

I've only ever been inside once. It's so sketch we just go to Rite-Aid. There's supposed to be a new one with a deli going in across the street where the dentist used to be though.

[homebucket]

In Springfield they're called Kwik-E-Marts.

[isaidso]

Originally Posted by Emprise du Lion

Is Circle K not also a gas station in Canada? Here in St. Louis it used to only be the convenience store attached to a different branded gas station, then seemingly overnight they bought out all the different gas stations they were attached to.

It varies. Quebec based Couche-Tard is a major convenience store chain consolidator and has bought tons of different chains, Circle K being one of them. A few years back they rebranded all their stores around the world 'Circle K' except in Quebec.

Whether Circle K stores have a gas station largely depends on whether they already had a gas station before re-branding. Some of these chains were in urban areas with no gas station so it was impossible to add a gas station and/or it made little sense to do so. Neither of the 2 Circle K stores near me have a gas station. They were formerly part of an Ontario chain called 'Mac's'. There's no place to put a gas station and I doubt it would do well if they did. There aren't alot of gas stations in the downtown but we don't need many. Downtown folk mostly walk, bike, or take PT.

Btw, it some places both the store and the gas station were re-branded 'Circle K'. In other places, only the store was re-branded 'Circle K'. I suspect eventually it will all be 'Circle K' regardless of what country/region one is in.

[isaidso]

I call them corner stores unless I'm in Quebec. In Quebec I'd say 'depanneur' or 'dep' for short. As in, 'I'm going to the dep'.

[memph]

Originally Posted by lio45

"Convenience store" is a pretty direct translation, I'd say. Local general store, serving the neighborhood, existing mainly pour dépanner / for the convenience of getting what you need right now and nearby. (You wouldn't normally do your actual shopping there.)

And yet half the time I've gone to Circle K for something I thought was basic, they didn't have it. I think it was eggs, butter and sugar the three times that I went back empty handed... basically ran out of those when I was in the middle of making recipes and wanted to quickly grab more from the Circle K 200m from my house.

There are some small corner stores that sell a better variety of useful basics but Circle K hasn't brought me much convenience.

[isaidso]

Originally Posted by memph

And yet half the time I've gone to Circle K for something I thought was basic, they didn't have it. I think it was eggs, butter and sugar the three times that I went back empty handed... basically ran out of those when I was in the middle of making recipes and wanted to quickly grab more from the Circle K 200m from my house.

There are some small corner stores that sell a better variety of useful basics but Circle K hasn't brought me much convenience.

Convenience stores are almost pointless when you live in a big dense urban core. I literally have 8 large format grocery stores within a 10 minute walk and then 4 Shoppers Drug Marts/Rexall stores in that same catchment area.

Why pay 50-100% more for the exact same product in a store that's no closer? The only instance where it makes more sense is at 4am when the grocery stores are closed. Even then, I'd just go to Shoppers Drug Mart as it's open 24 hours/day. I haven't been in a convenience store in probably 10 years except to pay for gas.

[SIGSEGV]

Originally Posted by isaidso

Convenience stores are almost pointless when you live in a big dense urban core. I literally have 8 large format grocery stores within a 10 minute walk and then 4 Shoppers Drug Marts/Rexall stores in that same catchment area.

Why pay 50-100% more for the exact same product in a store that's no closer? The only instance where it makes more sense is at 4am when the grocery stores are closed. Even then, I'd just go to Shoppers Drug Mart as it's open 24 hours/day. I haven't been in a convenience store in probably 10 years except to pay for gas.

well, you can go in, find what you need, and get out a lot faster than a normal grocery store, so there's that.

[benp]

In my city, the corner stores are most prevalent in lower income neighborhoods, not destitute, with a mix of primarily immigrants of various ethnicities and car-less homes. There are some streets in Black Rock and Riverside with multiple markets/delis on the same street, sometimes even on the same block or on adjacent corners. Some have merchandise that caters to a particular ethnic group more than others. Even with the addition of dollar stores and a few chains like 7-11, there seems to have been an increase in the corners stores in the last few years in some of these neighborhoods.

https://goo.gl/maps/UF4ZXEw9kDGboBJw5
https://goo.gl/maps/pshsUHTzFbdPc8V69

[Innsertnamehere]

I personally have always said Convenience Store.

They exist in the suburbs, but not as stand alone outlets typically. They are mostly attached to gas stations in new build suburbs in Ontario. If they aren't, they are in the most marginal commercial spaces available.

Hamilton has a large chain of convenience stores called "Big Bee", which by rough guess are about 50-60% of convenience stores in the city, and I've heard people reference a convenience store as such. "Gunna run down to the Big Bee real quick" or such. Nobody would think anything if you said corner store or convenience store though either.