Supermarkets tend to be bigger, though some grocery stores are pretty big.  BTW Walmart is neither, though I think there are some that specialise more in groceries that might qualify.  Our local one has a couple of aisles of grocery type things, and unless you live on TV dinner type things, you'd be hard pressed to buy all your groceries, and forget about fresh meat, fruit, or vegetables.

Our local store that I would consider a grocery store, rather than a supermarket, is a small chain that started as a farmer's market based on its proximity to a nearby large farming area.  Its three branches are all still close enough to there to source a lot locally, and they don't have clothing, housewares etc.

Some supermarkets get ridiculous with what else they sell.  At one time, our local one had a huge clothing section, especially baby and children's right in the middle of the store!  it was very annoying because I was already having mobility issues, and of course a lot of the necessities were past that area.  I also heard the employees make comments about how mothers would actually bring their children there to shop after work and let them make a mess, run around, and stay past closing time.  Personally I rarely took my kids grocery shopping, I can't imagine taking them into a store like that one to shop for their clothes!  They have since remodelled and now the clothing section, not sure how much baby stuff they have, but mostly older children and adults, is in the far corner of the store, not in the road.

I'm not sure if there's anything formal in this, but my uncle owned a grocery store (long ago, prior to the Reagan years, if you must know). The difference between my uncle's store and the supermarkets I get my food in were all size. BUT, when I contrast the terms 'grocery store' and 'supermarket' there's a little voice suggesting part of the difference is how well you know the butcher in the back of the store and whether you can call the cashier by name when she's NOT wearing her nametag.

My super sells Christmas stockings from popular anime but all places do because it sells. It’s just one of those things I won’t get unless I time travel or live with Harry Potter I don’t know both will feed me.

We don’t have Walmart here but seriya is it’s sister and it carries everything. Way too much! Going there was overwhelming. I stick to yokybenimaru and itoyokado super

Man...where did you go that they scolded you?  Pretty much everyone I know uses the two terms interchangeably, unless they're specifically talking about going to Walmart or Target or something similar to buy something that is very definitely not groceries.  But even then, they'll usually refer to the store explicitly by name.

But, yeah...sounds like you just ran afoul of someone who's hyper-picky about word choice.  I don't know anyone that would even comment on using one over the other.

In reply to facemaker329 (msg # 20):

I honestly thought there was no different

Honestly I thought grocery was a word from England since we get taught that I’m school but it was the same meaning as supermarket. The only reason I was asking was because I was not sure why they got angry when they mean the same

In the States, a convenience store is a very small store, typically attached to a gas station.  It will sell a lot of things that you could need at any time, day or night. Snack foods, aspirin and other common over-the-counter medications, cereal, milk, coffee, bread, eggs, fountain drinks, tobacco, toiletries, periodicals (newspapers/magazines), and even some car fixes (gas cans, oil, etc.).  Generally no produce or deli items.  Prices are usually higher than a larger store, for the saved time.

In reply to DaCuseFrog (msg # 22):

I was told not to eat the food there. I can buy sushi at my combini abs other things. I could even eat my finger from there. I miss slurpies though

In reply to Mika (msg # 21):

In the UK, historically a greengrocer would sell fruit and vegetables, while a grocer would sell other foods and household items. You would go to the butcher for meat, the fishmonger for fish and the baker for breads and cakes. Plus the off licence for alcohol and the chemist for medicines, cosmetics and personal hygiene, and the newsagent for newspapers, magazines and comics. Not to mention the tobacconist...

Then supermarkets arrived, selling everything.

Nowadays all the former categories still exist, but you also have convenience stores (often called corner shops) that are basically mini-supermarkets that sell a range of goods but just with smaller selections and usually higher prices. And supermarkets now sell clothes, books, toys, games and electrical items, pretty much anything you can think off, hell, I once saw a Ford dealership inside the store!

In reply to Jarodemo (msg # 24):

A corner shop? That’s a new one!  I wish English made more sense but learning new terms helps for when I travel more

Next time someone gives you a hard time for using the wrong term, ask them why it's wrong.  Either they'll teach you some nuances of English or you'll teach them that they're ridiculously pedantic...(I'm guessing the latter, in this case, because there's no good argument for being upset by someone calling a supermarket a grocery store or vice versa...)

In reply to Mika (msg # 25):

Lol! It’s called a corner shop because it would often be on the corner of a residential street.

If you’ve ever seen the Ronnie Barker comedy ‘Open All Hours’ then his character runs a 1970s corner shop. - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=POMMoEuwvtY

In reply to Jarodemo (msg # 27):

I have not seen it! Thank you for the video! I grew up between a few countries with America lagging on any long term stay. THANK YOU

In reply to facemaker329 (msg # 26):

To explain the ridiculousness of the English language:

Read rhymes with lead
and read rhymes with lead
but read doesn't rhyme with lead
and read doesn't rhyme with lead

In reply to Mika (msg # 28):

Enjoy, it’s a British classic!

In reply to Jarodemo (msg # 29):

This is why I cried trying to study it in university!

And Britain or England I’ve never been to!

Everyone wishes English were a deliberately constructed language rather than the stolen hodge-podge of Latin, German, Norse, Gaelic, etc.

I mean, the beauty of English is that words enter the common lexicon from any source making it an adaptive language, the ugly of it is that words enter the common lexicon from any source making it an adaptive language...

In reply to evileeyore (msg # 32):

 Speaking it is hard. Writing it is even harder. Why can’t it be easy and have spelling easy. Both are hard but writing is very differences! I still

And yet, for all it's complexity, over two billion people speak English worldwide, making it the most commonly spoken language in the world.  Probably because it does borrow words from other languages (then "forgets" to give them back).

See...I would have always said that a grocery store just sells foodstuffs and household goods (what I consider 'groceries') and that a supermarket sells other things alongside foodstuffs and household goods, like the giant Harris Teeters that are selling patio furniture and grills and plants alongside their groceries. I'd consider selling foodstuffs to be a requisite to be considered either, however - Best Buy would never be a supermarket, for instance, but Walmart (if it happens to be one of the ones with a grocery section) might.

In reply to Mika (msg # 33):

To make matters worse, UK English and US English aren’t even the same.

We have shopping centres, they have malls.
We have pavements, they have sidewalks.
We have aluminium, they have aluminum.
We have armour, they have armor.
We have trousers, they have pants.
We have pants, they have underwear.

We could make it easy for you foreign types, but we don’t!!! :)

In reply to Jarodemo (msg # 36):

That's before you even get into things like US chips, which aren't the same as UK chips, but are the same as UK crisps...  :\

You could call Best Buy a 'department store', they have departments, but honestly it's a 'specialty big-box store'.

The funny thing is, Walmart is also a 'big-box store' ('big-box' refers to the shape and size of the building, not what it carries), however many (myself included) prefer to use 'big-box' to only refer to the specialty stores like Best Buy, Staples, etc.




Yes, the UK is hopelessly mired in the olde world.  Get with the times old man, eh what!


The USA also has shopping centers, pavement, and trousers.  Many here do spell it armour (just to be archaic.  I also like to spell it 'shopping centre', though I use theatre to differentiate between movies [theater] and stage [theatre]).  You are completely correct that the UK is wrong with aluminium and 'pants' for underpants.  Y'all need to update.  :P

My favorite explanation of it is:

Almost all languages borrow some words from other languages.  English follows other languages down alleys and mugs them for everything in their pockets.  *grin*

And we both put chips in computers!
This message was last edited by the user at 18:39, Sat 28 Nov 2020.

Yeah, in the US, we dropped the extra "u" and other letters considered extraneous (such as humour to humor, neighbour to neighbor, etc) because printed advertisements are charged by the character/letter/numeral.
Pringles are called crisps on the package, though we still call them chips.  What you Brits call chips, we call fries, as in French fries (or Liberty fries during World War 2).  It does make sense, since they are FRIED cut potatoes, though I don't see how they are French.  Unless no one was expected to actually like them