Regional terms for corner stores/bodegas

[NYbyWAYofGA]

In my hometown of Columbus, Ga., we call them corner stores, or gas stations. Where I currently reside, in Jersey City, NJ, we call them bodegas/smokeshops/delis/convenience stores....

[niwell]

I've also always heard / used "convenience store" in Toronto. While not on the same level as a bodega with deli counter, you can usually buy a surprising and occasionally bizarre array of goods at many convenience stores in central Toronto. In my current area, and particularly during COVID I buy most of my day to day goods at local ones. One has a great fresh produce selection and another has a great selection of Asian and Caribbean spices. Pretty much everything except meat, seafood and cheese (thankfully there are local stores for that too).

[iheartthed]

Originally Posted by SIGSEGV

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

Exactly. There are two full service grocery stores and at least four bodegas within a 2 block radius of where I live.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by 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'.

Yeah, dépanneur is pretty ubiquitous a term across all language groups and demographics. It even seeps into places like Ottawa in Ontario, though I wouldn't say it's what most people use, but most everyone would be familiar with the term.

It's also pretty well-known on SSP Canada () regardless of where people are from, though beyond that I don't think it has much reach elsewhere in Anglo-Canada.

[NYbyWAYofGA]

Another one is mini mart or market.

[sopas ej]

In Los Angeles, growing up, we've always called them liquor stores or convenience stores. Mini-mart is another one, but liquor store is the most common term.

I've heard Spanish speakers in LA refer to a liquor store as a tiendita.

If you were to ask someone in LA where the nearest "bodega" is, you'd get a blank stare. I've always thought of a bodega as a wine cellar, or maybe a pretentious word for a wine shop.

[montréaliste]

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.)

Yes, in the general sense of course. Panne in French means being stuck, running out of gas or something like that. A tow truck is a "dépanneuse".

[pj3000]

Originally Posted by 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 seems to have been an increase in the corners stores in the last few years in some of these neighborhoods.

These types businesses are fascinating to me, as very interesting indicators of changing demographics in old city neighborhoods. The situation in Erie sounds similar to what you describe in Buffalo (which makes sense since it's right down the road).

The corner store / bodega has always been a staple in Erie city neighborhoods (there's TONS of them there), but I've also noticed MANY new stores over the past few years popping up... often owned by Middle Eastern, Asian, or African immigrants, to go along with the long-standing Eastern European, Italian, and Hispanic shops (who often add to their offerings to cater to the changing neighborhood). It seems like the simple term "market" is used in the names very often now.

I grew up just down the street from this place. It was an Italian deli when I was a little kid in the 70s and 80s, then a Dominican cafeteria, then a Bosnian market, now a Somalian market.


This was a bar for a long time, now an Iraqi market. Another Iraqi-owned market, Moe's One Stop, is on the right of this photo (a former Country Fair convenience store), and offers an interesting mix of hair products, prepaid cell phones, and fried chicken. It's somewhat of a neighborhood institution.




I always knew this as "that bodega on 10th street"... bodega because it was owned by Puerto Ricans. Now, I guess the name is formalized.


I love when the name changes multiple times within a couple years.






This place was an old, blue collar Polish bar called TJ's since the 1930s, with a really cool neon art deco sign. The new sign for the Syrian market that has taken its place doesn't quite do it justice...


Larry Adiutori's Central Market has been an Italian deli since the 1920s, but has long catered primarily to the Puerto Rican and Domincan population in the neighborhood.


Was various bars over the years, now an Iraqi-owned store.


Old-school Polish corner store (great sausage)


Italian corner deli in an older suburban area.


Been there forever in what's now a rough neighborhood. Seems like it gets robbed a few times per month. Gotta give them respect for sticking it out for their neighborhood customers.


Russian market... though not quite a "corner" store.


Another Polish bodega since the 1920s.


Long a Polish corner store, now a Bosnian market.


A Korean corner store since the 1980s. Oriental --> Asian.



This corner bodega was Al DeLuca's Variety Store, now Indian-owned Lucky's Food Mart.

[pj3000]

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).

They do... but I know what you mean. They're definitely not nearly as ubiquitous in Pittsburgh as they are in other places, especially in cities laid out on a rigid grid system.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by montréaliste

Yes, in the general sense of course. Panne in French means being stuck, running out of gas or something like that. A tow truck is a "dépanneuse".

When asked to explain the word, I've used "bailer outer", but you guys have done a better job than me.

[Don't Be That Guy]

Originally Posted by pj3000

They do... but I know what you mean. They're definitely not nearly as ubiquitous in Pittsburgh as they are in other places, especially in cities laid out on a rigid grid system.

In some cases, the market might be the only building left standing on the block. Here and Here in Homewood. Or this block in Larimer where two markets are the only standing structures on the block.

There are a lot of these scattered around the city. But as eschaton said, they're just not in the areas you are likely to go.

[pj3000]

Originally Posted by Don't Be That Guy

In some cases, the market might be the only building left standing on the block. Here and Here in Homewood. Or this block in Larimer where two markets are the only standing structures on the block.

There are a lot of these scattered around the city. But as eschaton said, they're just not in the areas you are likely to go.

Well, I am probably more likely to go to many areas for a number of reasons, but that's besides the point. Sure, I'm aware that there are plenty of markets scattered all throughout Pittsburgh and in many towns all around the region. There are corner stores in the Pittsburgh area, as I initially said. But they aren't as common a component of a neighborhood as in other cities with much more rigid street layouts.

Your examples are generally not corner stores or corner bodegas in the sense theat many other cities have... they are what remains of one-time commercial districts. They are not on corners of residential or mixed residential/commercial neighborhoods. As eschaton mentioned earlier, Pittsburgh is not really laid out that way.

[eschaton]

Originally Posted by pj3000

They do... but I know what you mean. They're definitely not nearly as ubiquitous in Pittsburgh as they are in other places, especially in cities laid out on a rigid grid system.

Yeah, I wasn't saying they were totally absent by any means. I just don't think they're common enough to really have a set name.

I mean, I've lived in Pittsburgh for almost 16 years, and I have never heard anyone talk about them as "corner stores." I actually still kinda call them bodegas in my head, since I grew up in the NYC metro area, and lacked another good term for them.

I tend to think "corner store" is more of a Great Lakes thing than anything.

[eschaton]

But yeah, in Pittsburgh there are basically four types of convenience stores:

1. Relatively yuppiefied independent convenience stores (Bryant Street Market, 52nd Street Market, Mayfly Market, ect.)
2. Regular independent convenience stores (usually in bad neighborhoods)
3. Chains (Rite Aid, CVS, Walgreens, Uni-Mart, etc.). These usually occupy the middle point between the gentrified convenience stores and the other independents.
4. Actual gas stations.

There's also an unusual number of things which used clearly used to be gas stations.

[pj3000]

Originally Posted by eschaton

Yeah, I wasn't saying they were totally absent by any means. I just don't think they're common enough to really have a set name.

I mean, I've lived in Pittsburgh for almost 16 years, and I have never heard anyone talk about them as "corner stores." I actually still kinda call them bodegas in my head, since I grew up in the NYC metro area, and lacked another good term for them.

I tend to think "corner store" is more of a Great Lakes thing than anything.

When I'm talking "corner store" used in Pittsburgh, I guess I'm thinking of hearing it mainly when I was young from relatives in the south hills. But yeah, it's not something one hears in Pittsburgh often at all. Because like you said, they're just not all that common here.

"Corner store" might be Great Lakes region-derived terminology, I have no idea. But I've definitely heard friends and family from Queens use corner store and deli and market, rather than bodega.

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.

[Blitz]

They're often called variety stores here and party stores across the river.

[MolsonExport]

Originally Posted by pj3000

When I'm talking "corner store" used in Pittsburgh, I guess I'm thinking of hearing it mainly when I was young from relatives in the south hills. But yeah, it's not something one hears in Pittsburgh often at all. Because like you said, they're just not all that common here.

"Corner store" might be Great Lakes region-derived terminology, I have no idea. But I've definitely heard friends and family from Queens use corner store and deli and market, rather than bodega.

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.

Thanks for the explanation. I have never heard of the term "bodegas" before this thread...well, I saw a few places labelled "bodegas" the last time I was in Brooklyn, but I didn't clue in that it was a depanneur (err, convenience store).

[SIGSEGV]

Originally Posted by Acajack

When asked to explain the word, I've used "bailer outer", but you guys have done a better job than me.

A very similar verb (depană/depanez) a similar meaning in Romanian FWIW, basically to debug or troubleshoot, where "pană" means something like a fault, outage, breakdown or rut. But corner shops, based on what I've heard, are usually just... shops (magazin), since non-corner shops are pretty new in Romania... (and people are likely to say e.g. Carrefour or hypermarket in my experience). I suppose you can literally translate "corner store" to magazin de colţ.

[Investing In Chicago]

Growing up in NYC we would call the Bodega by whomever owned the store (assuming we knew the owner, which in our neighborhood we knew them all); Mom would say (in her heavy Italian accent) "Investing in Chicago, go down to Carmine's and get some fruit" or "Investing in Chicago, I need to stop at Luis', do you need anything while i'm there?"

Outside of our 'hood, we'd call them Bodega's or Korean Markets.

[sopas ej]

Originally Posted by eschaton

3. Chains (Rite Aid, CVS, Walgreens, Uni-Mart, etc.).

To me, Rite Aid, CVS and Walgreens are drugstores, not convenience stores, which are smaller and don't have pharmacies. 7-11 and Circle K are convenience stores to me---basically chain liquor stores.