h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

When I was a kid we'd say that we "went shopping" or "to the shops" whenever we needed make purchases, and in the case of the latter, even if we were only going to one shop (usually the sweet shop ), because shops rarely existed on their own (apart from corner shops) and clustered together, either on a High Street or a parade, or around a market place.

The former usually indicated something a bit more substantial, like a... well, we didn't really used to do a weekly shop then the way a lot of us tend to nowadays - my mother would go shopping two or three times a week, so it would involve visiting the butcher, the grocer, the greengrocer, the baker, the dairy (perm any three from five). Shopping for ingredients for the pantry, to cook meals with.

So this morning I need to go and buy a few things - eggs, flour, milk; a few basics rather than a big shop, which I'll do after the weekend. Even though I shall be buying them all from one place, I still feel like I'm going to the shops (because there are other shops in the same place), and I'm definitely going shopping.

My friends from around these parts will say "I'm going to the store", even if they're going to more than one, so sometimes I feel a bit odd, now, about saying "I'm going to the shops" when I'm only going to one, as I will be in a few minutes.

That's an interesting word for a place where things are sold. A store is a place for keeping things, like a warehouse, but the whole point of a shop is *not* keeping things. To the extent that when I had a Saturday job in a department store (not unlike Grace Brothers) I was taught to look out for anyone from the top floor trying to trick employees by asking "Do you keep ?". If you answered "Why yes, we do." you'd get the reply "Well stop keeping them and start selling them!"

Hmmm... I wonder if there might be a colloquial difference between the hill country and here on the Gulf Coast. It's a small difference, but here "going to the store" typically implies a singular store. "Going shopping" is the normal phrasing for general shopping for stuff other than groceries. "Going to the store" here is usually about foodstuffs.

It's a subtle difference.