Discussion Forum—A Way with Words, a fun radio show and podcast about language

Hi Grant! I grew up in the 1950's and 60's in Alameda, a suburb of San Francisco. Back then there were none of the supermarkets that are so common today that we don't even think of them as super-markets, and these supermarkets don't just take up corners but entire blocks.

Anyway, we did all of our grocery shopping at what were known as corner markets, for the larger markets, or corner stores, for the smaller markets. Very prosaic, I know, but that's what everyone called them. It's funny, now that I think about it, that all the markets in town were on corners. If we needed to refer to a specific corner market or store, we would call it by name, such as William Brother's Market or Al's store. But generally people shopped at the market closest to home and didn't need to specify. One exception was what we called the Church Market, a half mile from our home and kitty-corner from our church. We would sometimes go the extra distance because they had the best wax candies!

I bet that the expression "to have a corner on the market" has something to do with corner markets, doesn't it?

Thanks, Dilettante. I never would have guessed that. I love making wild little bets like this with my friends and family. Putting our money where our mouths are makes things a little more interesting - though I'm not talking big money, so talk is cheap, just not free.

In the case of this idiom, I imagined that the corner in question was a metaphor for a great location, as in a prominent and convenient corner location in town, attracting lots of buyers. You know what they say about real estate and businesses: location, location, location. But now I see that corner is meant in a negative sense, manipulating markets to force buyers to pay more.

This reminds me of my misunderstanding of another market/price idiom, the offensive expression “Jew down.” It wasn't until I was in my thirties, when I saw the idiom in print, that I discovered it wasn't “chew down.” I always thought that haggling was the process of people chewing prices down! I think that my misunderstanding should officially replace the offensive idiom! When people “chew down” prices their mouths actually look like they're chewing!

i live in Australia, and here we call them milkbars.

I've lived in Brooklyn 28 years, and they are without question called Bodegas.

In France they're usually called “chez l'Arabe”, or “l'Arabe du coin”, based on the fact that they are often run by North Africans.

My early childhood was in Vancouver, British Columbia. At least in the part of town where I lived at the time (little Italy) we referred to it as the Chinese store, for the same reason noted above, although the only thing Chinese about it was the owner. To this day I don't know if this expression was citywide or local to that hood. Later, living in various other parts of Canada, it was either the Mac's or simply the corner store. A few places it was the 7-11 but like its namesake that was less common. Over time I get the impression that Corner Store is the most universal. Convenience store is often seen in print but it's not heard often (sounds a bit stilted if you ask me).

Here in Mexico it used to be simply "la tienda" (the [little] store) - as opposed to "el mercado" - the "real" grocery store; then "el mini super" or simply "el mini" became common. In recent years "el Oxxo" (the name of a nationwide chain) is what you hear most.