Living with people is a funny thing. Whether it be roommates or a husband, you learn a lot about yourself and a lot about them. I always try to prepare college freshman for this unique situation, but it’s just one of those things you have to learn through experience. A life lesson, if you will. Each of my roommates have been a completely different living experience, so there’s just no way to prepare someone for what may or may not happen. Some roommate situations are a beautiful thing, while others are completely disastrous. I think we can all agree on that. Anyway, what got me off on this whole tangent was something that one of my current roommates says that I’ve recently caught on to as well. Because we all know that living with people also means picking up some of their quirks for yourself. I find that actually humorous.
She calls the grocery store, “the grocery.”
For instance, if used in a sentence she says something to the effect of, “Hey y’all, I’m going to the grocery. Anyone need anything?”
The grocery.
For the longest time I gave her the hardest time, but more recently, I’ve been calling it the grocery while simultaneously kicking myself because what in the world? It’s the grocery STORE.
I pick up groceries at the grocery store.
This dawned on me this past Monday when I was about to head home from picking something up at my parent’s house and I said out loud, “Oh, before I go home I’ve got to head to the grocery.”
And then I stopped dead in my tracks. What did I just say?
I even googled it, because you know, the google is the answer to all life’s mysteries, but google was helpless to me in my time of need. Blast.
Although I was left stunned at my own ability to say “grocery store” I decided to make my list of items so I wouldn’t forget anything I needed.
This is what my list consisted of.
1) Apples
2) Peanut Butter
3) Avocados
4) Chocolate Almond Milk
5) Mascara
Otherwise known as my top five HEB (a Texas only grocery store) grocery items. These five littler items keep me frequenting HEB time and time again.
I realize one does not belong with the others, but that was my emergency grocery list.
I’m sure some of you are curious if I buy mascara every time I go to the grocery store, and I’m here to reassure you that no, that is not the case, but I do love me some mascara. Yes, yes I do. Thank you, Loreal.
It got me thinking that I can’t be the only one that frequents the grocery for certain items. We all have our go-to items that are on nearly every grocery list we make. And honestly, it has to say something about us, right?
I am the girl that can’t go a day without eating an apple with peanut butter. And the avocados? Well, why not? An avocado makes life better. As does mascara.
What are your top five grocery items? And because I’m a closure kind of girl, let’s settle the debate here and now: grocery or grocery store?
And yes, I just wrote an entire post about the grocery STORE. Deep thoughts, y’all.
Grocery store! Definitely!
Top 5 grocery items:
1. Yogurt
2. English muffins
3. Juice
4. Kashi cereal
5. Grapes
Grocery store!
Bananas, milk, carrots, yoghurt, chocolate chips.
i love that chocolate chips are on your top 5, karen!!
LOL — I have a daily habit — 1/4 cup of Nestle’s semi-sweet chocolate chips. Going on 21 years!
Milk
Bread
Bananas
Apples
Tortilla Chips
And, it’s grocery store.
I’ve never heard anyone say simply the grocery. Don’t go to the dark side, Lindsee! 🙂
I *adored* this post … for several reasons! First of all, I love grocery shopping. Really, truly, I love it. And I love our local grocery store. The closest one to me is exactly 12 miles from driveway to parking lot and is a Publix — my favorite foodie place. So generally, if I’ve got to go, I’m either ‘going to the store’ or ‘going to Publix’. My top five grocery list items are: (1) coffee mate (my processed food vice), (2) hummus, (3) celery, (4) carrots, (5) walnuts. And I *totally* agree with you on the L’Oreal mascara — my fave!! 🙂
12 miles! Whoa! I literally live across the street from mine. So close I could walk. 🙂 City girl for sure! Grin.
Grocery Store
Top 5:
Unsweetened almond milk
Cage Free Eggs
Uncured, nitrate free bacon
Cheese
Nuts of all kinds
See a pattern here? Its called Gluten/Soy Free 🙂
Grocery Store
1. Diet Coke (for hubby)
2. Propel Berry Flavored (for daughter)
3. Eggs (me)
4. Bread
5. Peanut Butter
Trader Joe’s peanut butter cups
Milk
Flowers
Trader Joe’s chicken strips
Half n half
And I was an army brat and we called it the commissary! It took me years after my dad retired to say “grocery store”.
Yes! One of my very best friends also calls it the commissary because her husband is in the military as well.
Apples (also enjoyed with peanut butter)
Salsa
Tortilla chips
Cereal
Salad stuff
I realize that last item is really more than one, but that is the way I write it on my list, “salad stuff”.I used to live in state that called it the “grocery store”. Twenty-five years ago I moved to an area that calls it “the market”. I swore I would never call it the “market” because, for crying out loud, that is something that happens outside. Of course all these years later, you know what I now call it. It’s neither the “grocery store” or the “grocery”. It’s “the market”‘ where we push “buggies” instead of “grocery carts”. Thanks for being so much fun!
We call them buggies in TN too!!
I had a roommate that “swept” that floor with the vacuum. 🙂
1. bananas
2. apples
3. eggs
4. cheese
5. Nutella
Okay, that’s hilarious!
Okay, I grew up hearing that. You pull out the vacuum to sweep the floor! Doesn’t everyone say that?? LOL
1. Peanut butter
2. Bread
3. Cheese
4. Greek Yogurt
5. Hair mousse
Grocery Store 🙂
1) Pistachios
2) Milk
3) Some sort of fruit
4) Bagles
5) Lettuce (for salads)
It’s grocery store. 🙂
grocery list:
1. lettuce
2. cheese of some sort
3. cauliflower
4. whatever fruit is in season (watermelon, peaches or nectarines right now!)
5. vitamins
I used to say grocery store but (just like you), I’ve switched to grocery! It sounds more grown up perhaps!
1. bananas
2. 2% milk
3. peppers and onions (I’m finding every dish is better with a few of these sauteed alongside)
4. well…#3 counted as 2 items…so…
5. fat free half-n-half
I just say ‘store’… =)
If I have to run into the store for something quickly, usually it’s for one or all of these:
-Milk
-Cereal
-Ben and Jerry’s (for hubby)
-Coffee
-pantiliners
Thanks for your post. Little variety to the day.
Definitely “the” grocery store. And I agree, HEB is mine, though the new Sprouts has some tasty looking single meals in their deli. Ok. Top 5
1. Boarshead Honey Maple Turkey Breast sliced on a one 1/2-1lb
(I’ve seen my grandson put 1/2lb w 8 slices of bacon for a single sandwhich)
2. Pep ridge Farm Honey Wheat Bread
3. Sunbeam Small White Bread
4. Two Scoop Post Raisin Bran. Big BIG box (89yr mom every AM)
5. Cranberry Juice & Gnger Ale ( husbands favorite drink )
Well Lindsee, you and I agree on the apples & peanut butter grocery items…in fact peanut butter in anything is always great!!
1. Peanut Butter
2. Apples
3. Beanitos
4. Think Thin protein bars
5. Skinny popcorn
Yes ma’am! In fact, I think one time I heard (or saw) or Beth tweet that peanut butter is the great human equalizer! A to the men.
Oh…and about the grocery or grocery store…I just simply say “store”…as there could be a number of different types of stores I may be going to.
This totally cracks me up because my roommate always said grocery too! She claims it’s a Texas thing. I had to resist saying it too. My grocery essentials? Bananas (for my husband) and frozen healthy choice for my lunch. Sad but true. And tea and honey. I go through lots of tea.
I had to google “heb”!!!! Haha!
Definitely grocery store. But if ya tease someone long enough, it sticks, doesn’t it?
1- bananas
2- Peanuts (homemade pb, yummmmm)
3- Eggs
4- Spinach (for the eggs)
5- Ice cream (my hubs always writes this in)
Fun post 🙂
Off topic: my daughters would say, I’ll go with. Yep, that it… With who, where,
when?
1. Yogurt
2. Coffee
3. Half & Half
4. Avocado
5. Junk food
So not a fan of “go with”…..wasn’t a fan of “my bad” either, but find myself saying it! 🙂
My list is never consistent but probably always includes bananas, apples, lettuce.
I call it the grocery store and my husband USED TO call it ‘the market’. I thought that was HILARIOUS! Stock market? Farmer’s Market?
Hmmmmmmmmm… Although I always call it a “grocery store”, I think that technically, just “grocery” is correct. We say bakery, instead of bakery store, and pharmacy instead of pharmacy store, so perhaps it really is just a grocery. Whew!
My top 5, always-on-my-list items:
* Cat food and dog food – we are up to 5, count ’em, 5 cats! And 6 dogs! The amount of furry creatures living here has reached a scary level. We are totally outnumbered…
* Coffee – Donut House Coconut Mocha is my new favorite flavor
* Cheese
* Nutella
* Salad mix
Blessings and have a wonderful day!
Adrienne
Girl! Five cats and six dogs?! I can’t imagine. You are my hero. I bet you have a ton of fun!
I usually say grocery only. Don’t know why.
Grocery store, definitely!
1) Dr. Pepper
2) Frozen pizza
3) Dog food
4) Hot dogs
5) Bread
Generally I am going to the grocery store! (Although I have heard folks say “the grocery” and I may have used that term one time or another.)
As for my go-to list….it changes up so much. Seems I’m always buying TP and tissues. Milk. And for me personally, it’s cappuccino mix. My downfall.
I say grocery store. “The grocery” sounds British. 😉
Top 5
1. Chocolate Milk
2. Grapes
3. ground beef
4. either stuff for spaghetti or stuff for tacos (easy meals in a pinch and all go with #3)
5. bananas
Items 1, 2 and 5 are for my 3 year old who goes through milk and fruit like a crazy person!
In So. Indiana, it’s grocery! 🙂
Top 5 in a house of 5 with 3 kids 8,6, and 3…
1. milk
2. bread
3. toilet paper
4. paper plates
5. sausage
Yes! Kiddos change the whole game. 🙂
Well Lindsey dear, I’m with the roommate. I say “Grocery”. We live about 30 minutes from town and that is where the grocery is, so I make a list and try to keep the shopping to once a week. We have a garden so I have plenty of veggies but my Top 5 are: Fruit, coffee/tea, eggs, chicken, ice cream. My husband loves ice cream, and so do my 6 grandbabies.
My top 5 items:
Bananas
Eggs
Milk
cereal
Special K protein drink (chocolate, of course)
And my vote is for grocery STORE 😉
(Unless you live in the NE and then it’s called food shopping. You’re welcome!)
Love you and your fun posts, Lindsee! xo
Food shopping. I kind of like that. Sounds way more exciting!
We live in a small town and we just say, “I’m going to the store.” The hearer automatically knows where we’re headed.lol
cereal
bananas
Ezekiel bread
pumpkin seeds
pasta
Oooooh, I’ve heard that Ezekiel bread is yummy and really healthy. I think I need to get some!
I am a grocery store girl! My top five items
1. Coffee creamer
2. Coffee
3. Yogurt
4. Bananas
5. Fruit
Always on my list : skim milk and OJ.
And while we definitely call it the grocery STORE (or just the name of the store) here in Pennsylvania, saying “grocery” for some reason sounds sweet and a bit old fashioned to me. Like maybe how the characters in the “The Help” would say it 🙂
Agreed. Someone commented to say it sounded more british. I like that.
I’ve heard “grocery” used alone. I kind of like it.
My list:
Bananas
Bread
Milk
Salad stuff
Salsa
Hey Lindsee, I say grocery store since I’m from Texas…however, here in the UK, you can go to the green grocer for fresh fruits/veg. Most people here say “shop” as in “I’m going now to do my big shop for the week” and we all know what they mean. Kinda funny. Not that anyone wanted a lesson in British words. 🙂 my top five are: almond milk, Cadbury twirl bites, bananas, apples, and I usually stop on the “world foods” aisle to see if there are any new imports from America (please can we get those peanut butter M&M’s soon!) Cheerio Siestas! 🙂
I love this so much. Not silly in the least. 🙂
oh my word, the world foods section…when i lived in Germany for a year, i was having a particularly down day (homesick and all) so i picked up a can of pringles and a jar of miracle whip because they were the ONLY labels i recognized…and just wandered around the store. lol also, my mom lives in thailand and i send her ‘care-packages’ that almost always include peanut butter M&Ms (:
Candifer, that is so funny!!! Good ole Pringles, always on the world foods aisle. 🙂
I was just about to say…sounds like a pretty healthy group here…but, I must admit, Peanut Butter M & M’s are @ the top of my not so healthy food group list…well, they do have PB in them…does that count??
Coffee
Milk
bananas
hair spray (gotta have my shine Aussie spray)
dog food (lol)
of course, there is more…but these seem to be the top nearly every trip i make…..
Well I normally say going to Publix (store in FL not see where else they are located) but if I weren’t saying that then..probably would be “the grocery store”.
Top Five
1 Yogurt
2 OJ
3 Eggs
4 Milk
5 Bread
🙂
There were some people in my small hometown who called our one big store “The Wal-Marts.” As in, “I’m headin’ uptown to The Wal-Marts” (Duck Dynasty, move over.
Ha ha ha!
I call it the grocery store….But you know when I imagine someone saying “I’m on my way to the grocery”, for some reason, a British accent is being used with each syllable being pronounced perfectly! I in my southern draw make the word with only 2 syllable…”growshree” LOL
Top 5 items I buy at the ‘Growshree’ store every week:
1. bottled water
2. string cheese
3. toilet paper (it MUST be a cardinal sin to run out, so I buy it EVERY week) 🙂
4. shampoo (because my children still think it’s fun to squeeze out the rest of the bottle in the shower to make bubbles)
5. chicken
Fun article!
I say the “grocery STORE”… but I do have a friend who says “the grocery” and I secretly smile on the inside.
I usually say ‘grocery store’, but I kind of like how ‘grocery’ sounds. I might have to start using that. 🙂
My top 5:
bananas
salad stuff
water
eggs
frozen yogurt (summer in FL, bleh)
” the store”…which always means (grocery store).
1. Butter
2. milk
3. eggs
4. chicken
5. bread
I say Grocery Store (or, as an mid-Easterner, just “Wegmans”). My precious 4.5 year old princess randomly started saying “Let’s go to the Grocery Shop” last year and that’s what we call it when she comes. Where she got that I will never know.
1)Eggs
2)Bacon
3)Bagged Salads
4)Chicken (BORING)
5)Diet Coke. Wish that one wasn’t on here. But it remains in the top 5!
With 3 kids, a dog, and a man who happens to love raiding the the pantry after 9pm, this list is a bit of a joke. Top 10 would be a better picture of our world! 🙂
The grocery shop! I might just start using that. 🙂
Grocery – of course!
Chocolate Vita tops
Fresca
Diet Dr. Pepper
No sugar added peanut butter cup ice cream
Dog food
Either “grocery store” or the name of the store (HEB or Kroger). If you can walk to your HEB, I bet you live off 249. Louetta’s HEB ROCKS !! I even bought a bistro table & chairs there for my balcony.
Top 5:
Melitta coffee (the best)
Fat Free Half n Half
Fruit (look for a sale)
Tresomme’ Hairspray (must have)
Sushi (HEB makes really good sushi-FAVS are the Texas Roll and they will make me an avocado roll).
Fun Post – Blessings to all !
Here in O-Hi-O, there seems to be a Kroger store just about every other mile or so… and more going in all the time!
So I say ‘I’m going to Krogo-‘ and that’s it-
I used to load up on all sorts of stuff to keep 3 growing boys full, but nowadays, just perpetual diet food…
Salad stuff, cottage cheese, rice cakes, yogurt, and frozen strawberry bars,(hubby’s favorite).
Fun post, Lindsee Lou!
In the UK, we call it neither the grocery or grocery store! It’s a grocer’s – but that’s just the small shops that sell only fruit and veg. The big ones (like Asda, owned by WalMart), we call supermarkets. We don’t normally refer ‘buying groceries’, it’s just ‘food shopping’, even though that ‘food’ will include all sorts of non-food items!
Hi Helen, where in the UK are you? I live in Cardiff. 🙂
Lindsee, is your roommate by any chance from South Louisiana? I’m asking because, when I moved here (S. La), I noticed that everyone calls it “the grocery”! I’ve picked it up as well.
almond milk
apples
shaving cream (I shave daily – is that weird?)
bread
bananas
She isn’t! However, one of my coworkers just mentioned to me that folks from Louisiana have a way of saying it also. I’ll have to ask our resider New Orleans girl, Vangie. 🙂
It’s the grocery store for me or sometimes we just say the store. My top five items are…
1. Milk
2. Bread
3. Coke Zero
4. Bananas
5. Bagged Salad
my top five grocery STORE items:
1. fage plain greek yogurt
2. apples
3. peanut butter
4. cucumber
5. raw almonds
i only go grocery shopping twice a month! as a single lady with a very independent roommate (our schedules are sooooo opposite) i eat a lot of rice, oatmeal, and frozen veggies (: