Tiny stores which typically sell some mix of grocery items, snack foods & (occasionally) prepared food times such as sandwiches, often compensating for a smaller selection and slightly higher prices through the convenience factor of their accessible near-residential locations (aka, the place you go when you just need to run out for some milk or a banana) are called:
this still hasnt solved the issue of what to call the store we buy milk from lmao
@Satsuma In Australia, these are called "milk bars".
@lookitmychicken whoa, really? That's interesting, cos we call them 'dairies' which I always thought must sound weird to non-kiwis but I guess Australia is just as weird 😂@Satsuma
@Satsuma oh shoot I need to retract my vote if gas station stores don't count. in my region/dialect, a corner store / convenience store can mean a gas station store pretty synonymously, but a store attached to a gas station can only be called a bodega if it's, like, weird and independently branded
@Satsuma ABOVES FOR THE ABOVE GOD
@Satsuma Probably the most interesting term I've heard for a store like this is "mercantile". I'm pretty sure it's hyper specific to like one town, but everyone I've heard it from has seemed to act like it was a general term for a whole class of stores and not just the one in town.
@Satsuma i might call it a general store because i think the one that used to exist in my home town had that in the name. i feel like convenience stores in the US do not usually carry grocery items. i am not familiar with either bodegas or corner stores. i think basically i have never actually referred to this type of thing generically. just, like, calling the local one(s) (which other than the one in my home town i feel like i've only encountered in the US on college campuses) by its name/a nickname
@Satsuma it's called a 'dairy' here, often 'corner dairy' even though its not always on the corner.
@Satsuma STORES FOR THE STORE LORD
(see above poll description)