Missing āconfectioneryā, looks like.
OK. . . in New England (and Massachusetts in particular) āpackieā for āpackage storeā almost always means liquor store, not necessarily the same as bodega or cornershop or whatever (the old blue laws mean alcohol is mostly only available at liquor stores, with beer and wine in a few specially licensed supermarkets.) Sometimes they are called āconvenience storesā, but in Boston these are referred to as āspasā, and Iām disappointed he didnāt address that one, since Iāve never understood it.
My favourite corner store name will always be Quebecās depanneur (or more commonly, ādepā) which translated means āto help out of difficulty.ā
For some reason where I live corner stores are a rare thing. Most stores are large chain operationsāI wonāt name names because it seems unnecessary. Liquor stores are mostly standalone entities because, up until recently, they could only sell wine and liquorānothing else. If you needed a bottle opener youād have to go to a store that didnāt sell wine.
That changed a year ago and just this month grocery stores can now sell wine, but most of the ācorner storesā are just gas stations.
Americans donāt know this slur yet. Shhh! Donāt get them started.
I have 14 āconvenience storesā within walking distance to my home, but to get a cup of coffee I have to go 25 blocks West toward downtown San Diego. The travesty that is my life.
Anyone claiming that derivation in the UK is just trying to backtrack their racism.
how ā¦inconvenientā¦
Given the QuĆ©bĆ©coisā wonderful and creative use of off-color language, it probably ought to mean something like āto un-fuck your lifeā.
I believe in New Zealand what we in Australia call āmilkbarsā are called ādairiesā.
Yeah, this. āPackiesā pretty much almost always meant a liquor store or at least a place where you could get beer, not any convenience store. I donāt know where the āspaā thing comes from either-I see it around, but I donāt really have a good sense of how widespread it is. Otherwise, it is might simply be referred to as āthe connah store.ā
Allow me to express my skepticism that the derivation of āPaki shopā has anything to do with packages. This sounds like a crypto-racist back-formation to me, a Brit. Certainly, over here, itās always been associated in my experience with corner shops run by families from the sub-continent.
I guess itās possible that the phrase has been around in the States since before Idi Amin kicked out a lot of Pakistani nationals causing many of them to seek refuge here sometime in the 70s, but if so, the unfortunate coincidence in sound is probably what caused the increased popularity (edit: in Britain), in which case itās still badly disguised racism.
lost in the description of the survival and spread of the word ābodegaā in NYC is itās use by young āhipā members of recently (or not so recently) gentrified neighborhoods to try to retain street cred for their neighborhood choiceā¦
The term āpackage storeā originates with the restrictions in certain states that alcoholic beverages be sold in opaque āpackagesā such as a brown paper bag. The English would be forgiven for making the association with the similar epithet, but as 90% of Americans couldnāt even find Pakistan on the map, let alone distinguish a Pakistani national from a Mexican, I doubt this would be much of an issue. Still, we certainly donāt need more divisive language in this country.
Oh, I know. Iām American and Iāve never been to the UK. I just grew up around a lot of British people when I was a teenager living in the expat heaven that is the Middle East.
No ātuckā shops? For shame!
Or it could be that theyāre using the regionally appropriate descriptor because itās more readily understood locally. New York City has always been a town populated and influenced by the various communities that flow through it in various eras (I mean, itās not like the Dutch created the term bodega). People that choose to see only āgentrifying hipstersā are missing a whole lot of cultural dynamic right under their noses. In fact, Williamsburg, the neighborhood constantly cited as the Mecca of hipster culture and gentrification is also home to one of the largest (and growing) Hassidic communities in the world as well as large Puerto Rican and Dominican communities and even a few vestiges of the largely Italian neighborhood it used to be. Same neighborhood, different worlds.
That makes just about as much sense as saying that the British are using a slang term for homosexuals to refer to cigarettes.
