Growing up in suburban San Diego County, we mostly had 7-Elevens, Circle Ks, and the occasion Utotem, but if it wasn’t a chain store or supermarket or actual liquor store, we’d generally call it a mini-mart.
I wasn’t particular. All of the options sold Dr Pepper and Bazooka Joe gum.
Forgive my colonial ignorance, but what’s racist about describing stores run by Pakistanis as “Paki shops?” Is it just that the abbreviation of “Pakistani” is often used by racists or in a hostile manner, as with “Japs” or “Abboes?”
Which is ridiculous because it was called a “paddywagon” after its drivers, not its reluctant passengers.
Correct. Dairy is the standard term, although paki is also, uh, “acceptable.” I find it surprising that the Australian version doesn’t end with the letter “o” 
For an embarrassingly long time I didn’t know any non-racist French terms for a corner store. In Paris the most common seems to be “l’arabe” (the Arab), which is a bit like “paki” except that you don’t go to the trouble of abbreviating it. I have also heard “le chinois” a few times. Better terms are “épicerie” (spice-shop) or “alimentation” (food supply).
That is the most un-German looking arrangement of beer I have ever seen in my life. The dismaying disarray aside… Corona? WITAF?
No. They are called Milk Bars in Victoria.
Melbournian here. I should know.
Yep. In particular, “Paki-bashing” being a favourite pastime of white supremacists. The way it’s used by them covers anyone from the Asian subcontinent or anyone even vaguely resembling that description. It’s a word with a load of hatecrime related baggage and often used with violence as well as being horribly reductive.
So, you’re spot on. 
File it with the other descriptions that are best avoided unless they apply to you.
ETA: And if they do I’m in no position to tell you what you should or shouldn’t call yourself.
Anecdote in support: a few jobs back, I worked at a place that was HQ’d in Britain but also had a Houston office. A British Asian guy I worked with liked to tell the story of how, when on secondment out there, he went to get his hair cut. He was briefly confused when his hairdresser started talking to him in Spanish.
I think that’s been pretty much debunked, as surviving accounts and research have made it clear that “Paddy Wagon” was a sneer, implying the contents were mostly immigrants. The Irish immigrants themselves at the time called them “Black Marias”. It’s misremembered cartoons from later, long after the Irish had made an effort to become respectable and joined the police, that the term lost its roots.
Hey, it’s Berlin. Berlin is to Germany like Austin is to Texas. Or my city, Munich, is to the rest of Bavaria.
I disagree on the Munich part, though. All of Bavaria is the Florida of Germany and it does not make sense to differentiate in the dregs.
[I only work and sleep in Bavaria. I don’t LIVE here]
Now now, as an American expatriate who has family in Texas, I can attest to its similarity: it’s the biggest state in Germany (Texas doesn’t think of Alaska as a real state), it has the swagger that goes along with it. Like Texas, Bavaria every now and then flirts with secession, and as Texas is the America of America, Bavaria is the Germany of Germany (Prussian now has mostly negative connotations!).
Whilst Munich is the biggest city and Austin is not nearly as large as Houston or Dallas, both are the capitals, both have great universities, both are homes to many IT companies and both are proud of their LGBT communities.
So there. Neener neener. Ätsch. 
never ever disagree with the real and assimilated natives, especially those in an isolated culture. anthropologists only monitor, it is paramount not to influence the people : P
So on that note, what do you call the corner store in your neck of the woods? Tante Emma Laden? Eckladen? Kiosk?
Yeah, I’m a New Englander- packie is where you buy beer. First time I heard it used in a racial context I had no idea what they were talking about.
And when they finally said “Pakistanians”, I told them they were mistaken and that the folks who ran the MobilMart were Indian.
They became frustrated.
mostly Tankstelle, as the small shops didn’t survive : )
eta:
we have an actual Tante Emma Laden here. but the name is used mostly ironically - while they sell regional foodstuff the main business is a cafe/restaurant with a kitschy grandma interior
I completely missed your post on this; the spa thing has baffled me the whole time I’ve lived here, and even 70-year-old relatives who’ve lived here their whole lives have no explanation. But I’ve never heard anyone say “I’m going to the spa for cigarettes”. Even if the place is called Hodgkins Spa or Frederick’s Spa it’s just “the store”.
[EDIT] the internet tells me that the ‘spa’ thing comes from the days when bubbly water at soda fountains was seen as healthy.
I’d also add that corner shops that sell liquor seem to be called bottle-o’s all over Australia.
I’m a colonial and its a slur where I am. No one uses it save people that voted for Rob Ford or would vote for Trump if they could.
In Ireland we just call them ‘shops’, or ‘newsagents’ more formally (often though just refer to the name/brand of a specific shop). If they just sell booze they’re ‘offies’. ‘Paki shop’ in London is definitely not related to the American word that sounds the same (which I’d never heard of before), in much of Spain they refer to them as ‘Chinos’, for similar reasons.
