Wicked Good Guides / Wicked Good Guide to Boston English /

Carriage

What you use to wheel your groceries around at the Stah Mahket.

Your carriage awaits at Roche Bros. in West Roxbury:
carriages

Comments

I had to spend about 20 minutes asking the people at the "packie" where the nearest "stah mahket" was. I got there and couldnt find any carriages, sure enough, everyone looked at me like I was a kook.

Chris on April 16, 2004 02:40 AM.

I'm in Denver now, and everyone calls it a buggy not a carriage. They also call a shopping bag a "sack". "Would you like me to sack up those groceries?" No, put 'em in a fricken bag!

RL on June 11, 2004 10:15 PM.

also called a carriage in Rhode Island.

sarah on June 27, 2004 10:50 PM.

the purity supreme on morrissey boulevard had wicked pissa carriages. I use tah push my buddies down popes hill in 'em

Bookah on August 16, 2004 01:20 PM.

Exactly so! When I moved from New York City to Manchester, New Hampshire, during my first visit to a local supermarket I was told to push the *carriage* forwards and it took me a while to realize that they meant to say a *cart*. LOL. I looked like a dumbass then. By the way, it is a trolley in England. "Carriage" was quite new to me.

Nick on October 16, 2004 07:10 PM.

I grew up in Marshfield, Ma, but we always called them wagons.

graeme on November 13, 2004 04:17 PM.

I worked at Rochies in Millis for 4 years and we called them carriages!

Chris on April 3, 2005 12:25 AM.

In the Midwest and Southwest, they're called shopping carts. When I moved out here 3+ years ago, I thought there must be a lot of babies being brought to the grocery store that their carriages needed their own designated spot in the parking lot.

Kay on April 6, 2005 01:38 PM.

haha.. when i went ot the store with a friend from ohio, i asked if we need a carriage, and she said "what'd you call it? that was so cute!"

sheila on May 23, 2005 11:30 PM.

Definatly a carriage, all the Marines here from down south, look at like im a weirdo.

Jen on May 28, 2005 01:03 PM.

My father was raised in Melrose and uses the term "wagon" for supermarket carriges, which it totally perplexing to me. His father was a supermarket butcher (Finest Supermarkets in Malden I think) for decades, and so my father and aunts and uncles all had their first jobs at the store. He couldn't have gotten out-of-state jargon from his parents, because they came from Everett and Dorchester, both children of Irish immigrants. So who knows.
But "carriage" is far more common, fur shur.

katey on August 31, 2005 06:50 PM.

I've called them "carriages" since I was old enough to talk and use the word. And grew up in the Boston area. So this is certainly true, and must be unique to Boston/S. New England.

Mark Edward Manning on September 28, 2005 10:18 AM.

ive lived in brookline, and we always call it the caht

andreas on October 17, 2005 11:30 PM.

Here in Wistuh, we call them either buggies or carraiges.

Brendan on December 17, 2006 11:26 AM.

Im from Boston and went to NY.I was looking for a carriage in the grocery store and I asked some guys that worked there for one. They kept pointing to the cabbage! I had to point to someone elses carriage for them to get it. They said "oh, you mean a shopping cart" haha :)

lauren on December 25, 2006 02:51 PM.

My parents are from East Boston and growing up in Peabody we used both 'carriage' and 'wagon' interchangeably.

Also, somebody recently asked me if I go "grocery shopping" or "food shopping" ... hmmm ...

Suzi on June 1, 2007 12:35 PM.

oohhh i diddnt know this was just specific to boston! They're carriages to me

Zoe on December 1, 2007 08:47 PM.

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