grocer
Americannoun
-
grocers
plural
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of grocer
1325–75; Middle English < Old French gross ( i ) er wholesale merchant. See gross, -er 2
Explanation
Someone who sells food in a supermarket or convenience store is a grocer. If you can't find your favorite kind of cereal on the shelf, you should ask the grocer to help you. The owner or manager of a grocery store is a grocer. This word once meant "one who buys and sells in gross," or in large quantities, from the Anglo-French grosser. By the 16th century, grocer also meant "merchant selling food," but earlier that person would've been called a spicer. Your neighborhood grocer might sell fresh produce from local farmers, unlike that big box supermarket out by the mall.
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
“A grocer or retailer running on thin margins cannot build all of that alone, and with AI, the playing field risks being tilted even further away from local commerce.”
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 29, 2026
Across town from Good Time, Tashkent Supermarket, an Uzbek grocer with an enormous and fabled hot bar, opened its first Manhattan location in the West Village last year.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 25, 2026
The Southern Californian chain Vallarta Supermarkets opened its newest store in Duarte on Wednesday, marking the 66th location for the popular Latin American grocer.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 23, 2026
The Idaho-based grocer is exhibit A for problems in the supermarket business.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 13, 2026
“I’m like a grocer who doesn’t make you dinner.”
From "Everything Sad Is Untrue" by Daniel Nayeri
Whether or not a New York City outpost open to all is on the way, the brand has cemented its dominance among luxury grocers, spawning a growing industry of high-end health-food markets across the world.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 6, 2026
He added that "Instacart has spent years learning to do that well for grocers, while DoorDash has built a delivery network and technology that local stores rely on every day".
From BBC ● Oct. 29, 2026
The companies positioned the deal as something that could help smaller grocers compete.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 29, 2026
Rather, research found, grocers have used the labels to discount goods that are about to expire, reducing food waste.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 26, 2026
What he could do was speak to the grocers in his next address before their business association.
From "Native Speaker" by Chang-rae Lee
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