grocer

American  

[groh-ser] / ˈgroʊ sər /

noun

• grocers
  plural

1. the owner or operator of a store that sells general food supplies and certain nonedible articles of household use, as soaps and paper products.

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grocer British  

/ ˈɡrəʊsə /

noun

1. a dealer in foodstuffs and other household supplies

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• grocers
  plural

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

See Examples For:

grocer grocers

Hyper upscale grocer Erewhon at the center will reopen in January.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 15, 2026

Its rapid growth is being mirrored across Europe, its rise aided by easing perceptions of it as a strictly discount grocer as shoppers became increasingly impressed by the quality of its products.

From BBC ● Jul. 12, 2026

Walmart is America’s largest grocer and was ranked the nation’s top retailer by the National Retail Federation, with U.S. retail sales of $576 billion last year.

From MarketWatch ● Jul. 9, 2026

It could call a grocer, order ingredients, insisting on it all being upscale, and have those ingredients delivered, unpack and load the fridge and then use my appliances to make dinner.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 29, 2026

Not just a respectable grocer or dry cleaner or doctor, but a larger public figure who was willing to speak and act outside the tight sphere of his family.

From "Native Speaker" by Chang-rae Lee

The ready-to-use food products that Taylor Farms recalled over the weekend had been sold at Trader Joe’s, Walmart and Target, among other grocers across the nation.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 11, 2026

O'Malley said consumers could feel the impact in the vegetable aisle too, where grocers are likely to swap in smaller produce at the same price, which is known as shrinkflation.

From BBC ● Aug. 5, 2026

Incumbent US grocers may look with some concern at the insurgency Aldi pulled off since it entered the UK market in the 1990s.

From BBC ● Jul. 12, 2026

Largely harvested in the wild by foragers—sometimes surreptitiously on private land—in the Northeast and Midwest, they make their way to grocers.

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 13, 2026

The grocers had gunny sacks of dates and almonds next to stacks of fruit leather, not Orich bars or anything like that.

From "Everything Sad Is Untrue" by Daniel Nayeri