"spa" = 'neighborhood grocery store', aka 'convenience store'?

[Joel S. Berson]

At 3/1/2011 09:27 AM, Barbara Need wrote:
>I lived in MA in the 1970s, but I don't remember ever seeing  a
>grocery store with _spa_ in its name. I was north of Boston. Is this
>more localized than has been suggested?

I wonder whether "spa" has diminished in usage since perhaps the 1950s-1960s.

On this list we have twp spas that are definitely groceries in
Cambridge, a spa by name in Lewiston, ME (but is it a soda
fountain/casual dining spot or a grocery?), and the "greasy spoon"
lunch counter called The College Spa.  That encompasses the North
Shore, but how local the "grocery" meaning is I have no idea. AHD
says in its "More word histories and mysteries" that the
"neighborhood grocery store" sense is eastern New England.


>Barbara
>
>Barbara Need
>Ithaca
>
>On 1 Mar 2011, at 8:16 AM, Amy West wrote:
>
>>On 3/1/11 12:02 AM, Automatic digest processor wrote:
>>>From:    "Joel S. Berson"<Berson at ATT.NET>
>>>
>>>If anyone knows how to separate "spa" = 'neighborhood grocery store'
>>>from the mass of "spa" = 'watering place', I'd be interested.  It's
>>>an eastern New England usage (says AHD in "More word histories and
>>>mysteries", but without saying a word about date of origin).
>>
>>One of the few times I've seen this in print was on a sign in
>>Southbridge, MA: it was one of those square, yellow, light-up signs
>>that
>>said "X's Spa" and then there were additional signs for sodas,
>>groceries, etc.
>>
>>Maybe check business listings categorized for groceries and search for
>>"spa"?
>>
>>I'm betting that the origin is linked to the origin of sodas as
>>"tonics." It makes sense to go to a "spa" for "tonics." And some soda
>>fountains were at pharmacies (my father-in-law started out at the soda
>>jerk at his father's pharmacy in Philadelphia). When the "spa"
>>shifts to
>>a convenience store, I'm not sure. But I think this early "medicinal"
>>origin lies at the root of the terms' semantics.
>
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