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

[Victor Steinbok]

I've checked GB and the 1917 reference I gave earlier does appear to be
the earliest available there for "convenience store"--there is another
1917 publication, plus a couple form 1918 and 1919, then a big gap. Note
that the author of that paper suggests that convenience stores
originated from drug stores. So the notion that a pharmacy would have a
soda fountain is not surprising at all--although it would have little to
do with the medicinal value of the tonic and more with the broadening of
the appeal of the drug store as an "everything" store.

     VS-)

On 3/1/2011 8:16 AM, Amy West wrote:
> ...
> 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.
>
> --
> ---Amy West
>
>

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