Who originated the dismissive insult “Grocery store people”?

March 6, 2021 6:56 PM

A snobby internet person, probably female, called the unwashed masses “grocery store people”. Google is only showing me information about Covid-safe grocery shopping; this was well pre-Covid. It might have been Gluten-Free Girl?

This information will be used for nothing but I’m sad that I can’t place it.

posted by chesty_a_arthur to Computers & Internet (11 answers total)

How pre-covid we talking? I've never heard of "grocery store people" (or Gluten Free Girl) but this immediately made me think of People of Walmart, which has been a phrase since at least 2009 when that website was made.
posted by ToddBurson at 7:07 PM on March 6, 2021 [3 favorites]

Response by poster: This was a very specific phrase, not the name of a blog (at least originally) and it didn’t refer to actual people in a grocery store. It meant, maybe, the kind of people who would go to a grocery store. I can’t remember what the alternative was, though (a CSA? Ordering delivery? A food co-op?)
posted by chesty_a_arthur at 7:16 PM on March 6, 2021

Best answer: Searching on her actual name and that phrase brings up some reddit discussions of her book where the term is used in connection with her in a way that makes me think you're right it's her phrase, but I couldn't quickly turn up the specific context.
posted by Stacey at 7:26 PM on March 6, 2021 [1 favorite]

Best answer: I'm 99% sure it originates on the Blogsnark subreddit and comes from something Gluten Free Girl said at one point. It is used fairly widely on Blogsnark, but I don't think I've seen it anywhere else. I believe it has something to do with her being snobby about only shopping at co-ops and farmers markets.
posted by Sabby at 7:36 PM on March 6, 2021 [5 favorites]

Best answer: I’m certain you’re correct that it was associated with her, but I’m not sure if it was a phrase she explicitly used, or if it was shorthand coined by others to summarize the judgmental descriptions she would give of what other people were shopping for at the grocery store.
posted by pinwheel spark at 7:39 PM on March 6, 2021 [2 favorites]

Best answer: Okay, if you want to go down a rabbit hole and make an account, there's a 36 page forum thread here on GOMIBlog from 2014 that seems like it might be the origin or at least an early use. That post is from someone named hardtobeamommyblogger

And that is officially all the sleuthing I'm allowing myself tonight.
posted by Stacey at 7:52 PM on March 6, 2021 [4 favorites]

Best answer: I'm not proud that I can recall this, but 'Grocery Store person' is definitely from the GOMI forums. Probably the thread that was linked above. And I think it started because someone was horrified that people considered le creuset to be an expensive brand? And sort of evolved from there??

I think GFG may have come to mind because she had a memorable entry about how she and the Chef would judge the baskets of other people at the grocery store and they were horrified at all the processed food people were buying.

(my next ask - how do I remember important things and not things like this?)
posted by later, paladudes at 9:58 PM on March 6, 2021 [12 favorites]

Incidentally, it's a variation on a very old insult: the Emperor Napoleon sneered at the British as 'a nation of shopkeepers' more than 200 years ago.
posted by MinPin at 3:51 AM on March 7, 2021 [2 favorites]

It's definitely from the GOMI forums. My imperfect memory is that it originated with Stephanie Nielson, (nienie dialogues) but maybe she just perpetuated the concept.
posted by gaspode at 5:18 AM on March 7, 2021 [1 favorite]

Actually, I do think it might have been from Stephanie Nielson, like gaspode said. She was famous for her "bus people" rant years ago.
posted by hollygoheavy at 8:15 AM on March 7, 2021 [2 favorites]

I also immediately thought GOMI's use of "bus people" on the nieniedialogues forum.
posted by i_am_a_fiesta at 1:05 PM on March 7, 2021