carriage n
1 Also grocery carriage, shopping ~: A four-wheeled cart with a metal or plastic basket provided by a supermarket or other large store for customers to use while shopping. formerly widespread, now chiely NEast, esp eMA, CT Cf buggy n5
1939 Tunkhannock Republican & New Age (PA) 4 May 4/5, Shopping carriages on wheels are provided for the customer, so that purchases may be conveniently stowed on the carriages until buying is completed. 1939 Van Nuys News (CA) 28 Aug 2/4, [Advt:] Shopping is easy at this modernised A & P Market. When you enter you get an easy gliding shopping carriage to hold the foods you select while you shop. 1941 Detroit Free Press (MI) 5 Jan sec 3 4/1, People are talking . . . About the amazement caused . . recently by the couple who pushed their little grocery carriage around, completely tagged [sic] out in formal clothes. 1957 Longview Daily News (TX) 12 Dec sec A 8/1, Blakeway said the new store would feature light shopping carriages and check-out counters similar to those found in modern grocery stores to make for faster service. 1976 Bridgeport Post (CT) 11 Feb 38/6, [Letter:] When I tried to use the escalator to return my shopping carriage to the first floor it fell. . . The answer I got was, “Oh that happens all the time, some carriages don’t lock.” 1976 Boston Sun. Globe (MA) 21 Nov sec B 6/2, Her grocery carriage contained many convenience items such as Quick Bread. 1985 Daily Press (Newport News VA) 7 Aug York Co./Poquoson sec [5]/3, “A shopping carriage would roll to the back on that wooden floor,” he laughs. 1994 DARE File NYC, Both these terms [= cart and carriage] sound familiar to me too. I grew up in NY City (Queens) and I remember the term “shopping cart” . . in certain contexts, such as “Go get a shopping cart”; but I remember using “carriage” in other contexts: “Get in the carriage” or “I want to get in the carriage.” 1995 Hartford Courant (CT) 22 June sec B 1/2, Starting with parking grocery carriages, he later bagged groceries, arranged shelves and progressed to the produce department. 2001 DARE File CT, When in a grocery store, they usually provide a conveyance for carrying your selection to the checkout counter. . . My wife and sister-in-law who grew up around Bridgeport, CT call this a “carriage.” 2005 Boston Sun. Globe (MA) 30 Jan South sec 13/1, Four more shopping carriages were lined up side by side. . . A cassette player sat in one of the carriages. 2008 Boston Globe (MA) 25 May NorthWest sec 6/4, At Boston Latin . . an informal poll of nearly 200 students found that 61 percent still use the term jimmies, and 29 percent still say carriage. But some of the other iconic words are not so lucky.
2 See baby carriage n.