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Grocery vs Commodity - What's the difference?

grocery | commodity |

As nouns the difference between grocery and commodity

is that grocery is (usually groceries) retail foodstuffs and other household supplies while commodity is (obsolete) convenience; usefulness, suitability.

grocery

English

(wikipedia grocery)

Noun

(groceries)
  • (usually groceries) retail foodstuffs and other household supplies.
  • * 1776:
    • Where ten thousand pounds can be employed in the grocery trade, the wages of the grocer's labour make but a very trifling addition...
  • * 1850 , '', ''The present time
    • Did not cotton spin itself, beef grow, and groceries and spiceries come in from the East and the West, quite comfortably by the side of shams?
  • A shop or store that sells groceries; a grocery store.
  • * 1854:
    • I observed that the vitals of the village were the grocery , the bar-room, the post-office, and the bank...

    Usage notes

    When referring to goods, the singular form is primarily used attributively, as in a grocery bill, a grocery list, etc. The plural form, groceries, is much more frequently used to refer to actual goods, especially in the US.

    Synonyms

    * (retail foodstuffs and household supplies) commodities, general goods, groceries, packaged goods * (store that sells groceries) general store, grocery store, market, supermarket

    Related terms

    * greengrocer * grocer * groceries

    References

    commodity

    English

    Alternative forms

    * commoditie (archaic )

    Noun

    (commodities)
  • (obsolete) Convenience; usefulness, suitability.
  • Anything movable (a good) that is bought and sold.
  • * 1995 , James G. Carrier, Gifts and Commodities: Exchange and Western Capitalism Since 1700 , p.122
    • If a key part of shopping is the conversion of anonymous commodities into possessions, shopping is a cultural as much as an economic activity.
  • * 2001 , Rachel Pain, Introducing Social Geographies , p.26
    • In human geography "commodities'" usually refers to goods and services which are bought and sold. The simplest ' commodities are those produced by the production system just before they are sold.
  • * 2005 , William Leiss, Botterill, Jacki, Social Communication in Advertising: Consumption in the Mediated Marketplace , p.307
  • *:* Referring to the work of Bourdieu, Zukin (2004,38) notes that shopping is much more than the purchase of commodities
  • Something useful or valuable.
  • * 2008 , Jan. 14th, Somerset County Gazette
    • And Slade said: "It really makes me sad that football club chairmen and boards seem to have lost that most precious commodity - patience. "Sam's sacking at Newcastle had, I suppose, been on the cards for a while, but it is really ridiculous to fire a manager after such a short time.
  • (obsolete) Self-interest; personal convenience or advantage.
  • *, I.40:
    • Shall we employ the intelligence Heaven hath bestowed upon us for our greatest good, to our ruine? repugning natures desseign and the universal order and vicissitude of things, which implieth that every man should use his instruments and meanes for his owne commoditie ?
  • *, NYRB, 2001, vol.1, p.321:
    • they commonly respect their own ends, commodity is the steer of all their action.
  • (economics) Raw materials, agricultural and other primary products as objects of large-scale trading in specialized exchanges.
    • The price of crude oil is determined in continuous trading between professional players in World's many commodities exchanges.
  • (marketing) Undifferentiated goods characterized by a low profit margin, as distinguished from branded products.
    • Although they were once in the forefront of consumer electronics, the calculators have become a mere commodity .
  • (Marxism) Anything which has both a use-value and an exchange-value.