A grocery is a store that sells food and household supplies. When your family needs milk, bread, vegetables, or cleaning supplies, you go to the grocery store. The word also describes the items themselves: when someone carries bags of groceries into the house, they're bringing home food and other necessities from their shopping trip.

Before refrigerators and modern transportation, people bought fresh food daily from separate shops: a butcher for meat, a baker for bread, a greengrocer for vegetables. Grocery stores changed everything by gathering all these items under one roof. Today's large grocery stores, called supermarkets, might stock 30,000 different products and stay open late into the evening.

Grocery shopping means the regular task of buying food for your household. Some families shop once a week, making a list of everything they need. Others stop by the grocery store every few days for fresh items. When you help carry in the groceries or put them away, you're helping your family prepare for the week's meals.