buggy
A shopping cart at the grocery store.
Also called shopping buggy, grocery buggy.
Updated September 21, 2026
buggy pronunciation
/BUG-ee/
Meaning
In redneck and rural Southern talk, the wheeled basket you push through the store is a buggy, not a cart. Folks say it at Walmart, the Piggly Wiggly, and the little market in town the same way. Outsiders hear "cart" and wonder what horse you left outside. Locals just grab a buggy and keep shopping.
How folks use it
- “Go grab me a buggy while I get a carton of ice.”
- “That kid nearly took out the cereal aisle with the buggy.”
Origin and etymology
Older English used buggy for a light horse-drawn carriage. When grocery carts showed up in the mid-1900s, Southern and Appalachian speakers borrowed the old wheeled-vehicle word for the new store cart. DARE records grocery buggy and shopping buggy across the South and South Midland from the 1940s on. The exact handoff is murky, but the shopping-cart sense stuck hard in rural Southern speech.
Frequently asked questions
Is buggy the same as shopping cart?
Yes. Same metal basket on wheels. Buggy is just the everyday word in a lot of Southern and Appalachian towns.