prepositions - "I will go up to the stores"


What is the meaning of the following sentence, said from a person that is at home, and is going outside?



I will go up to the stores.




Answer



"I will go to the stores". The "up" is fairly meaningless; it may refer to the stores being "uptown" from one, north of one, above one vertically, or have no real referent at all. It's much the same as the New Jersey, USA colloquialism of "going down the shore", which means "going to the shore" regardless of where one is situated relative to the shore.


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