This was before Walmarts, Kmarts, and large chain grocery stores, at least for Rochester, NH.
But more often than not, I would go with my mother on Saturday mornings and spend it right away. While she was shopping in the grocery store, we would go to the Globe, and look at toys, coloring books, and all sorts of "shiny" things. More times than I can count, I bought drawing pads, colored pencils, markers, and watercolors. I loved art (and still do today), so I was able to buy things that would make it more enjoyable.
As I became a pre-teen and teen, the focus turned more to closes. Trying to assert my independence from my mother's choice of what I would wear (who the heck invented polyester!!??), I would save for a month or better just to buy a shirt or sweater that I truly loved.
Like in the "old" days, when a family who lived on a farm might have only "gone to town" once in awhile, that was our "going to town" trip, just weekly. We lived 20 minutes from these stores, and so it wasn't convenient for my parents, who both worked. I have many fond memories of those stores, and the extra treats my mother would get us on the way home, either at the A&W drive-u