Shoobie is a

New Jersey New Jersey is a U.S. state, state in the Mid-Atlantic States, Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern United States, Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York (state), New York; on the ea ...

Delaware Delaware ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Maryland to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and New Jersey and the Atlantic Ocean to its east. The state takes its name from the adjacen ...

, and

Southern California Southern California (commonly shortened to SoCal) is a geographic and cultural region that generally comprises the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. It includes the Los Angeles metropolitan area, the second most populous urban ...

slang term for a tourist who visits the seashore for a day (a daytripper) or summer-only residents. Shoobie is used in the Southern New Jersey coast (along with other parts of the east coast), and

resort town A resort town, often called a resort city or resort destination, is an urban area where tourism or vacationing is the primary component of the local culture and economy. A typical resort town has one or more actual resorts in the surrounding ...

s in California. The term "shoobie" originated in the late 1800s, and it derives from daytrippers taking the train to the New Jersey beach, with their ticket price including a boxed lunch packed in a shoe box. Later it was used to refer to anyone who brought a picnic lunch to the beach resorts. Either way, these daytrippers deprived local businesses of the revenue the tourists would have spent on food. Homeowners (whether year-round or seasonal) often walk to the beach barefoot or remove their shoes immediately upon reaching the sand.Ravo, Nick
" THE TALK OF LONG BEACH ISLAND; FOR EARLY TOURISTS, A TEPID WELCOME AT JERSEY RESORT"
''

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'', February 16, 1987. Accessed April 4, 2008. "Shoobie is a name Long Beach Island residents attach to tourists, usually those from Philadelphia and the New York metropolitan region. The name is derived, local residents said, from

day-tripper A day trip is a visit to a tourist destination or visitor attraction from a person's home, hotel, or hostel in the morning, returning to the same lodging in the evening. The day trip is a form of recreational travel and leisure to a location th ...

s of decades ago who visited the island and brought their lunch in shoe boxes." Similar terms are " Benny," which is mostly used in the Monmouth County and northern

Ocean County Ocean County is a county located along the Jersey Shore in the south-central portion of the U.S. state of New Jersey. It borders the Atlantic Ocean on the east. Its county seat is Toms River.Jersey Shore The Jersey Shore (known by locals simply as the Shore) is the coastal region of the U.S. state of New Jersey. Geographically, the term encompasses about of oceanfront bordering the Atlantic Ocean, from Perth Amboy in the north to Cape May P ...

. Shoobies are essentially a mixed blessing for local beach residents. They bring in enormous revenue during the summer months (less so if they bring their own food), but at the same time they add numerous obstacles and annoyances to day-to-day life. In that sense, shoobies are not unlike the tourists who visit any resort area.

Representation in other media

The term has also been mentioned frequently on the

Nickelodeon Nickelodeon (often shortened to Nick) is an American pay television television channel, channel which launched on April 1, 1979, as the first cable channel for children. It is run by Paramount Global through its List of assets owned by Param ...

show '' Rocket Power''. The term is also used to describe "day-trippers" on Nantucket Island. Slightly Stoopid and Toko Tasi recorded a song "Shoobie", which appears on Slightly Stoopid's EP entitled '' Slightly Not Stoned Enough to Eat Breakfast Yet Stoopid''.

References

{{Reflist Jersey Shore Pejorative terms for in-group non-members New Jersey culture