Bostonian born & raised, never heard spa. Feels like an obscure thing WGBH wrote about, and looking at the article, appears it's mostly historical now.
We do call our liquor stores "packies," though, which comes from package store. :)
We do call our liquor stores "packies," though, which comes from package store. :)
But now that I think about it, I grew up in a town that, at least forty years ago was rural. The local shop was simply referred to as, "Clyde's" after the man who owned it.