Quote Originally Posted by Serge_spb View Post
"Маша и сын её, Саша, ходили пешком за покупками, а сейчас сынок устал." - is absolutely fine sentence, no need for "шли".
They have already done their shopping.

"Чем занимались сегодня? - Ходили за покупками"
"Я спешу, только ходила (or сходила) за покупками, и надо снова бежать"
etc
Yes, sure. If he did mean that the shopping had been done at that point and it seems like he did. I don't know why but when reading that sentence for the first time I had a feeling that he wanted to say thet they were on their way to do some shopping. Looks like a wrong assumption now.