Comments on: Where do you shop?

By: Ric Morris

Ric Morris — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 19:03:09 +0000

We also like to add an s in certain names like Boots and Starbucks, where there is no possessive apostrophe and no sense of possession (Starbuck being a fictional mermaid). I wonder if, in Britain at least, having a long tradition of owner-shopkeepers, we are in the habit of adding an s to the end of some shop names and we continue this tradition in some modern names, the s somehow evoking a cosy image of a welcoming proprietor? Maybe there is also some kind of phoenetic pattern that helps determine the ’shopkeeper’s s’? I think it is also quite likely that there is an element of free variation that comes with the arbitrary nature of naming (e.g. in London there is St James Road and St James’s Road).

By: Roger

Roger — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 22:30:29 +0000

From Tesco’s history pages on their website: “The name comes from the initials of TE Stockwell, who was a partner in the firm of tea suppliers, and CO from Jack’s surname”.

See http://www.tescoplc.com/plc/about_us/tesco_story/, click on 1950-20s…

By: The Ridger

The Ridger — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 23:17:48 +0000

I’m also American, and while I don’t add the ’s, I’ve heard it – even on names like “Giant”.

By: John Cowan

John Cowan — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 18:00:59 +0000

As a Yank and New Yorker, this idea is very alien to me. I would normally use a genitive ending on a store’s name only if the store already had that name: Macy’s or Bloomingdale’s, for example. Such places are in general long-established: I can’t imagine a new business starting up that would use a genitive name, unless it was named after a celebrity.

The only counterexample I can think of is Bigelow’s, a New York drugstore established in 1838; their proper name is C.O. Bigelow Chemists, and their logo reads C.O. Bigelow Apothecaries — both terms being survivals in the U.S., though at least Chemists seems to be still current elsewhere. But everyone calls them Bigelow’s anyhow, perhaps because they are so old.

By: James D

James D — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 14:57:14 +0000

I suspect *John Lewis’s is avoided because people still remember the totally unconnected department store chain Lewis’s that went bust in the 1990s recession (and consequently only the Liverpool store still trades under this name).