grotster

Is it me or is it a trend of the British as a whole?? I have had many visitors from the UK since I have been in the US and there seems to be a trend of turning brand names into their plural, these are often bricks and mortar companies but more significantly I refer to grocery stores, a few examples are....

British people
What I don't get is that everything has an "s" on the end, the company names are actually Safeway, Asda and Tesco, why the "s"?

Nutmegger

They are using a possessive, not a plural.

grotster

Really? I don't here that in the US when talking with people. Everyone would say "I'm going to Safeway to buy some chicken", "The meat at Asda seemed bad" or "Tesco had the best selection of pasta".

Maybe I should look up possessive nouns some more, that is not something that I had considered.

grotster

Also, that doesn't seem to cover the following...

Guindalf

Just imagine the word 'store' after each name. Therefore it would be "Let's go to Asda's store and get some dinner".

The last one should be "Safeway's HAS the best chicken (singular, not plural).

RICH

Theirs never, a grammer Nazi around when you need one.

TopSec

Or a spelling nazi 😉

grotster

I'm sorry, no one would ever say "Let's go to Asda's store and get some dinner".

MMcD

I'd suggest you only talk to Brits who shop at Trader Joes

Giantaxe

That is exactly what people are saying when they say "let's go to Asda's and get some dinner". It's an abbreviation using a possessive.

celticgrid

Rather than try and guess what unknown folks may be thinking when they purportedly use these 'pluralizations', I have to say that I have never heard anyone use any of them.

Simply that.

Tesco has always been Tesco, except when using the possessive. Ditto other stores. Except Morrisons, which of course does have the 's' at the end!

robin1234

In my experience, folks in the US use it pretty frequently. Anyone remember the former store, Ames? People would say "I'm going to Ames's." (Pronounced, Ames-is). I certainly say "Walmart's" and most other people in these parts do too...

grotster

Lol... Trader Joe's is their brand name and Morrisons is the same. I just don't understand putting an "S" on the end of a brand name of a grocery store. Grammatically Asda's might fly, but when considered in the same light with Morissons you wouldn't say "Morrisons's", neither would you say "Trader Joe's's"

Sally Redux

Locally we had Trader Joe's, Ralph's, Vons and Albertson's.

RICH

Publix are just messing with us.