Originally Posted by Yorkieabroad

There was a headline on one of the sites last week or so ago, something about yoga pants being banned because they were too immodest. I was too distressed to even click the link....

Originally Posted by 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"?

Originally Posted by amideislas

Mathematics

If there is any tangible difference between English and "American" with respect to "pluralisation" or "possessives", I have to suspect it is likely influenced by history.

England has a much longer history of privately-owned shops and products in the namesake of it's founder. It's Witherspoon's pub, Mark's & Spencer's or whatever.

The Americans have a much shorter history of that, and perhaps more memorable for them are the larger "branded" names such as "Sears" (not "Sear's"), "Safeway", "Ford", "Hancock", "Conoco" etc.. I doubt most Americans would say they are "Going to Safeway's". But I expect Brits very well might do.

Originally Posted by LondonSquirrel

It's Wetherspoons.

Originally Posted by SultanOfSwing

Immodest, really?

You'd be a fan of this page, then?

Originally Posted by dunroving

It's always been that way - I remember saying Woolworth's when we were kids, way back in the last century.

Originally Posted by dunroving

And it's Marks and Spencer - which just goes to prove the OP's point (or someone's, anyway; lost track of who said what).

Oh, and while we're at it, it's "its"

Originally Posted by Pulaski

Shouldn't that be "5-stars"?

Originally Posted by SultanOfSwing

The only thing is, given we're talking about food shops, does that make all these apostrophes grocers' apostrophes ... ?

Originally Posted by Nutmegger

You forced me to drag it out again . . .

http://www.aei.org/wp-content/upload...apostrophe.jpg

Originally Posted by Sally Redux

So you didn't see the numerous American examples above. You 'doubt most Americans would say they are going to Safeway's' Well they say they are going to Ralph's, Gelson's, Trader Joe's, Albertson's and so on, so what are you actually on about with your fake history lesson?

Originally Posted by grotster

Legos totally demonstrates my point though

Originally Posted by SultanOfSwing

I don't think we can top that.

Originally Posted by Nutek

http://i.imgur.com/2YBjbSz.jpg

Originally Posted by Mrs Danvers

You went to Trader Joes on the eve of a snowstorm? That was brave. Ours has a jam packed parking lot at 9am on a Tuesday morning leave alone weekends and snowstorms. But it's the only one around for miles.

Originally Posted by WEBlue

We were popping in to pick up a few special requests for a relative we were staying with, so no way to avoid it. TJ's are all crowded (yes, yoga pants & tasteful skinny jeans), every one I've ever been in, but due to the snow approaching this was madder than usual....