To suggest it’s a uniquely British thing to pluralise company names?

[ApertureGLaDOS]

I actually may be unreasonable as I have no idea about what the rest of the world do, BUT…

… I was watching an episode of Food Theory on YouTube and he mentioned repeatedly, ‘Cadbury’. I found it so weird and jarring because it is known as ‘Cadbury’s’ to me. I suppose on reflection it makes sense because I think we are sold ‘Cadbury’s chocolate’ rather than just a product from Cadbury, but it sticks and I refer to it in that sense all the time (I don’t say Nestle’s or Mars’ for example).

And it’s not just that - I go to Tesco’s, not Tesco. And whilst I don’t say it myself I’ve heard friends shopping at ‘Lidl’s’ and even Asda’s.

So is it a British thing or is pluralising companies in common usage a thing done world over?

I dont know about shops, but the Americans i know often pluralise Lego to Legos which always jars to me.

Tescos annoys me. When did it stop being cadburys?!

I'm originally from East Yorkshire and people call It Asda's. There is also a new Bootses (pronounced like that)

Yet shorten maths to math!!

I am very interested in this too, even if you made a bit of a hash of the OPost 😉

I find it strange when I hear “Boots’s” but wouldn’t bat an eyelid at the others mentioned so far. I use “The” as a prefix as a joke because it sounds funny to me, e.g. “I got these down The Aldi for a quid”.

When Tesco or Marks & Spencer are mentioned on the news on an official capacity it's not pluralised and it sounds really odd

I've always added S when you're not supposed

Sainsbury's is actually called Sainsbury's, with an apostrophe and an s on the end. Means belonging to Lord Sainsbury. Google the logo

Tesco, Aldi, Lidl, and Marks and Spencer don't have 's on the end.

That's what dh and I call them, ie their correct names... but then again the only person I've ever met who's more pedantic than me is dh

Also The Co-op is actually called The Cooperative so the "The" is meant to be there for that one. Anyone who says, for example, The Boots or The Tesco is just being silly imo lol

In conclusion:

's:
Sainsbury's

The:
The Co-op

Neither:
Tesco, Aldi, Lidl, Boots, Marks and Spencer

It makes sense to me. The apostrophe and the "s" makes it possessive - something that someone owns.

I'm going over to Peter's. It's a house owned by Peter.

I'm having my fanny waxed at Maureen's. It's a fanny parlour owned my Maureen.

I'm going to Tesco's. It's a shop owned by Tesco.

I think using “The” could almost be a shortening of “The X-Shop in town” IYSWIM

@BanjoKnickers Maureen’s fanny parlour!

😂

Yes, I definitely hashed the original title so sorry for that! But I think it’s really interesting. Are we the only people who do it? It is definitely Marks and Spencer’s to me and I don’t know why as I rarely shop there. I don’t know if the French have their own similar example which the public randomly add a possessiveness too (for example) or if it’s just us who do that.

This really grates on me too! As in “they have lots of legos” or “pick up your legos” instead of Lego sets/bricks. 😬

Primani. If Walmart was here, we'd call it Walmarts.

I suppose it's because some supermarkets are plurals so the others become plurals as well.

Sainsburys
Morrisons
Booths
Marks and Spencer's
Tescos
Safeways
The Co-Op 😀

So wouldn’t ‘Morrisons’ become ‘I’m getting my wax strips from ‘Morrisons’ or Morrisons’s in that example?

Maccies

Agreed.

Except I will say that the sheer amount of incorrect apostrophes is making my teeth itch. I can't look.

I go to Tesco's but if I'm going to big Tesco it just big Tesco - no 's.

Side note - Does everywhere Have big tesco or is just my town?

Tesco’s, Sainsbury’s and Marks and Spencer’s, but never Waitrose’s or Asda”s. I feel as though I’d be being overly deferential towards their corporate branding strategy if I said them properly.

It probably originated back when there was usually an identifiable individual or family who owned a shop or company, therefore it was referring to the shop or company belonging to (possessive) whoever - e.g. Sainsbury’s and Debenhams (the official names but, curiously, no apostrophe for Debenhams). It’s then not too much of a stretch to extend it to Tesco’s etc. even though there was never a Mr.Tesco!

It's also a British thing to use apostrophes to pluralise words.

Do we do that?

I thought we did it to symbolise ownership or a plural ownership. So, the girl's ball vs the girls' toilets.

I might be having a moment, but when did an apostrophe change plurality for a singular thing?

We have Big Tescos and Little Tescos

We do it here in the US, too. Not uniquely British.

Well here's an experiment. If the shop was owned by Arthur would you say "I always buy my turnips at Arthur"?