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?

Scouser here. It's The (big) Asda. Tesco's, Sainsbury's, Mogsy's and the Offy...
Booths - if you're out of its catchment then I'm afraid you're just jealous 😆

How and where did Asdal come from! Is it pronunciation or is it just colloquially a thing?

I'm a language teacher. The other languages I speak don't do this because their possessives don't work in the same way.

It is a little bit funny that people do this with shop names which don't actually have an apostrophe s I suppose, but tbh it's not that odd (and don't find it annoying) - the examples like Cadbury's and Sainsbury's are proof that it is not an unreasonable way to name a shop or company.

It indicates ownership of the building but the type of building is understood

So you could say "I went over to Peter's" meaning I went to the house belonging to Peter. And "I went to Sainsbury's" means I went to shop belonging to Mr Sainsbury.

I've never heard 'Asdal' before .

Booths is another one which must have been a possessive (because it is or was owned by the Booth family), but I guess they decided not to bother with the apostrophe!

On an aside, I actually love that we do this. It’s so strange but generally any Brit (or possibly someone living on British Isles) would understand even if they don’t use. But it’s one of those weird quirks I think we use that is so odd but also really interesting.

Ah, the good old West Country L. That brings back memories. My name ends in an 'a' so I'd often get an 'l' added to the end by older people, so Rebecca would become Rebeccal for those who don't know the accent (probably not the right word). It seemed to die out before I left though.

Canadian perspective. I think if the original company was with an 's then that's how we pronounce it.
I shop at:
Safeway
Mark"s (was originally Mark's Work Warehouse)
The Bay (was originally Hudson's Bay Company)
Shoppers (note no apostrophe, that's the way it is spelled. it was re-branded from Shopper's Drug Mart in the 70's)

So no adding an s unnecessarily.

I think Asda is an abbreviation for Associated Dairies so no plural or ownership 's needed. It is of course essential to live near a Big Asda and a Little Asda. The Big Asdas would just be Too Much 😗

And the co op is properly named The Co-operative and if you are going do collect the green shield stamps.

America has

Macy’s
Lowe’s
McDonald’s
Kohl’s
Levi’s
Wendy’s
Trader Joe’s

I call my local little supermarket The Yozda. (I growed up in the Black Country, day I?)

Yeah, we have that one in the US, too.

Those are all the correct names of those places though, the apostrophe s hasn't been added erroneously. Most of them are named after a person or a family, which is why they're possessive.

Lots of them are names aren't they. Like Cadbury founded by John Cadbury? Marks and Spencer's by Marks and Spencer.

So they were someone's... and so became possessive.

My sister and I argue all the time whether it’s The Co-op or just Co-op

It used to be the Co-operative Wholesale group which people shortened to the Co-operative. With it’s new branding, we just call it the Coop. 😀

Lots of Scots do say “Tesco’s” though @Puffalicious . My whole family does. This isn’t a Scottish vs English thing.

It is definitely a thing in NE Scotland too.

Our big Tesco is quite small so not really fitting of the term, we have big Asda and Big Sainsbury's though

It's nuanced. It's tescos and sainsburys and Morrisons but it's the co op and the asda.

We have big tescos and shit tescos. Which is only slightly smaller

Wait is it not called WetherspoonS?

Until quite recently it was called Plymco not co op here

I can see why that one has an apostrophe. It is Cadbury's chocolate. Same principle as Smith's Crisps, Ben & Jerry's ice cream, or McDonald's fast food restaurant, come to that.

Don't know where that leaves Selfridges or Harrods though...

We say both Tesco and Tesco's as the mood takes us. It also depends on the sentence. For example, I'd say "I'm in Tesco", but if I were saying "I'm going to Tesco's".....

I also pluralise M&S - it's never Marks and Spencer, always Marks and Spencers, or sometimes Marks and Sparks :-)

I might pluralise Lidl....

I also pluralise WHSmith's, which is actually quite hard to say!

but I would never pluralise Waitrose, Aldi or Asda. Because that would just be wrong obviously :-)

Now you mention it and I'm thinking about it, it's very weird and applied inconsistently...I wonder if Susie Dent has anything to say on the etymology!

We don’t say John Lewis’s, do we?
or
Selfridge .

To make matters worse, online shopping has brought a new level of linguistic butchery to our house. An online order is "a Tesco" as in "When you next do a Tesco can you get some toothpaste please?" But when it arrives, it's "the Tesco" - "The Tesco is here, help me put it away please." However, if I actually go to the shop, I'm off to Tesco's.

Surely it's said as "Tesco's" the same way you would say you are going to "Jane's" if you were visiting her. The building is owned/occupied by Tesco. Therefore you are going to Tesco's.