Retailer commits apostrophe crime
Image via Wikipedia Recently returned from London two traumas affronted me: first, my daughter’s UFO broke, so had to be returned; second, and more importantly, when returning it to the store whence it came, Harrods, I realised the world’s most famous store has lost its apostrophe!
Diligently adding the apostrophe throughout the refund request letter, it was only on the website the apostrophe omission came into full and alarming view. Where – and why – has it gone?
The store was established in 1834 by Charles Henry Harrod, so it is his store and should therefore be Harrod’s. Apparently the apostrophe has been mislaid in fairly recently history and in 2006 the store was criticised by the Apostrophe Protection Society, along with Selfridges and Currys, for discarding the punctuation mark. In an article on the subject The Times quoted John Richards, chairman and founder of the society, as saying: ‘Many corporations have started to drop the apostrophe arguing that it looks better that way.
‘It amounts to a deliberate corporate abuse of the English language and sets a very bad example to schoolchildren.’
It seems odd that the third most visited tourist attraction in London, arguably the world’s most famous store, with a commitment to excellence, should not complete its mission and add that little grammar mark. I thought it was striving to keep all of its customers happy …
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Two typical spelling/grammar errors I’ve seen corrected in several retailers are 1) the misspelling of stationery (yes,the item was often spelled with an “a” on an aisle sign), and 2) in the express checkout lanes of many supermarkets, the signs have been changed from 10 items or less to 10 items or fewer. Sometimes I wish I didn’t pay attention to these things at all; if I didn’t, I probably would get home having forgotten to buy something less often. ; – )
Leo it is an occupations hazard. I’ve been known to get my red pen out on a menu in the past (well not really, but I’ve felt like it many times).
[...] Retailer commits apostrophe crime: Is it Harrods or Harrod’s ? [...]