Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submitlogin

Trader Joe's presents an interesting punctuation problem. The most common rule, I think, for forming possessives is rule #1 of Strunk and White: "Form the possessive singular of nouns with 's. Follow this rule whatever the final consonant." But Trader Joe's already has an apostrophe. Should the proper writing of this headline should have been...

Where in the World are Trader Joe's's Warehouses?

Or should it have been...

Where in the World are Trader Joes's Warehouses?



If we swap it with Amazon, it sounds correct to say “where are Amazon’s warehouses?” But is it really incorrect to say, “where are Amazon warehouses?”


I dunno. It sounds wrong to say "where are Safeway warehouses?" -- it sounds more appropriate to have instead said "where are the Safeway warehouses?"


Trader Joe owns the stores, and he also owns the warehouses.


A reasonable parsing at the time of the article I suppose (2016), but not today: Trader Joe (Joe Coulombe) cannot possibly own warehouses, as he died in 2020.


Trader Joe lives on in spirit, along with Trader José and Trader Giotto.


I think this option makes the most sense, rather than treating "Trader Joe's" as one unit that has different rules than normal language


"Trader Joe's" could also be being used as an adjective in this headline right?


Yes, but that would change the intended meaning of the headline.


I think there's a rule you don't repeat punctuations like this... one is enough.


I have always wondered how Stunk and White would handle Carl's Jr.




Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: