Names Behind Retail Store Initials

Shopping strips and malls are littered with companies whose original names have now been replaced with initials. Those initials often reveal a pearl or interesting fact of the history of the company.
In some instances, businesses attempt to change the meaning of their initials. British Petroleum, better known to the world as BP, decided in 2000 that its name now stood for “beyond petroleum”.
B&M comes from Billington & Mayman as it was set up by Malcolm Billington but shortened to B&M for Bargain Madness.

Some initials quite obvious, depending on where you live. ANZ is the Australia and New Zealand Banking Group; BWS stands for “Beers, Wines and Spirits”.
H&M comes from the official name Hennes & Mauritz AB. It is a Swedish multinational clothing-retail company.
The ASOS fashion brand and online megastore started as a supplier of unbranded clothes to celebrities on TV and the idea was people could find clothes and accessories they had seen celebs wearing. Before long people started referring to AsSeenOnScreen as ASOS and in late 2000 the domain name www.asos.com was bought.
QVC comes from Quality Value Convenience. It sums up the service the shopping channel provides. QVC was set up by Joseph Segel in Pennsylvania in 1986 and it now broadcasts to over 350 million households in seven countries across the globe.
CVS pharmacy chain was founded in Lowell, MA in 1963, and was known as "Consumer Value Stores." Over time the name became abbreviated to simply CVS.

Kmart's big red K. Officially the K does not stand for anything and the brand has only ever read in Australia as “Kmart”. The American company’s history goes back to traveling salesman Sebastian Spering Kresge from Pennsylvania. In 1897, he opened his first store in Memphis and by the 1950s Mr Kresge had 600 stores bearing his surname. Do you remember SS Kresge? The stores began to convert to the simpler Kmart brand in 1962, the K is a nod to its founder. Kresge died in 1966.
JBL, the speaker company is named after its founder, James Bullough Lansing. He was born James Martini in 1902, but at 25, he changed his name to James Lansing.

KFC changed from Kentucky Fried Chicken and the public relations reason given for the name change was that health-conscious consumers associated the word “fried” with “unhealthy” and “high cholesterol.”

According to KFC, during 1991, Kentucky Fried Chicken decided on a name change to KFC. "In reality, we wanted to let our customers know that we had more for them to enjoy than just fried chicken, and many were already calling us KFC, as it was much easier to say."

Incidentally, KFC is owned by Yum! Brands. It operates Taco Bell, KFC, Pizza Hut, and WingStreet worldwide.

Wordology, ASMR

This is becoming an advertisers dream way to soft sell. YouTube is littered with hundreds of thousands of ASMR videos. Bob Ross, the late painter is, to some, the epitome of ASMR as his soft spoken, almost whispering way of describing brush strokes and the feeling evoked by his art. It is both auditory and visually stimulating in an almost sensuous manner.

Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response is described as a "euphoric experience characterized by a static-like or tingling sensation on the skin that typically begins on the scalp and moves down the back of the neck and upper spine, precipitating relaxation." It comes from hearing soft voices and sensual sounds, such as tapping objects with fingernails. Think of it as the opposite of scratching nails on a chalkboard.


Too much ASMR can have the opposite effect for me, but a bit is a welcome change from the in-your-face 'buy me in the next ten minutes or else'.

I do not usually like ads, but here is one with George Hamilton doing a soft spoken, almost whisper as Colonel Sanders for KFC. The ad is pure ASMR and uses pocket squares as the tag, with him eating chicken tossed in between. Two minutes and interesting to watch. LINK  You might also like to see the queen of ASMR and her GentleWhispering chanel. LINK

Hack the Menu

Speaking of junk - like junk food, here is a site that has many of the secret menu items from your favorite fast food joints. Items that you might like, but do not see on the menu. Interesting that Wendy's in not featured.

Did you know that KFC has a triple down that is a larger version of the double down, or that you can get bacon added to any order. How about a side of biscuits with their honey and butter. Burger King offers Frings, which is half fries and half onion rings and you can order a ham and cheese if you are tired of burgers. Many more goodies. Yum. Here is the LINK.

What I Did Not Get For Christmas

This one is sure to give you borborygmus. It is a name-brand scent in a little bottle that was introduced in December 2012.

Pizza Hut Inc. in Canada came out with a limited edition bottle of Pizza Hut perfume, probably to advertise the chain’s sense of humor.

The perfume is supposed to recreate the smell of a box of Pizza Hut being opened, with top notes of freshly baked dough, according to the company. Pizza hut is owned by Yum Brands, which also owns KFC and Taco Bell among others.

What's in a Name

Sometimes names, sayings, and slogans do not port well to non-English speaking countries. When Kentucky Fried Chicken opened their first restaurant in Beijing, they accidentally translated KFC's famous slogan, “Finger-lickin' good” to “We'll Eat Your Fingers Off!
Pepsi had fun when "Come alive with the Pepsi Generation"  turned out to be "Pepsi will make your ancestors return from the dead". in Taiwan.
Pizza Hut calzone called the P'zone turned into pezón, the Spanish word for "nipple".
Puffs tissues had a problem in Germany as the name is a colloquial term for whorehouse.
A warehouse sign in China was painted on the building as "Translator Server Error".
Coors slogan, “Turn it loose!” came out as, “Suffer from Diarrhea" in Spanish.
Clairol  had a curling iron called the "Mist Stick" that turned out to be “Manure Stick” in Germany.
Jersey Shore cast comes out as "The New Jersey Life of Macaroni Rascals".
Frank Perdue of chicken fame was surprised when, "It takes a tough man to make a tender chicken"  was translated into, "It takes a hard man to make a chicken aroused".
The name for a massage parlor in Japan was translated into hand job.
An interesting twist was IKEA furniture in Swedish translated into English became a "Fartfull workbench". Finally after a Papal visit, “I saw the Pope” (el Papa) translated as “I saw the potato” (la papa).

Food From the Fifties

This was a decade of food invention.

1953
Sugar Smacks (Kellogg's)
Cheeze Whiz (Kraft)
TV Dinners (Swanson)
Pepperidge Farm butter cookies
Denny's
Star-Kist canned tuna
Eggo Frozen Waffles

1954
Trix (General Mills)
Butterball Turkeys (Swift-Eckrich)
Stouffer's frozen meals (Stouffer)
Nonfat dry milk (Carnation)
Burger King fast food chain
Shakey's Pizza fast food chain
Peanut M&Ms (Hershey's)
Marshmallow Peeps - do people really eat these?

1955
Special K breakfast food (Kellogg's)
Pepperidge Farm cookies
McDonalds
Kentucky Fried Chicken (Colonel Sanders)

1956
Imperial margarine (Lever Brothers)
Certs breath mints

1957
Pam nonstick cooking spray
Refrigerated cookie dough (Pillsbury)

1958
Tang (it went to the moon)
Ruffles potato chips
Rice-A-Roni
Sweet 'n Low sugarless sweetener
Cocoa Puffs (General Mills)
Jif peanut butter
Chicken Ramen noodles
Instant Tea (Lipton)
Pizza Hut
International House of Pancakes

New From KFC

It's "Double Down" bacon and cheese sandwiched between two pieces of fried chicken. Even KFC is getting in on the bacon phenomenon. Even calorie conscious Subway has a double bacon, egg, and cheese breakfast sandwich.

Double Chicken

 KFC Double Down Sandwich - Two pieces of bacon and two slices of cheese smothered with the Colonel’s Sauce and two fried chicken patties as buns. Mmmm!