superpeeve Oh my Gawd! - Totally unOfficial Pet Peeve Thread.

[SarahKB7 Koskinen]

1 hour ago, Love Zhaoying said:

Plus didn't the Brits first use "store" as in, "go to the ship's stores for your rations", etc.?

But you wouldn't be required to pay for stores (from a storage store) in a non-retail environment.

Which is why "store" for a retail shop is just so wrong. It makes zero sense.

Edited May 25, 2022 by SarahKB7 Koskinen

[Love Zhaoying]

5 minutes ago, Rowan Amore said:

Or a cigarette...

Those will give you an ill pallor! And need pallbearers.

[Persephone Emerald]

22 minutes ago, Rolig Loon said:

It's all a matter of scale, at least in the US.  A shop is small (think "boutique") and often operated on site by the owner.  You can expect personal attention from a semi-permanent staff. A store is larger (think "Tesco" if you are in the UK) and quite often a franchise, owned by a distant corporation but managed on site by a franchiser. You can expect knowledgable service from a mix of semi-permanent staff and temporary cashiers. A mart is somewhere in the fuzzy territory between a shop and a store, often franchised (like Starbucks or MacDonalds) but not store-sized. You can expect easily-distracted service from largely young, temporary staff.  And then there are malls, which a megalopolises of shops and marts (and often a store at either end to "anchor" it). Malls in the US are a vanishing dinosaur breed, now rapidly being converted into recreation facilities and light manufacturing sites.

In terms of Second Life usage. Blueberry's main store would be a store, because even though they don't have a warehouse they have a large selection of merchandise. When a SL creator has a small space for selling it's wares - often in a mall that includes other creator's wares - then I call that a shop.

On a side note, one could technically call a SL merchant a vendor, but this gets confusing when we also speak of scripted objects that sell items as vendors. The term merchant is used to discuss the business side of making and selling things (some off which might have actually been made by someone else), while the term creator is used to focus on the creative side of making things in SL, whether one actually sells them or not.

[Love Zhaoying]

39 minutes ago, Rolig Loon said:

It's all a matter of scale, at least in the US.  A shop is small (think "boutique") and often operated on site by the owner.  You can expect personal attention from a semi-permanent staff. A store is larger (think "Tesco" if you are in the UK) and quite often a franchise, owned by a distant corporation but managed on site by a franchiser.

You and I both saw it the same, independently!

[SarahKB7 Koskinen]

A vendor is a job description and title, he/she is the retail business owner. A vendor is not a physical material thing. I dislike the context of vendor in the SL usage too.

And Tesco is a supermarket, not a store. Because stores store things without the need for a person to pay for access to the stores stored in the store.

And I wouldn't be seen dead shopping in Tesco. Bleugh! 🤮

Edited May 25, 2022 by SarahKB7 Koskinen

[Rolig Loon]

31 minutes ago, SarahKB7 Koskinen said:

Close by, there's another one called Pall Mall.

Which, according to my 1898 Century Dictionary, was named for an old ball game in which a ball of boxwood (the "pall") was struck with a mallet (the "mall"), with the goal of getting it through a hoop-like goal at the other end of the field.  So, related in a way to croquet.  In old French and Italian, the game was called palmaille or palmaglio.   Pall Mall was originally a playing field for the game.  

The term pell-mell, which sounds and looks very much like Pall Mall, is unrelated. It is derived from an old English word, variously spelled pellemelle or pelly-melly, which means "with confused or indiscriminate energy, violence, or eagerness".

Thus endeth today's lesson on random etymological wonders of the Anglophile world.

[Rolig Loon]

17 minutes ago, SarahKB7 Koskinen said:

And Tesco is a supermarket, not a store.

Ah, now that's an interesting distinction. In the US, a supermarket sells groceries. In fact, so do the smaller markets. The Tesco stores I have visited in the UK sell quite a bit more (I once bought a mobile phone and several T-shirts in one near Manchester, as I recall). In that regard, Tesco is more like (ugh!) WalMart here, which sells groceries and a ton of other stuff.  I'd call it a store.

22 minutes ago, SarahKB7 Koskinen said:

A vendor is a job description and title, he/she is the retail business owner. A vendor is not a physical material thing.

The term "vendor" is still occasionally used in the US as the title for a small independent salesperson, often for something like tobacco or newspapers. During my lifetime that usage has waned, since those functions have been largely taken over by coin-operated machines (which are now the vendors).

[LittleMe Jewell]

9 minutes ago, Rolig Loon said:

The term "vendor" is still occasionally used in the US as the title for a small independent salesperson, often for something like tobacco or newspapers. During my lifetime that usage has waned, since those functions have been largely taken over by coin-operated machines (which are now the vendors).

And we refer to them as 'vending' machines.

Edited May 25, 2022 by LittleMe Jewell

[Arielle Popstar]

12 minutes ago, Rolig Loon said:

Ah, now that's an interesting distinction. In the US, a supermarket sells groceries. In fact, so do the smaller markets. The Tesco stores I have visited in the UK sell quite a bit more (I once bought a mobile phone and several T-shirts in one near Manchester, as I recall). In that regard, Tesco is more like (ugh!) WalMart here, which sells groceries and a ton of other stuff.  I'd call it a store.

The term "vendor" is still occasionally used in the US as the title for a small independent salesperson, often for something like tobacco or newspapers. During my lifetime that usage has waned, since those functions have been largely taken over by coin-operated machines (which are now the vendors).

Maybe I am showing my age here but if I was to define a place like Walmart I would describe it as a department store and as far a vendor is concerned, I'd readily refer to a fruit market owner or flea market stall operator as a vendor.

[SarahKB7 Koskinen]

Re: vendor

Kind of similar to the word computer, which used to only be a job description for a person who computed lists of mathematical tables.

The machines we now call "computers" are electronic computers, as they artificially do the job of computers which they replaced.

Yes, once upon a time, one could call oneself a computer and no one would think you had a screw loose... 😜

Edited May 25, 2022 by SarahKB7 Koskinen

[Arielle Popstar]

1 hour ago, SarahKB7 Koskinen said:

But you wouldn't be required to pay for stores (from a storage store) in a non-retail environment.

Which is why "store" for a retail shop is just so wrong. It makes zero sense.

There are also warehouse outlets. Does having to pay at those to withdraw products not make sense either? Whether a store or a warehouse, there is some form of exchange between the one who put items into the store or warehouse and the one who takes them out unless it is a personal store, but the definitions do not differentiate between a personal or commercial usage.

[Ayashe Ninetails]

Walmart can be called a department store, though that's usually a more common term for a very, very large store in/near a mall - Sears, Macy's, JCPenney, Nordstrom, Bloomingdales, Saks Fifth Avenue = department stores.

Walmart = that place you shop online so you don't wind up on People of Walmart. 😄

Around here, I almost never hear vendor in use unless it's 1) a street vendor or 2) a vending machine.

[SarahKB7 Koskinen]

@Arielle PopstarOutlets originate from on-site factory outlet shops which sold only their own products directly to the public without the need for an inner-city retail shop premises. This way, products would be cheaper by by-passing the need for expensive retail premises and shop staff.

But now, the term "outlet" in the present-day sense is a dishonest snobby gentrification term for designer products that are sold off-site from the source factory in a regular inner-city retail shop premises which employs retail staff, not factory workers.

Edited May 25, 2022 by SarahKB7 Koskinen

[Rowan Amore]

And why do you call it a boot when it's a trunk?  

[SarahKB7 Koskinen]

Because the coachman (driving a horse-drawn coach carriage) would keep his dirty muddy boots stored inside a boot box (or boot trunk) located on the back of the coach carriage.

Edited May 25, 2022 by SarahKB7 Koskinen

[Rowan Amore]

Just now, SarahKB7 Koskinen said:

Because the coachman (driving a horse-drawn coach carriage) would keep his muddy boots inside a boot trunk located on the back of the coach carriage.

Same thing then.  Words change meaning over time.  No one is driving around in a carriage much anymore so the word 'boot' is replaced by trunk which makes more sense.  A boot goes on the foot.  A trunk is where things are stored.

[SarahKB7 Koskinen]

Actually, there are millions of carriages still being driven all over the world today.

These modern internal combustion engine powered carriages have had their names abbreviated from "motor carriages", to "motor cars", now to just "cars". Car is an abbreviation of carriage.

Edited May 25, 2022 by SarahKB7 Koskinen

[Arielle Popstar]

29 minutes ago, SarahKB7 Koskinen said:

@Arielle PopstarOutlets originate from on-site factory outlet shops which sold only their own products directly to the public without the need for an inner-city retail shop premises. This way, products would be cheaper by by-passing the need for expensive retail premises and shop staff.

But now, the term "outlet" in the present-day sense is a dishonest snobby gentrification term for designer products that are sold off-site from the source factory in a regular inner-city retail premises with retail staff.

But regardless the point is that the definitions for "store" and "warehouse," do not include a particular method or cost of transferring the stored goods to the end user. We add those ourselves, likely has a result of common usage from repeated advertisings. 

[Rowan Amore]

10 minutes ago, SarahKB7 Koskinen said:

Actually, there are millions of carriages still being driven all over the world today.

These modern internal combustion engine powered carriages have had their names abbreviated from "motor carriages", to "motor cars", now to just "cars". Car is an abbreviation of carriage.

 Not my point but ok.

We still call places that retail a specific type of item, a shop.  The butcher shop, the auto repair shop, the coffee shop, the thingamajig shop.   In N. America, store encompasses a vast 'store' of items hence the use of store.

[Garnet Psaltery]

1 hour ago, SarahKB7 Koskinen said:

And I wouldn't be seen dead shopping in Tesco. Bleugh! 🤮

I shouldn't like to see anyone dead shopping anywhere.

[Sammy Huntsman]

Who cares what people call things? Like I mean some people say store, some people say shop. Get over it. Lol. I mean Canada and the united states both say pop but some states call it soda. I mean its up to preference really. 

[Kimmi Zehetbauer]

6 minutes ago, Sammy Huntsman said:

Who cares what people call things? Like I mean some people say store, some people say shop. Get over it. Lol. I mean Canada and the united states both say pop but some states call it soda. I mean its up to preference really. 

And some say Coca-Cola no matter the brand or flavour!

[Rolig Loon]

21 minutes ago, Sammy Huntsman said:

Who cares what people call things?

Lots of people do, in fact. Languages change as people move around, so the peculiar words that people use locally are valuable markers to track historic population movement. Long after migrants have resettled, their familiar words tell you where they came from and what sorts of things they did.

In much of New England, by the way, pop is called "tonic", and across the southern states it is commonly called "coke", even though what's in the can may not be Coca Cola. (Heh.. Kimmi got there first.)

Edited May 25, 2022 by Rolig Loon

[Rat Luv]

40 minutes ago, Garnet Psaltery said:

I shouldn't like to see anyone dead shopping anywhere.

Unless it's "Dawn of the Dead" 🙂

What's so bad about Tesco, though? lol

[Orwar]

   Whilst we're on the topic of Americans using words funny .. Biscuits are hard baked goods. The word comes from medieval French and means 'twice baked' ('bis' = two/twice 'coctus' = cooked/baked), i.e. something that has been baked, then cooled, then baked again (usually at a low temp for a long time) to drive out the moisture to increase the shelf life of the foodstuff. 

   What they call 'biscuits' over there looks more like a scone to me. 

   But to be fair though, most people these days call biscuits 'kaka' in Sweden. Kaka means cake (but not the kind of cake that is layered; that's a 'tårta'). The proper word, that no one uses (aside from my former bakery teacher), is 'småbröd', which means 'small bread'.