The Language Cop on the Supermarket Beat
Montague Street Key Food: wrong.
Trader Joe’s: right.
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Posted : April 6th, 2009 at 10:02 pm by Claude Scales under Miscellany.
Tags:11201, montague street key food, trader joes
Comments: 12
Comments
Comment from AEB
Time: April 7, 2009, 9:31 am
Yeah, the confusion in the top example probably had to do with the placement of the adjective–AFTER as opposed to before the noun, and separated by “or.” Thus making it seem less adjectival.
Or is the issue plain unconsciousness of the difference between “fewer” and “less”?
Comment from CJP
Time: April 7, 2009, 10:08 am
Grammar is the least of Key Food’s worries.
Comment from No One Of Consequence
Time: April 7, 2009, 1:11 pm
The only thing that springs to mind are these 3 letters… “WFC”
Comment from Claude Scales
Time: April 7, 2009, 3:19 pm
NOOC: “WFC”–Wisconsin Fried Chicken?
Comment from jiker
Time: April 7, 2009, 8:30 pm
key foods on montague is terrible
Comment from nabeguy
Time: April 7, 2009, 9:01 pm
Claude, I think that’s “who f’ing cares?” although I suspect you may be making some kind of reference to the whole Obama Fried Chicken brouhaha.
Comment from David on Middagh
Time: April 8, 2009, 12:05 pm
“X items or less” has become idiomatic and is perfectly clear. Has everyone lost their mind?
(Don’t bother complaining that “everyone” takes a singular pronoun. Clearly, it doesn’t always, and this has been true for hundreds of years.)
Comment from Neighborhood Observer
Time: April 8, 2009, 4:47 pm
CS - Keep posting your great photos and stories. You enliven the blog. An English lesson now and then is probably healthy for all of us long out of school.
Comment from Andrew Porter
Time: August 26, 2009, 12:43 am
For a Really Long Time (years?) Key Food had a sign which said, “Welcome to Brookly Heights”. About 6 months ago, they added a very small “n” to it.
Comment from mrs. fink
Time: August 26, 2009, 7:42 am
to quote a well-intentioned remark on the rules of grammer - “this is something up with which i will not put.”
Comment from The Where
Time: August 26, 2009, 9:46 am
GrammAr Mrs. Fink, only Kelsey applies to the alternate.
Comment from Jessica
Time: April 7, 2009, 6:19 am
As a journalism professor often reminded us: “fewer turds, less shit”