PrintTrader Joe's Practices Refreshingly Good Grammar
Word nerds, you'll know what I'm talking about here.
While most grocery stores display the "10 Items or Less" sign in their express lanes, ol' Trader Joe must have had a prickly, knuckle-rapping grammar teacher. "Ten Items or Fewer" is the proper syntax.
The basic rule: If you can count it, use fewer; if you can't, use less.
This sign, blogged on the Brooklyn Heights Blog, appears in the Downtown Brooklyn TJ's location. I wonder if all express-lane signage throughout the chain is consistently correct.
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23 Comments:
Yes. The Fearless Flyer is also refreshingly literate. It's encouraging to see that some people still care enough to do it right.
Likeswords at 7:09PM on 04/07/09
Oh, that rocks my world. Good grammar is yet another reason to love Trader Joe's. Few things disappoint me more than when someone types out "your" when they mean "you're."
runnereater at 7:16PM on 04/07/09
Actually, my last sentence should read "Few things disappoint me more than when someone types out 'your' when HE/SHE meanS 'you're.'
runnereater at 7:18PM on 04/07/09
@runnereater: D'oh! I'm going to state for the record now that if anyone finds any errors in my words above, it's an attempt at irony. Yeah, that's the ticket!
Adam Kuban at 7:20PM on 04/07/09
my two favorite things: grammar and trader joe's. more proof that trader joe's is amazingggggggg.
megannesta at 7:54PM on 04/07/09
The sign is like this at the TJ's further from us, with the express lane. The closest one to us doesn't have one.
amanda0730 at 7:58PM on 04/07/09
The worst thing for me is apostrophes that just show up in the middle of nowhere. "Ten items or less" is frustrating, "Ten item's or less" makes me murderous.
silvermike at 8:07PM on 04/07/09
wegman's also has had the correct signs for a long time . i distinctly remember an elementary school teacher pointing it out on a field trip, and i'm about to graduate college.
iwannabecaitlin at 8:24PM on 04/07/09
I don't want to disappoint the Wholefoods haters out there, but my local Wholefoods has the grammar correct as well.
gustoct at 8:48PM on 04/07/09
I live between a Whole Foods and a Trader Joe's. It's like living inside of my trusty Concise English Handbook.
chanterelle at 9:25PM on 04/07/09
Wegmans has had 10 items or fewer for years...about time Trader Joe's caught up..
Sorry..partial to Wegmans, being from Rochester, NY...
Lys320 at 10:15PM on 04/07/09
But most people at the grocery store CAN'T seem to count... At least the ones standing in the express lanes.
cara_mia at 10:27PM on 04/07/09
I'm happy to report that Publix express lanes employ proper grammar as well.
stolichnaya at 10:32PM on 04/07/09
Nice. This grammar error has been a pet peeve of mine for a long time, as it is committed by many grocers both in my home community and in the places to which I routinely travel. Most of the time it does no good to point it out, as few clerks grasp the distinction. Those who do understand usually reply that they have little or no control over the signage in their stores...but my stock answer is that they are more likely to be able to speak to those who do have that control.
Yes, I am a curmudgeon...
Chou Peng Qart at 12:44AM on 04/08/09
If you can count it, use fewer; if you can't, use less.
... What makes you think most people can count that far........ 1, 2, many, a lot seems to be the average level of counting. Wasn't our ability to count the reason for for investing in sub-prime markets, stock plans, housing schemes, etc.
Anyway, as a British English speaker I would like to see colour written correctly but that ain't gone happen I guess.
Gouda at 4:06AM on 04/08/09
Glad to see someone doing it right. I have finally had to let go of my longtime policy of boycotting businesses that use an apostrophe in the possessive its because misuse and error is so widespread. Sad indeed.
jm chen at 9:38AM on 04/08/09
Some businesses are rather overzealous with their use of quotations...
Cassaendra at 12:39PM on 04/08/09
Oh, the quotations kill me!
Excuse me if I don't jump on the chance to buy some "chicken" tacos.
Although, what the sign probably said was:
"Chicken" Taco's
mejenniferd at 1:48PM on 04/08/09
I used to work at Sainsbury's, a UK Supermarket when I was at school. I worked on the checkouts and a customer used to come in on a regular basis and tell whoever was on the "ten items or fewer" checkout that it was wrong and needed to be changed. Nothing wrong with that, but over the years I worked there he must of told me 40 times, and it gets old.
Edwardkimuk at 2:09PM on 04/08/09
You're all wrong. No, you're wrong.
Language Log addresses each of these issues many times besides the two that I linked. In fact some of those other treatments may be more complete. I just picked some of the first that I found. I hope you'll pardon me. I've got plenty of other grammar nazis to scold before dinner.
Besides these specific discussions, I recommending reading some of their general discussions about proscriptive linguistics.
stu_spivac at 2:49PM on 04/08/09
yay stu! i am a staunch descriptivist and i think it bugs me to hear people talk about stuff like this more than the so-called 'bad grammar' bugs them.
al oof at 3:25PM on 04/08/09
Thanks goodness grammar nerds are still alive!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Ambitous at 3:42PM on 04/09/09
Get it? "Thanks goodness?"
Ambitous at 3:42PM on 04/09/09