Irish bookselling will likely never be the same after Waterstone’s today took the incredible decision to drop their apostrophe and become… ‘Waterstones‘.
Already the move has sparked outrage amongst customers with too much time on their hands and grammar Nazis everywhere.
‘It’s just plain wrong. It’s grammatically incorrect,” said John Richards, chairman of the Apostrophe Protection Society, which is apparently an actual thing.
“If Sainsbury’s and McDonald’s can get it right, then why can’t Waterstone’s?’ You would really hope that a bookshop is the last place to be so slapdash with English.”
However, the company has defended their decision by claiming that the original name, derived from founder Tim Waterstone 30 years ago, is no longer “practical”.
“Waterstones without an apostrophe is, in a digital world of URLS and email addresses, a more versatile and practical spelling,” said James Daunt, the managing director of the company.
“It reflects an altogether truer picture of our business today which, while created by one, is now built on the continued contribution of thousands of individual booksellers,” said Daunt.
Are you concerned that the apostrophe may become the Pluto of the grammar world; destined to live on its past glories as it involuntarily shuns the limelight? Or are you a non-crazy person that shrugged their shoulders at the news this afternoon? Let us know in the comments section below.
