Waterstone’s has apparently dropped its apostrophe, to become Waterstones, in a bid to fit in with the internet generation for whom such grammatical niceties are things of the past.
John Richards, the chairman of the Apostrophe Protection Society is fuming.
“It’s just plain wrong,” he said. “It’s grammatically incorrect. 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.”
Managing director of Waterstone’s, James Daunt, has defended the apostrophe drop, saying:
“Waterstones without an apostrophe is, in a digital world of URLs and email addresses, a more versatile and practical spelling.”
The name change has been seen as a dismissal of bookshop founder Tim Waterstone, who set up the company more than 30 years ago.
Of this, Daunt said: “It also 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.”
Howeve, the angry Twitter mob has pointed out that that this explanation made no sense, because if the name was meant to show that the shop belongs to many, it should include an apostrophe after the ‘s’, making it Waterstones’.
The decision has been slated on Twitter.
“It’s not like the literate are their target market or anything…” tweeted one naysayer.
Image: Michael Buble signs books for fans at Waterstones, Piccadilly on October 14, 2011. It is not known whether he feels strongly about the shop’s apostrophe drop. (Getty)
