Back when it was known as a red-light district (could still be, a bit, for all I know,) there was a sleazy-looking hotel south of the airport in Sarasota on US 41 which advertised “Low Rates”
It was the only thing on their letter-changable billboard. But they never changed the letters for years. Even when the “e” fell off and they were advertising “Low rat s”, which seemed appropriate at the time.
Saw one over the weekend. Somewhere near Lake Sunapee, NH, there’s a Live Wire Day Care. I’m sorry, but there’s just no good way to spin that.
Here in Amarillo there is a dry cleaning chain called Douche Cleaners.
May I suggest that you don’t try a google search to find them?
This one tickles me: Badcock & More
[QUOTE=elmwood]
Karson Kartage and Konstruction. That name always gets a big :dubious: from me.
[QUOTE=Ignatz]
This one tickles me: Badcock & More
http://www.badcock.com/
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“Badcock will treat you right!” Classic.
Today I went through one of Vancouver’s low-rent districts and passed Wet Wizard Used Books. I don’t know if this is a bad business name, but “wet” isn’t a quality I want to think of when I’m in the market for used books.
I’m not sure if there’s an explanation for the store name, but I think it might be a super-obscure literary reference. In Robert Anton Wilson and Robert Shea’s Illuminatus! trilogy, a classic bit of graffiti gets mixed up with a J.R.R. Tolkien quote, thusly:
[QUOTE=Sunspace]
Someone actually named a store for larger women “Dress Barn Woman”?!! :eek:
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Dress Barn is the parent chain, Dress Barn Woman is the plus-size format.
[QUOTE=Bambi Hassenpfeffer]
A picture.
Dress Barn is the parent chain, Dress Barn Woman is the plus-size format.
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Well, it makes me think, “This woman is barn-sized! Let’s dress her!”
If you want to go the sign route, my friends once took the “G” from the Burger King sign. No, not from “Burger King”, but the marquee that read: “Try our new cheesy bacon angus!”
[QUOTE=Ignatz]
This one tickles me: Badcock & More
http://www.badcock.com/
[/QUOTE]
At least it’s not Badcock 'n More.
[QUOTE=picunurse]
Seattle just opened a new trolley service. It’s the South Lake Unoin Trolley or SLUT. Of course, now they want to call it a Streetcar; too late!
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In Brockton, MA they have a bus service for elderly people. It’s called Brockton Assisted Transportation. But I guess that would be too long to put on the buses, so they all have B.A.T. written in huge letters along both sides. I don’t think they thought that one through… or maybe they did 
[QUOTE=ZebraShaSha]
If you want to go the sign route, my friends once took the “G” from the Burger King sign. No, not from “Burger King”, but the marquee that read: “Try our new cheesy bacon angus!”
[/QUOTE]
Early one morning back in Texas, a group of drunken folks of my acquaintance once removed some the marquee letters on a Dairy Queen sign that read “country basket,” changing it to “cunt basket.” It was afternoon of the next day before staff in the place took notice of it. 
[QUOTE=Tikki]
My sister recently moved to Tacoma near an Italian restaurant called Il Fiasco. I so want to eat there one of these days!
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[QUOTE=AskNott]
It’s the bottle in Italian. According to Tom & Ray Magliozzi (Car Talk), it came to mean failure because Italian art glass blowers, when a piece didn’t quite work out, would call the piece a bottle (il fiasco,) and they’d sell it cheaply. Flask comes from the same root.
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Hey, that’s interesting. Thanks for fighting my ignorance! Hooray for the Tappet Bros. too!
[QUOTE=Ludovic]
a sleazy-looking hotel south of the airport in Sarasota on US 41 which advertised “Low Rates”
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Not too far from me is a motel that has its name on a sign visible only to northbound traffic. Approaching from the southbound side of the highway it appears to be called the Turn Right Over Bridge Motel.
We also have the FUTURE HAIR TRAINING CENTRE.
I’ve been waiting for that place to open for almost ten years now.
[QUOTE=Colibri]
The first time I saw it here in Panama, the Dago Restaurant made me do a bit of a double take. Of course, Dago is a nickname for Diego, and I guess the owner was unaware of the meaning for English speakers.
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What’s the meaning for English speakers?
[QUOTE=Ichbin Dubist]
There was a store in my hometown called OK Wigs. Has there even been a less inspiring store name? Yes, we have a whole store of just wigs, yes it is not 1965, yes the wigs themselves are mediocre and do not deserve superlatives. Come in before we kill ourselves.
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There’s a local car dealership called OK Used Cars. I can’t imagine who buys cars there.
[QUOTE=Licentious Ectomorph]
What’s the meaning for English speakers?
[/QUOTE]
It’s a derogatory term for Italians.
