# Misleading Business names (that you've encountered in your travels) **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [April 12, 2016, 3:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/misleading-business-names-that-youve-encountered-in-your-travels/751974 "2016-04-12T03:58:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Filbert](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/filbert/32/3433_2.png) [@Filbert](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Filbert)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2016, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/misleading-business-names-that-youve-encountered-in-your-travels/751974/41 "2016-04-13T17:48:32Z")
There’s a local firm called “Beaver Maintenance”. It has nothing to do with any kind of beaver. ---
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2016, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/misleading-business-names-that-youve-encountered-in-your-travels/751974/42 "2016-04-13T17:53:07Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > …In the Gary Wolf book I’m now reading, he says of such places that they’re named after what they’ve displaced, like a development called “windswept acres”. “Elk Run Subdivision”. Yes, yes they did. ---
**Author:** ![BrotherCadfael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2016, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/misleading-business-names-that-youve-encountered-in-your-travels/751974/43 "2016-04-13T17:56:54Z")
I recall driving through suburban Boston, and seeing a sign, “Catholic Store”. I wondered if I could buy a new Catholic there (mine had lapsed). ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2016, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/misleading-business-names-that-youve-encountered-in-your-travels/751974/44 "2016-04-13T18:16:05Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > I grew up around those “Cumberland Farms” stores. > The name is on a par with those condo complexes or Trailer parks with similarly evocative (but misleading) names. My favorite is \*\*Rustic Village[/B[ outside Rochester, N.Y., which is neither Rustic nor a village. > > In the Gary Wolf book I’m now reading, he says of such places that they’re named after what they’ve displaced, like a development called “windswept acres”. This is the first one I’d seen. Newly constructed and very snazzy. For a gas station / convenience market. We could all go on for days about misleading names of real estate developments. Those folks are a class unto themselves in pure concentrated BS. Almost without exception the more pretentious the name, the smaller & rattier the trailers inside. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2016, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/misleading-business-names-that-youve-encountered-in-your-travels/751974/45 "2016-04-13T19:00:01Z")
There are a few really run down mobile home parks around here, all named **(Something) Estates**. They are all estates. I always wonder if they are named ironically, in which case I’m onboard with it. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2016, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/misleading-business-names-that-youve-encountered-in-your-travels/751974/46 "2016-04-13T19:19:05Z")
It goes with the clear cut graded-flat high density suburban developments that used to rolling hills covered in old growth forest. Each one named “Something Something Woods.” ---
**Author:** ![bibliophage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bibliophage/32/7615_2.png) [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2016, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/misleading-business-names-that-youve-encountered-in-your-travels/751974/47 "2016-04-13T20:44:05Z")
Maybe not misleading so much as head-scratching, but you’d never guess what **Dead River Company** sells from its name alone. It’s propane and heating oil. > [@elfkin477](#): > > In NH along route nine towards the capital, one encounters **The Town Pump** which is neither business that sells pumps of any sort or the hang out of a woman of easy virtue. Instead it sells antiques. I’ve driven past that sign. What struck me about it was that the P looks a lot like a D on first glance. I don’t want to do my shopping at the Town Dump. ---
**Author:** ![Dinna\_Fash](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7ea924/32.png) [@Dinna\_Fash](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dinna_Fash)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2016, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/misleading-business-names-that-youve-encountered-in-your-travels/751974/48 "2016-04-13T22:00:55Z")
Where I grew up, we used to drive by a place called The Doll House and I commented that I’d like to go there one day. I was put off with some sort of non-answer, and I didn’t think any more about it until I was in my late teens and it finally clicked what the place really was. No wonder my parents wouldn’t take me there ---
**Author:** ![Enginerd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/bcef8e/32.png) [@Enginerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enginerd)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2016, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/misleading-business-names-that-youve-encountered-in-your-travels/751974/49 "2016-04-13T22:07:08Z")
There is, of course, the old standby from [The Simpsons](http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-wnRmWwfTHqk/ULYcqh80xgI/AAAAAAAAAMc/RGzplDzo9dU/s1600/Screen+shot+2012-11-28+at+22.18.33.png). In Beatty, Nevada, there is a hazardous waste facility called US Ecology. ---
**Author:** ![Inigo\_Montoya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inigo_montoya/32/124_2.png) [@Inigo\_Montoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inigo_Montoya)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2016, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/misleading-business-names-that-youve-encountered-in-your-travels/751974/50 "2016-04-13T22:17:42Z")
> [@elfkin477](#): > > Let’s limit this to businesses you’ve actually at least driven by yourself, okay? So…no Holy Roman Empire then? Dang. OK, Stokes Mortuary in my home town did not have a crematorium. ---
**Author:** ![Happy\_Lendervedder](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/happy_lendervedder/32/8488_2.png) [@Happy\_Lendervedder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Happy_Lendervedder)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2016, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/misleading-business-names-that-youve-encountered-in-your-travels/751974/51 "2016-04-13T22:18:38Z")
> [@Filbert](#): > > There’s a local firm called “Beaver Maintenance”. It has nothing to do with any kind of beaver. Gynecologist? ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2016, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/misleading-business-names-that-youve-encountered-in-your-travels/751974/52 "2016-04-13T22:26:40Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > Works well for folks with verbal communication hang-ups like the badly autistic. See [Art therapy - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Art_therapy) They’re not called “badly” autistic, they’re called “severely,” “profoundly,” or “low-functioning,” depending on the context, and they don’t have “hang-ups,” they have something wrong with the speech centers of their brains. Also, in all the time I worked with autistic people, I don’t remember anyone having art therapy. I’ve seen it mostly used with people with PTSD, or anxiety disorders that weren’t traumatic in origin. I’ve also seen it used with stroke survivors, and other people as a sort of physical therapy that isn’t as boring as the repetitive motion of typical PT. ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2016, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/misleading-business-names-that-youve-encountered-in-your-travels/751974/53 "2016-04-13T22:27:40Z")
> [@Happy\_Lendervedder](#): > > Gynecologist? I was thinking bikini wax. ---
**Author:** ![stillownedbysetters](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/41988e/32.png) [@stillownedbysetters](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stillownedbysetters)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2016, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/misleading-business-names-that-youve-encountered-in-your-travels/751974/54 "2016-04-13T22:41:13Z")
I’m very much a grown up, but I never see this sign at Beaver Creek, CO that I don’t snicker like a school kid. The local liquor store is called…you guessed it…Beaver Liquor. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2016, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/misleading-business-names-that-youve-encountered-in-your-travels/751974/55 "2016-04-13T22:58:42Z")
> [@The Great Sun Jester](#): > > OK, Stokes Mortuary in my home town did not have a crematorium. Perhaps they’re lactose intolerant. ---
**Author:** ![Mangosteen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Mangosteen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangosteen)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2016, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/misleading-business-names-that-youve-encountered-in-your-travels/751974/56 "2016-04-13T23:02:33Z")
> [@stillownedbysetters](#): > > I’m very much a grown up, but I never see this sign at Beaver Creek, CO that I don’t snicker like a school kid. The local liquor store is called…you guessed it…Beaver Liquor. I imagine there are many business in Beaver, Utah that cause many a young boy to snicker. Beaver Barber Beaver Plumbing Beaver Photography Beaver Painting Beaver Clinic Any others? ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2016, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/misleading-business-names-that-youve-encountered-in-your-travels/751974/57 "2016-04-15T00:33:50Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > Near us is a place called “Cumberland Farms”. Sounds bucolic & might be a dairy or a place to buy fresh-picked local veggies, right? Nope. > > It’s a gas station / convenience market. A mid-upscale one, but a gas station nonetheless. Just one outlet of a growing regional franchise behemoth. At first I thought you were joking. There are dozens if not hundreds of Cumberland Farms gas stations in the northeast, have been for decades, and I assumed it was a national chain. But you’re right, it doesn’t _sound_ like a gas station! ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2016, 1:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/misleading-business-names-that-youve-encountered-in-your-travels/751974/58 "2016-04-15T01:32:43Z")
They recently built it near me and I’d never seen nor heard the name before. The chain doesn’t exist where I’ve lived the last 30+ years. And they’re just starting to expand into Florida where I am now. So I’d never seen one, not even in my various travels. First the lot was cleared, much larger than a conventional gas station. Then a fence went up with signs that soon “Cumberland Farms” would be here. With a logo of green leafy stuff. Both of our local farmer’s / produce markets had recently died and I had high hopes we were going to get a new one. Nope. Fooled me. ---
**Author:** ![HubZilla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ccd318/32.png) [@HubZilla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HubZilla)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2016, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/misleading-business-names-that-youve-encountered-in-your-travels/751974/59 "2016-04-15T19:10:14Z")
In Honolulu, there’s **Fook Yuen** Chinese restaurant. There’s Vietnamese noodles are called Pho, pronounced “Fuh” So naturally, there’s a \*\*Pho King \*\*restaurant. I’m still on the lookout for Pho-Q. ---
**Author:** ![GargoyleWB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gargoylewb/32/199_2.png) [@GargoyleWB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GargoyleWB)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2016, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/misleading-business-names-that-youve-encountered-in-your-travels/751974/60 "2016-04-15T19:39:32Z")
**Thai Ho** here in Seattle. Just a restaurant. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/misleading-business-names-that-youve-encountered-in-your-travels/751974.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/misleading-business-names-that-youve-encountered-in-your-travels/751974.md?page=4)