Shopping at the No Name Store

For decades we had a convenience store nearby named Brooks. Brooks was a smallregional chain of stores. This store was sold and changed name to become The Oasis Market in the last decade. We still called it Brooks. (Do not confuse this Oasis Market with the River Oasis Cafe in Stillwater which I previously blogged about.)

Around a year or so ago Oasis sold it to a local couple who run it as an independent store. They remodeled adding a coffee bar, outdoor patio with furniture and front step rockers. They repaved the lot. They painted over the sign that said Oasis but they never put a name on the sign above the store.

I don't write checks anymore, preferring to use my debit card or cash so I have no idea what the store is named. I think of it as the "No Name Store". I find it odd that they showed such pride in restoring this thirty yr old store and not call it "Johnsons" or "Nelsons" or whatever their own name is. I would have named it after myself. No matter.

This week Cub Foods is featuring No Name Steaks sale priced. No Name Steaks has always amused me. Before there were "no name" steaks were there named steaks? Did we eat Bessie Burgers or Elsie steaks? (think Borden's Elsie the cow) Meat didn't have a brand, did it? There are exceptions.

When my sister and husband bought their little ranch in Texas, they raised a steer to eat. They got him as a calf and he became like a pet. They hand fed him and he came when they called. They named him "Hamburger". When he was fully grown they had him processed as beef. Carolyn said they would regret naming him Hamburger because some of the packages of beef they got back from the butcher after he was slaughtered were marked "hamburger". I guess that is just keeping it real. If we are carnivores, and I am, we are eating animals. No wonder we don't usually name them.

I still don't see why they don't name that store, though, unless they plan to sell No Name Steaks.

If they called it "The No Name Store" would they have copyright infringement with the steak company?