There used to be, I don't know if there is anymore, and if there is, it certainly wouldn't mean much anymore, a record store in Los Angeles called Licorice Pizza. What is the worst name for a business that you have ever seen?

-- Kymm Zuckert (hedgehog@hedgehog.net), April 10, 2001

Answers

There's a little store tucked away here in downtown Seattle. Its name: Bangmi Smokeshop. I kid you not.

-- Andrea (andrea@andrealand.com), April 10, 2001.

Don't know about that, the funniest name of a fictional business I've ever heard of is that well-known law firm Widdecombe Gutterman Applewhite Bibberman and Black. If I'm ever wealthy enough to have my own foundation, that's what I'm going to call it.

/Robert

-- Robert (rbdimmick@earthlink.net), April 10, 2001.

There used to be a store on Sunset Blvd. that sold furniture for babies and it was called Sid's. (Think about it)

-- Bart Tangredi (btangredi@yahoo.com), April 11, 2001.

There's a restaurant in St. Paul called Senior Garcia's, with a ~ over the N. I have to wonder whether they meant Senor Garcia's, and they're illiterate, or if they aren't Hispanic and don't know how to spell Senor. Either way, I'm not eating there.

To balance that out, we also have a Dan's Fan City.

-- rbfndd (Ethilrist@prodigy.net), April 11, 2001.

I live in Orlando, Florida - that ought to tell you something right there. Everything is SomethingorOther World - Hubcap World, Mailbox World (no, I'm not kidding) - and the obvious ones: T-Shirt World, Tourist World, etc. I'm waiting for World World - a time-travel ride at Cape Canaveral, probably. Catherine passive voice http://www.hinesight.net/journal

-- Catherine (hinesc@mindspring.com), April 11, 2001.

in flushing, ny, there is the Boom Boom Auto Driving School.

never fails to give me and my daughter a chuckle when we see the billboard.

-- nicolemrw (nicolemrw@yahoo.com), April 11, 2001.

Near my office there's a Blimpies sandwich shop. There's also a Fat Boy's sub shoppe nearby. My wife's maiden name is Dailey and I want her to start up a bakery just so she can call it Dailey Bread, with the motto being "Give us this day...". Speaking of law firms, I'm sure everyone has heard of the powerhouse firm of Dewey Cheatham and Howe.

-- Jon Arthur (rclover4@aol.com), April 11, 2001.

I remember Licorice Pizza in North Hollywood. I always thought that was the first incarnation of Sam Goody. It was supposed to refer to a record. You know, a black pizza? Anyway, Licorice Pizzoo made me laugh.

Favorite business name ever (so much so that I took a picture of the sign:) a Thai restaurant in La Crescenta named Poo Ping.

-- mo pie (mo@mopie.com), April 12, 2001.

I'm working for an avionics/aircraft instrumentation company right now, and a lot of accounting stuff comes across my desk. One of the vendors we deal with is named "OK Aircraft Parts." If I'm fifteen thousand feet in the air, I really would prefer that the plane be composed of parts that are more than just, you know, okay.

There's a pizza joint in the U-dist of Seattle named Atlantic Street Pizza; is it just not common knowledge that street pizza is colloquial for roadkill?

-- Kim Rollins (kimrollins@yahoo.com), April 16, 2001.

There is a little town that we used to drive through on the way to my Grandmother's house (not really a town, just a wide spot in the road) that had a combination Convenience Store/Motel. The name of the store was "Get 'N Go". The motel was "Get 'N Go Motel". NEVER failed to crack me up!

-- Cecelia (cbbrandon@jam.rr.com), April 17, 2001.

Somewhere between Ocean Springs and Pascagoula (Mississippi Gulf Coast) in the late 80s there was a place called Mike's Pets and Records. One side of the store sold music and the other side pets. So, what you basically had was a room full of crappy music that smelled like a stinky pet shop.

-- amanda e (amanda@gawow.com), April 17, 2001.

ok i know i answered this already but i just thought of another great one. when i was a kid, there was a store that sold pet food, cigarettes, and dairy products. it was called Mutts, Butts and Udders.

-- nicolemrw (nicolemrw@yahoo.com), April 17, 2001.

I already answered this one too, but yesterday when I was flipping through the phone book, I found a great one: The T&A Supply Company. Woo.

-- Andrea (andrea@andrealand.com), April 17, 2001.

There's a liquor store somewhere around here called the Bunghole. I think "bungholes" are found in old barrels or kegs or something, but since Beavis and Butthead introduced Cornholio years back ("I need TP for my bunghole!") it's never seemed the same.

-- Patrick (xingcat@yahoo.com), April 18, 2001.

There are several print shops around here called PMS Printers. Also, I once visited someone in Oneida, NY and we ate at Pepi's Pizza and Bridal Boutique. According to my friend, Pepi was an old Polish man. The pizza was really good, but we didn't check out the bridal store.

-- Rachel (bravebutterfly@hotmail.com), April 18, 2001.

Andrea, I drive past the T&A Supply Company all the time. They're on Westlake, en route to Fremont. Their storefront gives absolutely no indication exactly what they might be in the business of doing; I still haven't figured it out.

There used to be a place on the corner of Summit E and E Thomas called Mike's Old Clothes. I always wondered: What about the customers who aren't the same size as Mike? (Actually I bought a spectacular 60s-era blue chiffon prom dress there, so apparently Mike swung both ways.) My other running joke was that the storefront was set up by a disgruntled roommate who also did a brisk business in selling Mike's Former Car and Mike's Patio Furniture.

-- Kim Rollins (kimrollins@yahoo.com), April 21, 2001.

In the lower mainland of British Columbia is a chain grocery store called "Overwaitea Foods". This cracks me up - for a long time, I just heard their radio ads, and thought they were making a joke on the morning show.

-- Kristin (kristin@sperare.com), April 24, 2001.

I remember driving around upper(?) michigan and seeing a sign for a store called "Whippy Dip", it looked like a Dairy Queen. I don't know why but the name always makes me smile.

What's wrong with Licorice Pizza? I always thought it was a cute explanation for what LP stood for.

-- johnnie seneris (johnnie@flaccid.com), April 25, 2001.

Well, you just explained two things that I never understood! The first is that, when I was going to high school at Interlochen in Michigan, we called the on-campus snack shop the Whippy Dip, as I had no idea that it was a real actual place, and the other is that, though of course I always knew that they called it Licorice Pizza because records are big and round and black, it never occurred to me that the initials were LP! I feel a big duh coming on...

-- Kymm Zuckert (kymmz1@yahoo.com), April 25, 2001.

When I was little we used to drive from Ohio to visit my grandparents' (then) small town in South Carolina. As you approach their town on the road coming down from the mountains, there was a Bi-Lo grocery store (a major southern chain) on the left. The neon sign across the top was crowned by a giant plastic cow, and the sign read: "Low Prices BI-LO Quality Foods" My dad always used to suggest that we go in and buy some low- quality food, and although the signs have long-since changed, we keep the joke running. South Carolina, by the way, also boasts the world's first and oldest supermarket chain: Piggley-Wiggley. Now there's a name.

-- Loraine Schneider (meital_liron@hotmail.com), April 29, 2001.

Ok, Licorice Pizza Records and Tapes in Southern California was the brainchild of Jim Greenwood. The young Jim Greenwood opened the first Licorice Pizza store in Long Beach, and either his Dad loaned him the money, or his Dad owned the store, time has blurred that memory. Jim loved the name because that is what beatniks used to call records. His one-man enterprise soon blossomed into another store, I think #2 was in Santa Ana, and another, and another. Many stores opened in the Los Angeles and Orange County areas during the early 70's. In about 1976, a few of the Orange County/LA crew came down here to San Diego and opened a store in Pacific Beach. Then another in Clairemont. I was lucky enough to have known Jim, and many of the original "Pizza People" as we were called, in the very early days in LA & OC (One of which became my sister-in-law). I helped to open the Clairemont store. The Company was so much fun to work for, especially in the early days, a very tightly-knit group. We had a blast back when it was safe to have a blast, no addictions/rehab. Being a "Pizza Girl" was almost like being a low-level local music industry celebrity. I moved on to a more serious "grown-up" occupation in the late 70's. Shortly there after Sam Goody bought the chain out. I have no idea what ever happened to Jim, or any of the old gang (except my sister- in-law, of course). Anybody out there have some "scoop"??

Sorry if I bored you all with my tale.

-- Kelly Mc Neil (girllikesjazzandcars@yahoo.com), July 11, 2001.

I always wanted to start up a restaurant called Sam 'n' Ella's, just to see if anyone would ever eat there. It would be a good tax dodge, at least.

-- rob disner (rdisner@equinix.com), September 18, 2001.

kissn' smissn' fofrissn' gas a hoe bolistn'

-- Dustin Bret Sims (klsims@comcast.net), December 30, 2002.

I worked at Licorice Pizza in the city of Orange, California. It was store # 20. I worked there from 1981 to 1987. It was a great job. The management was excellent. This was one of the best experiences I had in my entire life. We were all a close knit type family. Often times after closing the whole crew of a good portion of the crew would go out to Denny's or Norms or Earls which was open 8 day a week and 25 hours a day. Even some of the employees who didn't work that evening would come out to join those of us who did work. We were all friends. It was a very special era. Being an employee of Licorice Pizza even in Orange County was almost like being some kind of low level cult type celebrity. Everybody seemd to know us and also wanted to know us. Maybe they all wanted a discount on their records. and then it happened Licorice Pizza was bought out and that was that. With in months it became a sterile generic type music store. It lost all it's personality. It went from having family owned feeling to being "corporate". Coporate America is probably one of the top twenty worst things to ever happen to the U.S. Soon after I left Licorice Pizza to beckon new horizons.

-- RHenry (RiHeNa@aol.com), April 23, 2003.

In Buffalo, NY there is a funeral parlor named after the owner, Anthony Amigone. The name is Amigone Funeral Home. If you have to ask, you probably shouldn't be there.

-- Lou Michaels (lou@newcal.net), October 08, 2003.

I worked at the Licorice Pizza warehouse in Glendale, CA around 1977. I picked cassettes for store orders (my supervisor was an American-Chinese guy named Roy Rogers) and then worked with returned merchandise with a guy named Marco. Other notable employees included Mr. Steve Felder who introduced me to Pere Ubu's wonderful music. We had one really cold winter (yes, cold in S. California) and our perk was we all received Licorice Pizza jerseys to wear! Yeah! I still have mine and it fits quite nicely.

-- Ken Heaton (jwaffler@earthlink.net), December 14, 2003.

Gee, Ken....don't I get a mention? I worked at LP in Glendale from around 1977 to 1986, when we closed it down. It was fun and games for a while, towards the end it got to be pretty tedious and straight-laced. When we closed the place, I got to vent my frustrations by taking a sledgehammer to a bunch of the fixtures, as the new management hired some of us on to help clean the place out. I think everybody should have the chance to leave a job by tearing the place apart with a sledgehammer.

As far as the name goes: during the disco era, Licorice Pizza was one of the more benign names we had to deal with.

-- Warren Bowman (warren.bowman@comcast.net), February 19, 2004.

Wow. I found this thread wondering about what Licorice Pizza was, because it came up in a NOFX lyric, in a song about old punk bands. He sings this verse about the Descendents, where he says:

"After a couple of months I heard Kabuki Girl/ On Rodney On The Raw on sunday night/ That was enough for me I hoped the bus/ To Licorice Pizza and bought my all-time favorite record"

Thanks guys :)

As far as funny company names, here in Montreal, there's this one street where all next to each other, side by side, are three buildings. One is a company called Siemens, one is called Cummins, and the third building has the address 6900.

-- Phil Campeau (freddyknockout@hotmail.com), March 23, 2004.

Although its existance brings back positive memories for me, One of the worst names for a business that I've ever seen, was a Thrifty's/Rite Aid-type of shop that existed through the 70's-80's (located right next door to an Alpha-Beta) aptly named Drug-O-Rama. The name itself is classic example of store names during that era. Does anyone remember GemCo? It was WallMart with a membership!

-- J L II (J_L_the2nd@hotmail.com), March 26, 2004.

When I went to school in Asheville, North Carolina, in the early 70s there were two well-established barbershops downtown: BALL'S and CHEEK'S.

Also, in North Carolina at that time there were three large well- known supermarket chains: BIG STAR, PIGGLY-WIGGLY, and HARRIS- TEETER. Someone suggested buying them all out and calling the new chain BIG WIGGLY TEETERS.

-- Ed Shuping (curiously@hotmail.com), May 02, 2004.