Friday, February 18, 2011
Saturday, February 12, 2011
Friday, February 11, 2011
A Shop by Any Other Name
I never went into the shop, wasn't sure if there even was a business behind the increasingly bizarre window displays, but the swirling handpainted name never failed to intrigue me. Named after an Australian comic of the mid '70s (though I didn't know that at the time) Wiggy Cramp in the Wasteland marked the halfway point on my bus journey between suburban home and inner-city school, and the starting point of my fascination with shop names.
The Black Tulip cafe, The Dainty Inn on High, Hot Stuff Ferry Road takeaways, Manchester Street's 20th Century Box, Mr Smiles, a curio shop in Cuba Street - these are all evocative names of shops I remember from the '80s and back beyond.
Aah the '80s. While all around people were creating strange new identities and flocking together in bands with surreal titles, I was content with merely being an assistant at the aptly monikered Junk & Disorderly. Nearly three decades on, that name has spread to lesser establishments far and wide, a fate that often befalls clever titles. How many Curl Up N Dye hairdressing establishments are there in the world at any one time? (For an excellent collection of "puntastic & punbearable" business names visit http://tanksalot.wordpress.com/)
One of my favourite shop names of all time is This is Not a Love Shop in Auckland. It works as a name even if you've never heard of Public Image Ltd - though I'm guessing that if you're a fan of this shop you probably have, because it's a name that suits the post-punk sensibility of the store perfectly.
Matching the name of the store to the target market is what I tried to do with my first shop red fish blue fish but I was amazed how many people hadn't heard of the Dr Seuss classic and would refer to it as "blue fish red fish". Things got more confusing when a seafood shop opened up a few doors away called The Red Snapper. I was deluged by people phoning in orders for "three fish, two scoops and a hotdog please". red fish blue fish is still going swimmingly under the ownership of Maddie and is filled with objects both witty and beautiful, not one deep-fried squid ring in sight.
Other local favourite shop names are Where the Fox Lives (with its High St premises damaged by the earthquake, the fox now lives in Whare) and, curiouser and curiouser, Follow the White Rabbit. Run not by Alice but by Vicky, the White Rabbit is well worth following to a wonderland of old and new.
Which brings me to the name of my shop. After the mouthful that was my first shop, I really wanted to have a short punchy name like Pug (a stylish vintage & new design store) but try as I might, one word was never going to be enough.
To a certain extent the name was always going to influence the content and I toyed with Pretty Green for a while (selling things both "pretty" and "green" = secondhand/upcycled, clever, huh) until Liam Gallagher beat me to it.
The shop was also nearly called dear Prudence after my mother who owned a junk shop for over 35 years until her death at the age of 80. Her shop, the Village Junk Shop provided the base of what was to become God Save the Queen!. There were many reasons for the final name (visit the shop and you'll see a few of them) but the good thing about God Save the Queen! is that it is a name people constantly comment on, ask about, photograph and most importantly, remember.
Update: Mystery solved! I have just been informed that Wiggy Cramp in the Wasteland was an art gallery run by Tony Webster, which specialised in "interesting and otherwise unshown art ... along with much homebrew". His wife writes, "he used to use mannequins, found objects, vintage and retro and Victoriana to make increasingly weird window installations.. and it was difficult finding a brewing tub big enough to cope with with demands of the artists/punters at the openings".
Related reading:
The Man Who Sold Anything - read my retail-related piece of fiction.
By any other name - read about my search for an alter ego (scroll down).
The Black Tulip cafe, The Dainty Inn on High, Hot Stuff Ferry Road takeaways, Manchester Street's 20th Century Box, Mr Smiles, a curio shop in Cuba Street - these are all evocative names of shops I remember from the '80s and back beyond.
Aah the '80s. While all around people were creating strange new identities and flocking together in bands with surreal titles, I was content with merely being an assistant at the aptly monikered Junk & Disorderly. Nearly three decades on, that name has spread to lesser establishments far and wide, a fate that often befalls clever titles. How many Curl Up N Dye hairdressing establishments are there in the world at any one time? (For an excellent collection of "puntastic & punbearable" business names visit http://tanksalot.wordpress.com/)
One of my favourite shop names of all time is This is Not a Love Shop in Auckland. It works as a name even if you've never heard of Public Image Ltd - though I'm guessing that if you're a fan of this shop you probably have, because it's a name that suits the post-punk sensibility of the store perfectly.
Matching the name of the store to the target market is what I tried to do with my first shop red fish blue fish but I was amazed how many people hadn't heard of the Dr Seuss classic and would refer to it as "blue fish red fish". Things got more confusing when a seafood shop opened up a few doors away called The Red Snapper. I was deluged by people phoning in orders for "three fish, two scoops and a hotdog please". red fish blue fish is still going swimmingly under the ownership of Maddie and is filled with objects both witty and beautiful, not one deep-fried squid ring in sight.
Other local favourite shop names are Where the Fox Lives (with its High St premises damaged by the earthquake, the fox now lives in Whare) and, curiouser and curiouser, Follow the White Rabbit. Run not by Alice but by Vicky, the White Rabbit is well worth following to a wonderland of old and new.
Which brings me to the name of my shop. After the mouthful that was my first shop, I really wanted to have a short punchy name like Pug (a stylish vintage & new design store) but try as I might, one word was never going to be enough.
To a certain extent the name was always going to influence the content and I toyed with Pretty Green for a while (selling things both "pretty" and "green" = secondhand/upcycled, clever, huh) until Liam Gallagher beat me to it.
The shop was also nearly called dear Prudence after my mother who owned a junk shop for over 35 years until her death at the age of 80. Her shop, the Village Junk Shop provided the base of what was to become God Save the Queen!. There were many reasons for the final name (visit the shop and you'll see a few of them) but the good thing about God Save the Queen! is that it is a name people constantly comment on, ask about, photograph and most importantly, remember.
Update: Mystery solved! I have just been informed that Wiggy Cramp in the Wasteland was an art gallery run by Tony Webster, which specialised in "interesting and otherwise unshown art ... along with much homebrew". His wife writes, "he used to use mannequins, found objects, vintage and retro and Victoriana to make increasingly weird window installations.. and it was difficult finding a brewing tub big enough to cope with with demands of the artists/punters at the openings".
Related reading:
The Man Who Sold Anything - read my retail-related piece of fiction.
By any other name - read about my search for an alter ego (scroll down).
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)