What's in a Name?

"They" say that location is everything in business. 'Location, location, location' is the mantra. It is very true the the location of a business is vital to a business' success. It's not a good idea to place an ice cream parlor next door to a Weight Watchers, for instance. Or a lingerie store next to a store that sells bible.

There is more to a business' success than just the location. There is a lot of effort and hard work put into the success of every business. Owners put their hearts and souls into making lots of money by selling us cakes, books, coffee, cars, etc. But there is one more thing that needs to be considered with great care: The Name.

If the name of a business is conservative, like Walmart, then the owner may not need to advertise very much to bring in customers. However, there are a number of businesses who seem to feel that the name of their business should reflect the owner's philosophies. Sometimes this backfires.

There is a hair salon called 'Shear Faith'; apparently it is advised to pray before you get your hair 'fixed'. A barber shop with the name 'Chop it Up' brings to mind Sweeney Todd. I expect to see that particular shop on the news, but I'd be more concerned if this barber shop was located next to a restaurant. Rounding out our tour of hairy joints, we come to 'Hare We Are'. They spelled hair incorrectly, and they made a bad pun in the process.

On the other end of the spectrum, there is 'Health Camp'. That is the name of a burger joint in Waco, an establishment that has been serving burgers and fries since 1948. I would love to eat at Health Camp, just because of the name. I would actually overlook the location(Waco) to eat there. 'Holy Grounds' is a coffee shop that also sells Christian paraphernalia. Then, in Corpus Christi, there is 'Chubby's Mattress Store'. This name gives a bit of sexual innuendo AND provides a place to pursue that innuendo to a logical conclusion.

Finally, we have stores with just plain regular names, like Rudy's BBQ, The Wash Tub, etc. In an effort to boost sales, these places will often place pithy sayings on their marquee instead of the special. Rudy's certainly got my attention with it's "Beat the heat with a half pound of meat!" A meat market in town has the slogan "Nobody beats our meat!". The Wash Tub was advertising '10$ Handjobs' the other day. Those signs certainly got MY attention!

My very favorite sign of all time can be found on the I-37 road to Corpus Christi. It's a sign the government put up, and I imagine that they giggled while they worked. If brawny construction workers can legally giggle. Choke Canyon State Park is at exit 69. There's some sexual innuendo in there, easy to miss. It makes me wonder if the people laying out the road deliberately made it so that that particular exit would be 69.

What signs do you find in your area that are funny, odd, risque'? I wanna know!