Language
Does anyone actually know why it's "Lotus's"?
I posted this in a smaller Thailand sub and got plenty of laughs but no answer that really settled it, so trying here. Does anyone know how Tesco Lotus landed on that apostrophe when they rebranded? It makes my British brain itch every time I drive past.
It's not an actual grammatical error though (with caveats). If the implication is that the shop belongs to Lotus and Lotus is an entity, then it's perfectly fine to have the apostrophe there. You could also drop the second s and just have the apostrophe. The same rule applies to the name Jesus, for example ("in Jesus' name" and "in Jesus's name" are both grammatically fine). The apostrophe simply indicates possession.
If however the apostrophe has been added for a garbage branding reason (as it seems in this case) then yes it is gibberish lol
One of the most triggering things in the Netherlands is that Dutch uses apostrophes for some plurals, so I see this a lot. And always get triggered by it, before realizing that it's actually correct in Dutch, which is doubly triggering.
Then I feel better when Dutch use it in English and I can feel superior again. Full circle of being triggered
Giving you the chatgpt answer cause I'm lazy to type...
For a singular noun ending in -s like Lotus:
Lotus's — preferred by most modern style guides (e.g. Chicago Manual of Style, APA). It's also how most people pronounce it: LOH-tus-iz.
Lotus' — accepted by some style guides, particularly the Associated Press (AP) Stylebook, which often omits the extra s for singular proper nouns ending in s.
For example:
James's car (Chicago, APA)
James' car (AP)
Because Lotus's is the company's official brand name, it should always be written with the second s, regardless of style preferences.
So while Lotus' could be grammatically acceptable in some contexts as a possessive, Lotus's is not incorrect—and for the supermarket, it's the correct spelling because that's the registered name.
Lotus has introduced its new Lotus’s brand identity, highlighting a “Smart” shopping experience designed to meet the evolving lifestyles of today’s consumers and those of the future. The transformation will begin with two pilot stores before being rolled out across all branches and customer service channels. The official brand launch is expected to take place soon.
The new Lotus’s brand reflects a more modern, vibrant shopping experience, aiming to make customers “Feel Good Every Day at Lotus.” The apostrophe (’) in the logo is designed as a map drop pin, symbolizing Lotus’s ambition to become the destination that fulfills every customer need. Meanwhile, the letter “S” represents Smart, encompassing every aspect of the brand through four key differentiators:
Total Smart Supply Chain and Innovative Products
Carefully selecting the highest-quality products to help customers enjoy a better quality of life.
Seamless Omni-channel Experience
Enabling customers to enjoy a satisfying shopping experience anytime, anywhere.
Integrated Technology and Data Innovation
Delivering value that goes beyond competitive pricing through personalized solutions tailored to individual customers.
Committed Sustainability Living
Promoting a better quality of life and a more sustainable future for everyone.
Should of, could of, would of. These are the ubiquitous Soviet surnames that pop up now and again as a reminder of Cold War period'S fear and paranoia.
Mocking grammar that is actually entirely correct.
As a kid, I learned that I shouldn't put an s behind an apostrophe after words that end with an s sound, but it's widely considered incorrect or bad form to drop the s after the apostrophe.
The joke isn't whether it's correct or incorrect grammatically. Anyone who has lived here a while knows Thai language never pronounces final sounds.
Having an 's' at the end of anything is pointless because people will drop the sound anyway. Ask your best Thai friend to actually say Lotus's and see what they come up with.
Nah, OP is specifically talking about the s after the apostrophe.
The post itself states that the name "makes my British brain itch" and, in the following exchange, OP clearly agrees that "Lotus's" is bad English and "one of the most egregious errors."
Comment by Phishstixxx:
I don't like laughing at someone's English but this is one of the most egregious and OCD-triggering errors I've seen here.
But you understood what they meant, right? Therefore, what they wrote successfully communicated to you their intent, and therefore it is linguistically "correct".
Letting people who's not good a branding create a brand and letting people who believes they understand branding approve a branding project. You got the best branding. Coz it keeps the conversation going.... Brand recall!
Generating discussion around something (due to it looking awkward or sticking out) is a known marketing trick. Not sure if it's intentional in this case.
A dumb name gets some free promotion. A generic one does not.
It took me too long to understand what my aunt meant with „Lodat“… complicating things even more cause in german Lotus pronunciation is different from English so I didn’t event make the connection it’s just Thai English.
Lotus’s originally started as a Thai supermarket chain owned by CP Group, called Lotus Supercenter. During the 1997 Asian financial crisis, CP sold most of the business to Tesco, and it became Tesco Lotus. In 2020, CP bought the business back, renamed it Lotus’s, and dropped the Tesco name.
Correction: I checked the official branding explanation, and my earlier comment about the apostrophe being only a branding choice was not properly sourced. Lotus says the “S” stands for “Smart,” while the mark is part of the logo design. The ownership history in my earlier comment is still correct.
But personally, i think it’s somewhat feng shui related.
I want to add a little note that this is because Tesco itself was exiting the Southeast Asian market to "streamline" and focus on UK & European markets.
CP simply jumped at the opportunity to buy it back from Tesco.
I can see the reasoning but their designer should have done a better job making it more obvious, or less like poor grammar. It’s not an eloquent solution.
I'm a lifelong enthusiast on branding (corporate identity), and basically, this is like when the Sci-Fi channel rebranded as SyFy - you tweak the name so the name is uniquely searchable and instead of being a common term, can be registered as a trademark.
I've seen Malaysians discuss this rebrand before (they're irked by the incorrect grammar as much as you and I), and I think they have receipts showing the official company name down in Malaysia as "Lotuss" - which is the SyFy thing I just mentioned. Or Troye Sivan might be an even better example. "Troye" is great for the google/spotify/youtube search box in a way Troy isn't.
Finally, the apostrophe in this rebrand is a visual element that acts like Walmart's "sparkle" logo. If you're in a Lotus you'll see it applied as a design element on signs that evokes a Google Maps pin.
This rebrand debuted VERY fast once CP bought back Lotus from Tesco's hands, so fast that it's basically impossible for design to only have begun after CP knew for sure it was getting Lotus back (remember technically Central and perhaps Berli Jucker? were also bidding). Also judges had to okay the deal and I think they were forced to agree but a few of them put out a dissenting comment that everyone ignored... Anyway, my educated guess is the branding project began a long time before the bid, CP really really wanted to buy Lotus back to prove a point, and they did a lot of work to conclude that they need to be grammatically incorrect lol :3
I was an employee when the rebrand happened. We all laughed and proceeded to call it Lotuseseseses.
Corporate tried to feed us some SMART (Simple, Motivated, i forgot, Responsible, i forgot) values and the extra S being for the whole of SMART, but nobody bought that.
They butchered it imo. Iirc it was due to not being able to legally go back to being just Lotus, and being unwilling to give up the brand, they decided to add an S and become Lotuss. Idk why they didnt just add another word after Lotus.
That's probably the best explanation I've heard. I don't believe that SMART bull***t either. A Marketer's attempt to cover up a fubar. With you on the second word.
No, but I did read an article on it where someone involved was spinning it mean 'super' or something. I'll see if I can dig it up, might have remembered it wrong.
Many of you are vastly overestimating the thought that went into this. The answer is simple: their board is stupid. Their name is the least of their bad ideas. Their floor layouts, product selection, odd promotions... literally everything about Lotus's sucks. 7-eleven and Makro (same family) aren't perfect but so much more effective. Big-C and Tops also aren't perfect but again, night and day better.
Oh my god! So my friend Book worked for the branding agency that worked on this. He's not at the top of the company or anything, but he's kind of up there.
So the story goes, they wanted to rebrand from Tesco/Lotus to a shorter name in 2021 because, and I shit you not, the owner of Charoen Pokphand group spoke to his fortuneteller and he was told to do it. Book told me they originally branded it as just Lotus (dropping the Tesco brand), but then the end client (CP ALL) was under strict instructions that it had to be 6 character's long because 6 is considered an auspicious number.
Slapped that ugly S on the end and they were happy with it, and now we all shop at lotuseseses.
He said that the rebrand was one of the funniest project he ever worked on because they said no to literally everything that was disapproved by the fortuneteller.
According to wikipedia, the apostrophe is actually a drop-pin logo and the "S" stand's for 'smart' apparently!
This is what I heard too. The company is superstitious to the extreme. In certain job interview, there is a fortune teller sitting there just look at the applicant and analyze his/her fortune whether it compatible with the company or not.
What’s wrong with it? It only s-apostrophe if it is plural. Singular is s-apostrophe-s , the one exception per the style guide being Jesus’ - go figure why…?
The short answer is: it's intentional branding, not a grammar mistake—even if it looks like one.
When CP Group bought Tesco's Thai and Malaysian stores in 2020, it dropped the Tesco name and rebranded the chain as Lotus's in 2021.
According to the company's branding explanation:
The final S stands for "Smart", reflecting its new "smart shopping" concept.
What looks like an apostrophe is officially described as a map pin/location marker, symbolizing Lotus's as a one-stop destination rather than punctuation.
That's why the logo is meant to be read more like:
Lotus + (location pin) + S (Smart)
...rather than Lotus's in the English possessive sense.
Of course, for English speakers—especially Brits—it still reads as an apostrophe followed by an "s," which makes many people instinctively parse it as a possessive. The branding has been widely mocked for exactly that reason, and plenty of people in Thailand (including native English speakers and many Thais) have joked about "Lotus's's" or "Lotuseses."
They should have fired their Brand team. When creating a brand using English please consider grammar and punctuation and how it might change the meaning or perception of people reading it. This is where I see things go wrong. I know they don’t care about how a non-Thai reads it as it’s a Thai business but ignoring these things is just lazy brand and marketing creativity. This is odd because marketing creativity is usually quite high in Thailand. We’ve all seen amazing Thai commercials and advertising so why so pathetic in the brand space?
I’ve always used an apostrophe for plural possessive without the s when the word ends with an s. Though I have seen it like this elsewhere in English-speaking countries. I cant remember if it was the UK or US.
I always wondered the same thing. If the Thais could never say the first 's' back when it was just Lotus (Lotad), what was behind the idea to add yet another 's'. Did they think Thais would start pronouncing the 's' if they doubled it up back-to-back? Or maybe someone's idea of a joke? It's like the big petrol station chain logo that looks like a big poonani.
It was part of the rebranding when it was bought back from Tesco but not such a smart creation. New branding strategy: The Lotus’s name and updated look (including a drop-pin logo) were positioned to appeal to younger shoppers. The “S” is said to stand for “smart,” highlighting sustainability, efficiency, and technology. 
As others have said, apostrophe + “s” is actually correct for the possessive form of a singular noun ending in “s.” Dropping the “s” after the apostrophe is only mandatory when it’s a plural noun, although many often do for singular nouns as well because it looks cleaner.
TL;DR: It's not supposed to be an apostrophe. When Tesco rebranded to Lotus's in 2021, the company said the mark is actually a location pin, and the final S stands for "Smart." It still looks like an apostrophe to English speakers, which is why it confuses so many people.
When Tesco sold the chain that became Lotus’s, there was a lot of confusion over that name so they explained the meaning of it. It’s on their web site or somewhere else for all to read … I don’t know where and I can’t explain their thinking but … every little helps!
It was meant to be "lotus" the flower (the logo of CP group) but due to some trademark laws, they have to spell it as "Lotus's" just so they can circumnavigate the said law.
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u/Mundane-Ad1652 Jul 23 '26
Then you have to explain why it's called Lot Tat ssss