Why Minnesotans Can’t Say The Names of These Two Stores

BigSevenTravel, a travel website, conducted a survey and ranked all 50 states based on the "sexiness" of their accents. Minnesota landed near the bottom at 47th.

Words and phrases like "Youbetcha," "Uffda," "Oh Fer," or "Ope" always gets a lot of attention. But this story isn’t about those classic words or our accent, it’s about two specific words that many Minnesotans seem to struggle with.

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I talk and write for a living, so I probably pick up on things like this more than most people. And honestly, I’m not good at talking or writing, so I’m pretty forgiving. But I was genuinely curious how people messed up these words.

When I first moved to Minnesota, I heard people making the mistake right away and as a newbie I wondered if I was wrong or missing some kind of inside info.

There’s no special lingo, but I did find a possible explanation.

The two words are "Cub" and "Aldi"—yep, the grocery stores.

For some reason, a lot of Minnesotans say “Cub’s” and “Aldi’s.”

My wife says Cubs, some coworkers say it, I have neighbors that say it that way. How did this happen? Was there a meeting?

I’ve heard that “Cub’s” is just shorthand for Cub Foods, but I’m not buying it. And I’ve never heard a clear explanation for why Aldi gets an extra “s” so I did some digging.

Here's Why Minnesotans Say Cub's and Aldi's

Aldi was founded by two German brothers, Theo and Karl Albrecht. They combined the first two letters of their last name with the first two letters of "discount" to create the store's name.

According to the website Aldi Reviewer, when people say "Aldi's," they might assume the store is named after its founders. It isn’t, if the store were called "Albrecht," referring to it as "Albrecht's" wouldn't seem out of place.

Using that logic, there's some justification in calling Cub "Cub’s."

According to the store’s wiki page, Culver Davis Jr. was one of the grocery store’s founders and was nicknamed “Cub”. They used the nickname to come up with the acronym “Consumers United for Buying” which is what the Cub in Cub Foods actually stands for.

For the record, it's officially "Cub" and "Aldi," but now you know why some people use the possessive form.