JUST YESTERDAY, COSMOPOLITAN came to the realization that we do not use the word Primark in Ireland. We obviously take it for granted that people do not associate the word Penneys with Primark. Take this tweet, for instance:
Now in our defence, Penneys is a cool Irish brand. Cosmopolitan’s first revelation was the fact that it’s not a British company. The first store was of course Mary Street and it was opened in 1962 by Arthur Ryan on behalf of the Weston family (who also own Brown Thomas and Arnotts).
55 years later Penneys is still knocking around on Mary Street (and in another 37 locations) and apparently people on holidays here still go in there expecting it to be something other than a Primark.
They went on to explain that they changed the name to Primark for UK stores to prevent legal action from American retailer J.C. Penney.
They also mention the fact that across the UK, people have nicknamed it ‘Primarni’, after Armani as a joke. You’d nearly let them away with this article if it wasn’t for the fact that they said ‘Primarni is just too genius’ to call it Penneys. Don’t think so.
We better not tell them about Bulmers and Magners.
