Express as an Expression
Many businesses seem to be fond of using the word ‘express’ in their name. I’ll admit that if I’m in a hurry and standing between two dry cleaning stores, one called Dry Cleaning Express and the other Really Slow Dry Cleaning, I will pick the former. But ‘express’ gets awfully confusing when it’s used by a company that doesn’t focus on doing things in a hurry (with the exception of a restaurant called Malabar Express – they don’t serve fast food but their top floor is train themed).
Take Holiday Inn Express for example. What exactly is an express hotel? A hotel where it takes only 10 minutes for a 2-hour nap? Or perhaps a hotel where it takes half as much time to shower? All I can say from my experience is that express definitely does not refer to the check-in speed.
And then there’s Pizza Express. Sure it’s a great name for a company that specialises in speedy pizza delivery, but if you live in a country that actually has them you probably know that they are rather nice casual dining restaurants where they would prefer if you lingered and ordered more drinks. But then again, maybe these businesses were named by the same guy who coined the phrase ‘rush hour’.
maybe they just want to ‘express’ themselves 😛