Post #804282

2026-03-23 17:42 UTC

Fun random fact of the day: Spar (the supermarket chain) is Dutch. Its name means "spruce", a coniferous tree. This also i spired the logo. However, its name comes from much earlier, when it was called "de spar" ("de" being Dutch for "the"). Besides meqning "the spruce", it also was an acronym for "Door Eendrachtig Samenwerken Profiteren Allen Regelmatig" : "through united collaboration everybody profits regularly". Yes, it is as clunky in Dutch as it is in English, but what do you expect from a name from 1932.

Replies (10)

@colinrbeas@fediscience.org 2026-03-23 22:49

@Stephanie In the 1970s and 1980s there were Spar suprmarkets all over Ireland (now gone). As a youngster I thought Spar was Swedish ( the pine tree, maybe?) and that Spar meant 'save' in Swedish (related to 'spare' in English). 🤭 Thank you for clearing this up!

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@nicolai@babka.social 2026-03-23 22:33

@Stephanie i always thought it was Austrian and came from „save“. TIL

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@jstangroome@infosec.exchange 2026-03-23 21:35

@Stephanie thanks, today I learned. There is a Spar store near me, apparently one of only six in Australia.

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@knud@mastodon.social 2026-03-23 21:32

@Stephanie Oh, I didn't know. The word "spar" in German means "save", so I always assumed that was that. And only now I noticed that the Spar brand has disappeared in Germany, since they were bought up by another chain in 2005.

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@vicgrinberg@mastodon.social 2026-03-23 21:20

@Stephanie oh wow, I had no idea! Love such random info!

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@momo@floss.social 2026-03-23 18:27

@Stephanie Thanks that explains the tree in their logo. In Germany there was also Spar when I grew up, but we interpreted it from the German meaning of the word which means to economise.

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@photom@mastodon.social 2026-03-23 18:26

@Stephanie I love to profit regularly!

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@miona@toot.lgbt 2026-03-23 17:45

@Stephanie That's amazing! 😃

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@jessebot@social.smallhack.org 2026-03-23 18:25

@Stephanie oh is it actually a co-op? If that's the case, I'll shop there more regularly :blue_heart_sparkle:

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@follpvosten@karp.lol 2026-03-23 17:44

@Stephanie and at least here, they still sometimes use the „despar“ brand, mostly on imported foods I think :)

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