{"id":837773,"date":"2026-09-05T22:02:18","date_gmt":"2026-09-05T22:02:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/837773\/"},"modified":"2026-09-05T22:02:18","modified_gmt":"2026-09-05T22:02:18","slug":"shoppers-at-bjs-wholesale-club-finally-realize-what-initials-in-store-name-stand-for","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/837773\/","title":{"rendered":"Shoppers at BJ’s Wholesale Club finally realize what initials in store name stand for"},"content":{"rendered":"

It seems discount shopping is a family affair.<\/p>\n

Some fans of members-only retail chain BJ\u2019s Wholesale Club are only just finding out what the initials in the store\u2019s name stand for.<\/p>\n

Although customers of the wholesale giant may assume it comes from its exclusive private-label brand, Berkley Jensen, there is actually a heartwarming story behind the name.<\/p>\n

\"BJ'sShoppers finally realize what BJ\u2019s stands for. Bloomberg via Getty Images<\/p>\n

When the mega-retailer first opened in 1984, its president, Mervyn Weich, lent the initials of his daughter, Beverly Jean, to its first store, located in Massachusetts.<\/p>\n

Although Weich resigned just three years later, in 1987, the name had already gone down in retail history.<\/p>\n

BJ\u2019s Wholesale Club even has a page in the help center section of its website revealing the initials stand for Beverly Jean.<\/p>\n

\"AA woman shops inside a BJ\u2019s Wholesale Club store. Bloomberg via Getty Images<\/p>\n

The publicly traded corporation, which boasts 267 locations and 206 gas stations in 22 states, now has plans to launch 25 to 30 new clubs every two years.<\/p>\n

Six new locations are coming this year, in Texas, Alabama, Indiana, Kentucky and three in Florida.<\/p>\n

Other companies with initials in their names also have storied pasts.<\/p>\n

H&M began as Hennes, which was then changed to Hennes & Mauritz in 1968 after acquiring menswear store Mauritz Widforss. It was later shortened to H&M.<\/p>\n

The acronym IKEA was made in 1943 from the initials of its 17-year-old founder, Ingvar Kamprad, combined with the first initials of the farm where he grew up and its nearby village.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It seems discount shopping is a family affair. Some fans of members-only retail chain BJ\u2019s Wholesale Club are…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":837774,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[28,149,82498],"class_list":["post-837773","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-lifestyle","tag-supermarkets"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/837773","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=837773"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/837773\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/837774"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=837773"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=837773"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=837773"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}