Store names & possessive

The fact is, we can do this by calling a store by its rightful name.

I got this at The Gap.

I got this at Sears.

I got this at Kohl's. [Kohl's is the store's real name.]

I got my snow thrower at Lowe's. [Lowe's is the store's real name.]

I got this book at Barnes & Noble, because it was cheaper than Brentano's was selling it for. [Yeah, I know Brentano's sold out, but that was their real name.]

Sometimes people feel they have to add a possessive to a store's name, but they really don't. People who say JC Penney's just don't know what the store's name really is. They may even think Sears is Sears' or Sear's.

It seems to me that this is rooted in the nineteenth century habit of labeling a business by a sign giving the proprietor's name and the type of goods or services provided: "A. Anderson / Dry Goods", "GENERAL STORE / C. Johnson, prop.", etc. (This differs from some later forms of business names, like "Dairy Belle".)

How are people going to succinctly refer to such a business? The obvious way is with "Anderson's store" or some such, and that quickly becomes abbreviated to "Anderson's" or equivalent. I think this explains most cases; others may simply applying the same form of shortening to a business name which is mistakenly thought to be based on a personal name. Certainly, this is the case with the stores of J. C. Penney, where it never identified itself as Penney's, but was widely known that way. (You won't find Burger King referred to as King's.)

If you're referring to a department/section of a store, you would add the possessive apostrophe (Safeway's meat section)