I'm going to the dry cleaner's - why the apostrophe S?

Question

"Dave's car" means the "car of Dave".

But why do we need the apostrophe S in: I'm going to the dry cleaner's ?

Is there another way to say this phrase? For example: I'm going to the establishment of the dry cleaner? (that sounds completely off to me).

What is the source? Perhaps it is a misprint? Even native speakers make mistakes, more often than you might think. — Andrew, Jul 24 '18 at 21:55
See e.g. I went to the doctor's and What does the butcher's (meaning the butcher's shop) become in the plural? Of potential interest at EL&U is Store names & possessive which covers the same principle with proper nouns. — choster, Jul 24 '18 at 22:02
I'm going to the dry cleaner's is kind of like "Which car are you looking at? I'm looking at Dave's." You don't always have to use a noun with a possessive. — stangdon, Jul 24 '18 at 22:30

score 5 · Answer 1 · edited Jul 25 '18 at 00:18

When the shop is named after the owner it is fairly common to use a possessive to describe it:

A butcher is a person. A butcher's (shop) is a place to buy meat.

A dry cleaner is a person who cleans clothes. A dry cleaner's is the shop where he works.

Now there is quite a lot of variation here. Some people will write and say

I'm going to the dry cleaner.
I'm going to the dry cleaner's.
I'm going to the dry cleaners.

All three can be considerd to be correct.

1 Answers1