Striptease: Mini-Mart With Unintentionally Hilarious -- But Apt -- Name About to Take a Little Off

Joe Eskenazi

This week at the T & A Market -- a two-for-one sale on double-entendres

​Many years ago, a pair of gentlemen decided to go in together and open a mini-mart in San Francisco. Their names were Taha and Ahmed, and they chose to name their venture the T & A Market.

Whatever skills Taha and Ahmed had, a working knowledge of lascivious English-language slang wasn't among them. Using an abbreviation for "tits and ass" would be a humorous name for a market no matter where it was located. Unfortunately for Taha and Ahmed, their market was right next door to the Market Street Cinema Porn-O-Rama, with its signature poster of a disrobing woman emblazoned with the logo "touch the magic."

"People always come in and ask 'Does it stand for tits & ass'?" says Abdul Alaudi, the market's owner for the past five months. But that all may soon change. 

In fact, the "T & A Market" doesn't really exist -- officially. Alaudi's ownership papers, on display behind his right shoulder, reveal that he's recently successfully petitioned to change the name of his business to the "A Market."

When he has a few bucks sitting around, he'll pay someone to repaint his sign and end all the double-takes once and for all.

Alaudi is to be complimented for his good judgment, incidentally. If he'd named his store after both of his initials, it'd be the "AA Market." And that's hardly a fitting name for a liquor store on Market Street between Sixth and Seventh.