"spa" = 'neighborhood grocery store', aka 'convenience store'? (UNCLASSIFIED)

[Laurence Horn]

At 3:24 PM -0500 3/1/11, Victor Steinbok wrote:
>I'm pretty sure it just goes by Spar even in the Netherlands--at least
>in the shops. The corporate name may well be De Spar. [PS: No, it isn't.
>It's Spar Holding B.V.]
>
>http://goo.gl/YmjfG
>
>I'm not sure there is a connection between Spa and Spar. And it's not
>just a chain of convenience stores--they actually have two sizes of
>stores, the convenience store size and the regular supermarket.

I found that too online, and inferred that there's no connection,
despite the fact that "Spar" and "Spa" might be homophonous in
eastern New England.  SPAR evidently arose from a Dutch acronym:

=========
The name was originally DE SPAR, which was an acronym formed from the
Dutch phrase Door Eendrachtig Samenwerken Profiteren Allen Regelmatig
(literally: "through united co-operation everyone regularly
profits"). Spaar or spar means "save (money)" in Afrikaans, Dutch,
Danish, German, Swedish and Norwegian. "De Spar" is Dutch for "The
Fir", hence Spar's logo. As the organisation expanded across Europe,
the name was later abbreviated by dropping "DE", but the underlying
meaning remains. In Italy, the name is still Despar, though in
keeping with the international branding, the "SPAR" section of the
logo is highlighted, and the larger stores are still called Eurospar
and Interspar. In Japan the store operates under the name Hotspar,
although the store logo colouring remains unchanged.
[from the wikipedia entry on SPAR (retailer)]
=========

Or could this be a fortuitous backronym? It does get confusing, with
the various possible interpretations and puns.

LH

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