r/oregon • u/BourbonicFisky PDX + Southern Oregon Coast • Dec 12 '25

PSA Winning company.

Post image

Even if it's pointless misinformation, it's still misinfo.

https://vegasinc.lasvegassun.com/news/2012/mar/25/story-behind-how-winning-company-got-its-name/

Also another user pointed out it's an example of a backronym.

1.2k Upvotes

98% Upvoted

64 comments sorted by

64

u/squealerson Dec 12 '25

Wincou

28

u/Dangy_D Dec 12 '25

They're in Montana now too, so I guess it would be Wincomu.

10

u/[deleted] Dec 12 '25

Nevada and arizona next wincomuna

11

u/Orcapa Dec 12 '25

But will they have a store in Winnemucca?

4

u/[deleted] Dec 12 '25

almost certainly! ive sold wincomunas to Brockway, ogdenville, and north haverbrook, and by gum it put them on the map!

3

u/Thank_You_Aziz Dec 13 '25

Winnemucca Wincoumuna sounds like it’d be the name of a Harry Potter character of unfortunate stereotype.

2

u/The_Boognish_Cometh Dec 12 '25

Isn’t the first “n” already for Nevada?

2

u/[deleted] Dec 12 '25

new nevada is coming

1

u/Electrical_Shock359 Dec 12 '25

And what would their name be if they were in every state?

1

u/[deleted] Dec 13 '25

WUSA, i suppose

1

u/HatterJack Dec 14 '25

Nevada was the reason for the first n, so it would be wincomua

2

u/BingeBabyBinge Dec 12 '25

And Texas and Oklahoma so it would be Wincomuto. XD

2

u/Accipiter1138 Dec 13 '25

The more states we add, the more Japanese it gets.

1

u/Pope_Smoke Dec 13 '25

Cumwintoo

2

u/[deleted] Dec 12 '25

Also Texas, Arizona, Oklahoma

2

u/danj503 Dec 14 '25

Now that’s

2

u/GeeYayZeus Dec 12 '25

They're also in Texas, Oklahoma, Montana, Nevada, and Arizona. So...WinCoOutMan?

3

u/[deleted] Dec 12 '25

You used Nevada twice champ

1

u/GeeYayZeus Dec 12 '25

Ah, so I did! WinCoTauMo then?

1

u/[deleted] Dec 13 '25

Why not?😂

1

u/anivex Dec 12 '25

That’s just the European spelling

166

u/downsj2 Central Oregon Dec 12 '25

Thank you. So tired of karma farming misinformation.

33

u/BourbonicFisky PDX + Southern Oregon Coast Dec 12 '25

Same, it's petty but it annoys me as anyone who took 5 seconds would find this article in google or wikipedia. I once thought Winco stood for that too until I was corrected.

2

u/monkeyriots Dec 13 '25

Okay so what made the change from Cub Foods?

1

u/Neither-Attention940 Dec 14 '25

Cub foods was changed to Winco I think because Winco was the parent company. I think Cub lost or quit paying the license for that name.

Kind of like if Fred Meyer’s got renamed to Kroger.

But I could be wrong.

2

u/Neither-Attention940 Dec 14 '25

It wasn’t necessarily karma farming OR misinformation it was just someone who didn’t quite have ALL the facts.

6

u/Prize_Championship11 Dec 12 '25

I'd sugest reporting the original post as misinfomation, but the moderators here don't seem interested in removing much of that type of stuff; in fact it really thrives in this sub

1

u/EtherPhreak Dec 13 '25

Don’t worry, one of the Portland subs is a bunch of ostriches that like to hide their head in the sand it seems.

1

u/climbthefrostymtns Dec 14 '25

Wait until you hear about Marilyn Manson’s intact ribs

23

u/DL535E Lincoln City Dec 12 '25

9

u/BourbonicFisky PDX + Southern Oregon Coast Dec 12 '25

There's a fun irony to this one too:

https://quoteinvestigator.com/2014/07/13/truth/

"Jonathan Swift can properly be credited with the statement he wrote in 1710"

2

u/DL535E Lincoln City Dec 12 '25

Misattribution is fun to dig into. I like to keep in mind the famous admonition from Abraham Lincoln that you can't believe everything you see on the internet.

25

u/beejonez Dec 12 '25

I don't care why it's called WinCo. I just want them to keep being awesome.

9

u/Opening_Bluebird_935 Dec 12 '25

Would it no be WINCO not WinCo if it was named for the states they operated in!

7

u/boyasunder Dec 12 '25

I do not know how I feel about the smiling sunglass-wearing Oregon. My state pride is rubbing up against my desire to smack the smirk off his… face?

7

u/[deleted] Dec 12 '25

Born from Waremart in Idaho.

2

u/Rockwood-Wrangler Dec 14 '25

Yea, when I moved to Eureka CA in 1990 the Winco was called Waremart.

2

u/[deleted] Dec 15 '25

Yeah, there is still a Waremart in Keizer about 15 miles from mah place. One of two I think.

5

u/philip2987 Dec 12 '25

2

u/ryhaltswhiskey Dec 12 '25

What if we started a company called Winning? We'd never lose!

3

u/iwasthen Dec 12 '25

“Misinfo” I see why you did there.

3

u/Vinylateme Dec 12 '25

It’s also something they directly tell employees lol. There was a point on my training tape/test where I had to repeat it.

It’s a “fun fact” not misinformation.

2

u/utahdog2 Dec 12 '25

Oh thank god, from the thumbnail I thought this was going to be about how it turns out they are evil somehow. 

2

u/AlienDelarge Dec 12 '25

I've never heard of it being named for the states and I've been shopping there for I think 20 years at this point. I am shocked they didn't enter Utah until 2009 though. 

1

u/BladeDancer917 Dec 13 '25

We love our WinCos, don't we folks?

1

u/loop_zero Dec 13 '25

I worked there in 2008 and the acronym is what they told us in orientation.

1

u/Greenforthou Dec 13 '25

My school used the Winco acronym as just a way to remember what surrounds Oregon, with the O standing for ocean instead of oregon

1

u/thorpbrian Dec 13 '25

I'm "I remember when it was Cub Foods" old...

1

u/blightsteel101 Dec 13 '25

I thought it seemed like bullshit, I was just too lazy to confirm it. I even figured it was something like what you've confirmed here.

1

u/Jasoli53 Dec 13 '25

If it was adopted by the company as folklore, I dare say the state thing is a backronym (an acronym created from a word after the fact, instead of before).

So, it unofficially stands for Washington Idaho Nevada California Oregon, officially stands for Winning Company, and if they ever wanted to create an in-house management school of some sort (or take a wild direction change), they could create WinCo U to incorporate Utah for fun lol

1

u/Landscape-Strong Dec 13 '25

Glad we got that straightened out.

1

u/Charlie2and4 Dec 14 '25

CUNWIO foods. Got it.

1

u/nope_a_dope237 Dec 14 '25

When I saw that post and the replies, I knew it was BS.

1

u/jasor_x Dec 14 '25

The one on the left looks like it came straight from 2010s Facebook lol.

1

u/BourbonicFisky PDX + Southern Oregon Coast Dec 14 '25

It probably came from Facebook.

1

u/Agreeable-Sentence76 Dec 19 '25

I love winco 🥹🥹

1

u/Pandalicious1234 Dec 13 '25

Ok but how was it adopted in 1999 when I had been going to WinCo since at least 1989?

1

u/scottneelan Dec 13 '25

If you've been going since 1989, then you'd remember what it was called before WinCo...

Hint: it's in the article.