Wal-Martian
(wawl.MAR.shun)
noun.
1. A person who does most of their shopping at Wal-Mart. 2. A person who works at Wal-Mart. Also: walmartian. —adj. Relating to such a person.
Example Citation:
Having conquered America, [Wal-Mart] has set its sights on the rest of the world. It believes that transporting its corporate culture will be the key to success. Just as the Romans imposed their culture on the nations they conquered, Wal-Mart wants to make Wal-Martians of us all. ... At the start of annual meetings, Wal-Martians do the Wal-Mart chant. Having bellowed out the letters in Wal-Mart's name (they wiggle their hips to represent the hyphen), the chant ends with the cry: "Who's No1? The customer! Always! Huh!"
—Dominic Rush, "Wal-Martians," Sunday Times, June 10, 2001
Earliest Citation:
To listen to the heart-beat of America, Ross Perot said last week, ''go to any Wal-Mart . . . that's where the real Americans are''. How would Mr Perot know? How often does the bantam billionaire, the first recluse to run for president, wheel a shopping trolley through America's favourite discount store? But let's take Mr Perot's advice and go to a Wal-Mart to test voter opinion, including opinion on Mr Perot's second coming. ... Other Wal-Martians — buying paint-scrapers, nappies, hose- connectors, car tyres — split evenly between George Bush and Bill Clinton, with noticeably more men for George and more women for Bill.
—John Lichfield, "Perot fly in Clinton's ointment," The Independent, October 11, 1992
Notes:
Today's word combines the name of the retail giant Wal-Mart (now, scarily, the world's largest company, in terms of sales) with the suffix -ian, "of or belonging to." And, of course, the connection to Martian, "an inhabitant of the planet Mars," isn't even remotely coincidental and it shows the elitist roots of today's word.
