Corpus Linguistics

Companies chosen: Walmart and Meijer

Relative Frequencies (per million)

Walmart 90’s

152

Meijer 90’s

35

Walmart 00’s

106

Meijer 00’s

41

Walmart 10’s

1969

Meijer 10’s

76

Walmart Overall (per million)

Meijer Overall (per million)

Blog Mentions

1993

Blog Mentions

42

web

1392

web

32

tv/media

73

tv/media

0

news

578

news

74

Analysis

Overall, both companies showed a growth in mentions as time progressed. This is likely because of the growth of technology and more users as time goes on. Blog mentions were the most common mention for both companies and the tv/media was also their lowest mention.

Though the trends are similar, Walmart had a much higher mention rate overall. This is probably due to the fact that Walmart is a nationwide brand while Meijer is an Ohio/midwest exclusive. 

Report

We sought to compare the online prominence change over time for two supermarket brands: Walmart and Meijer. We predicted that Walmart would have a higher mention rate overall and that the most popular source of mentioning would be the web. To search, we used the COCA website to track the number of mentions on blogs, the web, TV/media, and news outlets. We compared the numbers using tables and bar graphs. We found that both companies showed the same trends, that being that they were mentioned more often as time went on. Our table comparing data is above and our bar graphs are below. This implies that as technology advances, more users become aware of and use it more, contributing to the increase in mentions online. These trends have allowed both brands to grow. Walmart is now a nationwide brand with locations all across the US, explaining the fact that it has much higher mentions overall than Meijer. Although an Ohio exclusive, Meijer has expanded and even has one location in Indiana!

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