Hey, it's not just small businesspersons and disgruntled bloggers who hate Wal-Mart; did you know that there's an entire clandestine consulting group dedicated to using "black arts" to thwart Wal-Mart's expansion? Bully for them!

The WSJ today details the murky activities of Saint Consulting Group, which is regularly hired by Wal-Mart's corporate rivals—Giant, Safeway, and Supervalu, among others—to drum up opposition to proposed new Wal-Mart stores. Saint funds anti- Wal-Mart community groups, hires experts to produce reports on the negative effects a Wal-Mart might have, media trains opposition speakers, and things like that. On one hand, they're complete corporate hired guns whose entire modus operandi is to throw mud in the efficient gears of capitalism in order to get themselves a paycheck. On the other hand:

Former Saint employees say that the goal of many legal or political challenges was merely to delay projects.

"That may be the result," responds Mr. Saint. "But our goal is always to kill Wal-Mart."

We kinda like the guy.

[WSJ. Pic: robertstinnett]