Jack Yoest, our mid-Atlantic business blogger, got himself into a tiny tiff with the Jeff Hess over at The Writing on the Wal. Despite that fact that he got no comments on his recent “Wal-Mart Wednesday Open Thread” I still think Jeff has one of the best anti-Wal-Mart blogs I’ve seen and I plan to read it regularly. And to comment! What I most appreciate about the little tiff he had with Jack is that both they linked to each other’s blogs. And nothing warms this business blogger’s heart more than link love. And speaking of love, Jack’s got a great wedding picture of he and his beautiful wife, Charmaine, also a dedicated blogger at Reasoned Audacity. I think we should all call him “Lucky Jack” from now on.

And speaking of Wal-Mart critics, there are thoughtful ones and then there are ones like Kenneth J. Harvey, proprietor of WalMartSucks.org. Yes I am linking to it. But be forewarned: before you follow the link put on a pair of rubber gloves. The site's toxic.

And for the final word in this edition about Wal-Mart critics...I’d like to point direct your attention to a new blog called "Exposing the Paid Critics". It’s a project of Working Families for Wal-Mart that specializes in pointing out what it sees as hypocrisy, mendacity, logical fallacies of Wal-Mart's paid critics. Aside from a few technical glitches (permalink tags are misplaced), it’s a sharply designed site with smartly written content. The above post indicates that "Wake-Up Wal-Mart is so desperate to lure supporters that it is offering a “Free Happy Hour” to winners of a Missouri union local’s Picket Line Participation Contest!"

Speaking of good content. Bloggingstocks is one excellent and informative site. According to the site “Bloggingstocks.com covers some of America's most widely-held stocks deeply, analytically and obsessively.” One of those stocks is Wal-Mart’s and the post on the company’s move into organic produce is as good an analysis as anything I’ve read elsewhere. If you are thinking of investing in Wal-Mart stock or understanding why the stock is or isn't performing to expectation, this is the place to look.

Mr. B. has an interesting post about his shopping experiences with Wal-Mart and one of its local competitors, Kroger. When he factors in the value of his time, the purchase of Kroger brands rather than national brands, the discounts from the use of his Kroger card, as well as the one gets on gas purchases for buying more than $300 per month in groceries, he comes out way ahead. Good on him. He has freedom of choice, like all consumers, and decides based on his own preferences and needs whether or not to shop at Wal-Mart.

On a related note, Stacy Lynn -who describes herself as “female, Upstate New Yorker, down-to-earth, feminist, college student, Wal-Mart cashier, amateur photographer, confident, funny, observant… (and a few other PG-15 adjectives)" - ponders this question: I always wondered how much less money I would spend at Wal-Mart if I didn’t work there? The answer may surprise you. The images in her blog’s banner suggests Stacy has a sharp, keen eye. If I ever happen to be in Upstate New York and need a good photographer I know who to call.

By far the most interesting blogger represented this week is Defcon blog's “Doinkicarus” (please don’t ask me what it means or how to pronounce it). Here’s his “About me” statement: “I have a passion for liberty and snowboarding, studying for a Master's in Finance, concentrating on Economics. I am not a big fan of statism, and if you are, I'm probably not a very big fan of you. I blog. I party. I read - alot.” A lot of what he’s reading is Ludwig von Mises. A post from the Mises Institute site about Wal-Mart, as well as a Washington Post article about Maryland’s “Fair Share” Initiative are what inspired his post. Sounds very much like me at his age except I didn’t party, blog, or snowboard. But I blog and snowboard now. (I somehow think that Stacy and Doinkicarus were made for one another. Be sure to send me a wedding invitation. At a minimum, call Stacy and have her take better pictures of you and your drinking buddies.)

James Joyner has a must read post about the New York Times and its passion for leaking confidential information to the press. This time the leakee is Wal-Mart and the confidential program concerns its new policy on shoplifting. The company plans to change its zero-tolerance policy on shoplifting to a $25 dollars-and-second-offense policy. In other words, if you try to steal less than $25 of merchandise and you've not shoplifted there before, they are no longer going to call the cops. I am sure the general public, the overwhelming majority of whom are NOT professional shoplifters, is relieved to have been informed about this.

Stan, aka Blogger 1947, is clearly no fan of Wal-Mart as evidenced by the fact that he filed his entry under “Hypocrisy”, he called the firm “The Company from Hell” and his entry featured a cartoon of a flag with the letters “B.S.” being run up a flagpole. Ouch! Not surprisingly Stan took a dim view of Al Gore’s recent address at Wal-Mart. I am guessing from his picture that Stan’s formative years and life experiences were in the 1960’s. Not that’s there’s anything wrong with that. It’s just that somehow I think Stan wishes that Gore had a plan to stick it to “The Man” any way he can.

Jonathan, from my adopted home town of Seattle Washington, is a little less skeptical about Al Gore and Wal-Mart’s motives. He sees the move as part of a “cunningly smart PR campaign.” It’s hard to argue with his logic.

The first paragraph of Aaron’s post is intriguing. He lives in NW Arkansas, “Wal-Mart’s corporate backyard”, knows a lot of former and current employees, and as a result, says he's privy to a lot of gossip. This week’s tidbit… Lee Scott’s pending resignation. It’s been 11 days since Aaron posted this and there’s no word yet.. but that doesn’t mean it’s not true.

Tom over at Paloustics is a man on fire this week. The bloggers there produce some of the best local and national commentary and analysis on Wal-Mart. I consider it a must-read. What’s got Tom’s up in arms is the effort of unions and other critics to draw out, stall, or prevent the construction of a Wal-Mart in the Eastern Washington town of Pullman. The tactics used by the critics (Tom calls them “jihadis”. Ouch! ) are important to observe as they are used in many other towns and counties around the nation.

BurbMojo thinks that it was a bad idea for Wal-Mart employees to be asked or made to help look for a bomb in one of their stores.

Richard writes about an outing in the blogsophere earlier this summer and some of the acrimony it has engendered. The blogger who was outed was one Armando, a previously anonymous diarist at the blogopshere’s top political site- the reliably far-left “Daily K-os.” But Armando wasn’t outed for his sexual orientation. Rather, it was his economic, professional, political affiliations that got him in trouble with the Kossacks. Armando Lloréns-Sar hails from Puerto Rico where he works as a partner in a corporate law firm, McConnel Valdes. And the crime for which he was banished? According to National Review Online, Armando “…represented Wal-Mart in an anti-trust capacity in Puerto Rico” but failed to disclose this fact in his front-page Daily K-os posts. All this lead Richard, another K-os diarist, to call for “more disclosure from political bloggers of their political affiliations.” According to Richard, Armando “detested” the idea. A “substantial controversy broke out”, one which has now only yet to settle down. Who knew representing Wal-Mart could lead to such hostility?