Herbert Graf wrote:
> I've never really understood the hatred of Walmart that people have.
> Yes, they are ruthless to their suppliers, and yes their presence forces
> smaller more expensive places to close, but you can't blame Walmart for
> that.

It appears that some of the hatred was funded by Wal-Mart's competitors:

http://on.wsj.com/daX50U

JUNE 7, 2010
Rival Chains Secretly Fund Opposition to Wal-Mart

As Wal-Mart Stores Inc. has grown into the largest grocery seller in the 
U.S., similar battles have played out in hundreds of towns like Mundelein. 
Local activists and union groups have been the public face of much of the 
resistance. But in scores of cases, large supermarket chains including 
Supervalu Inc., Safeway Inc. and Ahold NV have retained Saint Consulting to 
block Wal-Mart, according to hundreds of pages of Saint documents reviewed 
by The Wall Street Journal and interviews with former employees.

Saint has jokingly called its staff the "Wal-Mart killers." P. Michael 
Saint, the company's founder, declines to discuss specific clients or 
campaigns. When read a partial list of the company's supermarket clients, he 
responds that "if those names are true, I would say I was proud that some of 
the largest, most sophisticated companies were so pleased with our success 
and discretion that they hired us over the years." 

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