They certainly have the right to financially back opposition movements targeted at their competitors (as far as I know). But let’s not pretend the anti-Wal-Mart movement is some grassroots operation running off the hard work and sweat of preservationists. Because it’s not.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Wal-Mart competitors Supervalu, Safeway, and Ahold NV are actively stoking and funding community outrage targeted at the retail giant.

Robert Brownson long believed that his proposed development here, with its 200,000-square-foot Wal-Mart Supercenter, was being held hostage by nearby homeowners.

He had seen them protesting at city hall, and they had filed a lawsuit to stop the project.

What he didn’t know was that the locals were getting a lot of help. A grocery chain with nine stores in the area had hired Saint Consulting Group to secretly run the antidevelopment campaign. Saint is a specialist at fighting proposed Wal-Marts, and it uses tactics it describes as “black arts.”…

Safeway, a national chain based in Pleasanton, Calif., retained Saint to thwart Wal-Mart Supercenters in more than 30 towns in California, Oregon, Washington and Hawaii in recent years, according to a Saint project list and interviews with former employees. Former Saint employees say much of the work consisted of training Safeway’s unionized workers to fight land-use battles, including how to speak at public hearings.

Basically, it’s a case of one major big-box corporation underwriting and stoking faux outrage at another major big-box corporation for competitive reasons. Keep that in mind the next time you see Wal-Mart being run out of town by angry locals.