Wal-Mart is truly sick. They already have a huge market share amongst retailers Target and KMART but they continue to strive for more. Wal-Mart has reportedly been funding the “Wal-Mart Across America” blog which sings the praises of the company. The blog is covered in the black veil of a ‘nice American couple’ known as Jim and Laura who are traveling across the country in an RV and sleeping in Wal-Mart parking lots along the way. Wal-Mart is attempting to break the small business take over company it is well known for.

There was also an article in this week’s Business Week magazine which mentioned the promotional blog stunt. A banner recently appeared on the blog for “Working Families for Wal-Mart” which was launched by PR firm Edelman. The project was primarily funded by Wal-Mart but the company tells Business week that “While there is a Working Families banner on the website, nowhere does it mention that Wal-Mart has paid for the flight, the RV, the gas, and the blog entries.”

When it comes to Laura and Jim it turns out that Laura is really Laura St. Claire and Jim is actually Jim Thresher. Couldn’t they do a better job of hiding their true identities? Wal-Mart Watch revealed that Jim Thresher is a 25 year old employee of the Washington Post. No wonder he’s such a good blogger.