Heads up! Possibly boring journalism dilemma ahead: Reuters has a story on it's site announcing that Wal-Mart "is holding special in-store sales this Saturday," to win over consumers. In other news, McDonalds intends to cook hamburgers to win over the hungry and Starbucks intends to brew coffee to arouse the sleepy.

What on Earth is Reuters doing here? The media world is wringing its hands over the death of newspapers, the implosion of the ad market and Reuters is writing stories that equate to advertisements for one of these world's largest corporations. Maybe it's their version of a service piece, but we think this is insane.

And by insane, we, of course, are talking about Wal-Mart's LOW LOW PRICES! These are deals you'd be foolish to miss!

Reuters: Wal-Mart Stores Inc is holding special in-store sales this Saturday as the world's largest retailer looks to win over U.S. shoppers in what could be the toughest holiday sales season in nearly two decades.

The company, which held similar sales leading up to the holidays last year, has said that it expects its shoppers to begin their gift-buying earlier this year to stretch limited budgets.

U.S. retail chains traditionally launch their big holiday promotions immediately after Thanksgiving Day in late November, but many have started to offer discounts even earlier as the economy weakens.

On its website, Wal-Mart says the sale will begin at 8 a.m. on November 8. In-store deals include a Sony PS3 video game console with a $100 gift card for $399, a basic Compaq laptop for $298, and a Sanyo 46-inch LCD high-definition television for $898.

Wal-Mart had already started cutting prices on popular toys to attract cash-strapped shoppers looking for bargains. Last year in early November, the company began offering the type of holiday discounts it usually reserved for "Black Friday" -- the day after Thanksgiving.

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