Court TV Host: Wal-mart, the world's largest retailer, has assets larger than those of many countries. It offers low prices but has come under fire in recent years for its labor practices, its impact on neighborhoods and even its impact on the economy. A new film, Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price, is now taking on the retail giant, with an aggressive grassroots marketing strategy. Join the debate with author Greg Spotts, who wrote the book on which The High Cost of Low Price is based and, for an opposing view, Ron Galloway, producer of another new film, Why Wal-Mart Works: And Why That Drives Some People C-r-a-z-y.

Court TV Host: They were just on Catherine Crier, and they're here with us now. Welcome, thanks for being our guests online today.

Question from Have_A_JERRY_Xmas: Mr. Galloway: as long as authors like yourself see only the bottom line/stockholders interest as the only responsibility of a corporation, the quicker this nation is going to be a Tale Of Two Classes, which will lead to something you don't even want to think about...companies have a social obligation.

Ron Galloway: I guess they missed the part where I said that I believe that Walmart is one of the largest benefactors to the poor in this country through their delivery of low prices to consumers. Walmart's average customer makes $35,000 a year and saves $1700 by shopping at Walmart. Ask a single mom, where she shops. I'll tell you where she shops.

Greg Spotts: First of all, I would say that the U.S. economy didn't get where we are today by organizing ourselves around shaving 10 cents off the price of a t shirt. We built this country's economic might by creating and sustaining a powerful industrial base and building world-class products for our own market and for the rest of the world. Walmart's vision of buying poorly-made goods from low-wage countries and reselling them to the poor here at a healthy markup is not a prescription for the creation of wealth or a viable middle class in this country.

Ron Galloway: Microsoft's markup is 45% - I would consider that healthy. Walmart's markup, i.e. margin, is 3.7%.

Question from NicNYC: Is it accurate that Walmart pays men more than women? Also, what is their policy regarding maternity leave?

Greg Spotts: There's a class action suit called Dukes v. Walmart that alleges that Walmart pays women less than men across all job titles and promotes women far more rarely than it promotes men. In order to be certified as a legitimate class, Walmart's current and former female employees had to demonstrate evidence of this allegation, and they actually obtained Walmart's computerized payroll records through the discovery process. This is an enormous volume of information that statisticians will argue over for years, but a judge did accept the plaintiff's contention that enough of a pattern was demonstrated to certify the plaintiffs as a class. Dukes v. Walmart is now the largest employment class action suit in the history of the U.S.

Ron Galloway: Walmart is not alone. There is a similar discrimination suit against Costco

Question from Alison: Who financed your films?

Ron Galloway: My brother Robert and I financed our film. It cost approximately $85,000, and as soon as we make that money back, we will be allowed by our wives to move back into our houses.

Greg Spotts: Robert Greenwald has told the press that he spent about $1.8 million to produce his film. A little more than half of that came from a handful of politically active individual donors, and Robert financed the rest of it himself, with the hope of recouping some of that deficit through sales of the DVD. But it is likely to be a money-losing endeavor.

Question from Robin: My question as a former member of a Wal-Mart retail management team is: how do we affect change? Seeing first hand lack of ethics on a daily basis has left me feeling that I need to do something. Iis there a resolution; or at least something that those of us with a conscience can do other than personal boycotts?

Greg Spotts: Yes, absolutely. There's a lot that people can do. One of the most exciting aspects of Robert's film is the wide array of organizations both national and regional that have come together to work on this issue, which is in fact a series of inter related issues. If you go to www.walmartmovie.com, there's a page that can point you to a variety of groups that are addressing a variety of issues raised by Walmart's business practices.

Ron Galloway: My estimation is that Walmart has had 7 million people work there in the last 10 years, and it's human nature that people will be unhappy. However, most of the associates that I met seemed to like their jobs.

Greg Spotts: As Robert Greenwald's field producers were combing the country in the first half of this year, it became clear that disgruntled current employees, of which there are very many, are terrified to speak up. They are trying to pay the bills and get through to the next paycheck, and they are not likely to see much benefit in speaking out publicly while they're still employed at the company.

Question from tara85014: The mom and pop's could never employ as many people as Wal-mart.

Greg Spotts: Actually, one of the essentials to Walmart's business model is finding economies of scale. And it may well be that Walmart is able to use labor more efficiently in retailing than mom and pop stores and therefore employ less people per million dollars of goods sold. I'd like to see a study about that. We do know that the owners of mom and pop stores generally lead a middle class lifestyle and contribute much more to the community as taxpayers than a greeter at Walmart who makes 10 bucks an hour and relies on state aid for health benefits.

Ron Galloway: May I go a bit off topic on greeters. Greeters are kind of cool. We ran into several instances in making the film where Walmart hired mentally challenged people as greeters. These people required a coach who watched them from the wings, so in effect Walmart had to hire two to do the job of one, in order that a disabled person would have a job. I guess the wage cost of Walmart has been estimated to be 4.7 billion dollars on an annual basis. However, Walmart saves consumers about 20 to 30 billion dollars a year on their purchases, so you just have to weigh the good versus the bad.

Question from Cougar: I think that 100 million people per week walking through Wal-Mart's doors is a good indication that the people of America like Wal-Mart.

Greg Spotts: I don't think it's fair for us to ask consumers to force Walmart to obey federal child labor laws, to force Walmart to pay women equally to men, to force Walmart to compete on a level playing field with local businesses instead of asking for handouts from the government. These issues belong in the public debate and should be dealt with through government, and I don't think someone getting a good deal on toilet paper at Walmart is through their purchase endorsing Walmart's business practices.

Ron Galloway: I think there are a lot more pressing issues than Walmart. It's just a store.

Greg Spotts: This is where Ron and I disagree the most. Now I made my own film last year called "American Jobs" about the loss of good paying American jobs to low wage countries, and I believe that corporate friendly globalization is eroding the American middle class and exploiting desperate factor workers, including many children overseas. I would argue that the reorganization of the world economy that's taking place may be the most important issue of all for the public to discuss and debate. I feel that Walmart is very much a major player in pushing forward a vision of low wages and cheap goods that doesn't produce prosperity.

Ron Galloway: Two year babies are being speared to death in Darfur. There are larger issues in the world today.

Greg Spotts: I would challenge Ron to make his next film about the situation in Darfur, and use the power of documentary on behalf of the voiceless rather than self-funding corporate propaganda.

Ron Galloway: The reason I brought up Darfur is that we ARE working on that. So thanks for the plug.

Greg Spotts: Glad to hear it.

Court TV Host: Thanks for being our guests online today...come back to talk about Walmart or Darfur, anytime!