Save+money.+Live+better?

**What does the the rise of the "big box" store as the world's largest public corporation tell us about global change?**
How Walmart works: [|Wal-Mart Stores Inc].
 * Reading: __[|Inside the World's Biggest Store]__**


 * Film resource:** [|Is Wal-mart Good for America?]

Take notes. Come to class with any questions you have. Start to ask yourself whether the impact of Wal-Mart is beneficial? For who?

In class we will begin to watch the Frontline episode that examines The local and global impact of the world's largest Corporation.


 * "Is Wal-Mart Good for America?" provides a provocative examination of the impact Wal-Mart has had on the U.S. economy. The documentary highlights the changing relationship between manufacturers and the so-called "big-box" retailers, exemplified by Wal-Mart, that has contributed to the bankruptcy of some American businesses and a growing unemployment rate. While Wal-Mart supporters tout the advantages of one-stop, low-cost shopping, others are alarmed at both the outsourcing that has made these low prices possible and how large retailers affect smaller, local businesses. FRONTLINE examines the winners and the losers as it documents how:**
 * **Global retailers are superseding manufacturers in making decisions about product quality, type and price.**
 * **A basic flaw in the United States-China trade relationship is that we can afford to buy Chinese products, but they cannot afford to buy ours.**
 * **Wal-Mart has approximately 6,000 global suppliers; 80 percent of these are from China.**
 * **China is becoming the biggest producer of high-tech products in the world.**
 * **TCL, a Chinese company, is now the largest producer of televisions in the world, and almost all of their U.S. exports go to Wal-Mart.**
 * **The United States is exporting raw materials to Less Economically Developed countries and importing their manufactured products, which is a reversal of former economic relations.**
 * **In 2003, the United States had a $120 billion trade deficit with China. (As of February 2011 the [|US trade deficit with China is $270 billion])**


 * Watch the rest of this program for homework frontline film** [|Is Wal-mart Good for America?]

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**Questions**

 * 1) What most surprised you about the film?
 * 2) Do you think the strategies that Wal-Mart is using are fair? Why or why not?
 * 3) What new kinds of jobs might be created as a result of outsourcing? What jobs might be eliminated?
 * 4) Who gains the most from Wal-Mart's price policies? Why?
 * 5) Has the documentary influenced how or where you will shop? Explain.
 * 6) Who has benefited from Wal-Mart? In what ways? Who has not benefited from Wal-Mart? In what ways?
 * 7) How should Wal-Mart balance the needs for worker benefits, low prices for consumers and high profits for shareholders?
 * 8) Is Wal-Mart good for the world?

=Discussion questions=
 * 1) Write a thoughtful response (around 300 words) to one of the questions above in your class discussion page in the toolbar on the left.
 * 2) Comment on at least two other responses. One of your comments must be to a response without any comments. Make this something more substantial than, "Great Response!"