with elected officials present as well as religious leaders giving sermons. Walmart Watch wanted to address the public through events that respectable public figures supported. The biggest event of the week was the screenings of the film Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price, produced by Robert Greenwald. There were 3,500 planned screenings of the film nationwide. Labor unions such as Service Employees International Union, International Brotherhood of Teamsters, and United Food and Commercial Workers participated in "Higher Expectations Week". Liberal groups such as Sierra Club, United for a Fair Economy, and Pride at Work also participated in the weeklong campaign. Local affiliates of AFL–CIO, National Organization for Women, ACLU, and NARAL Pro-Choice America were also supporters of the events. Effects on Walmart Walmart Watch's actions, geared toward influencing Walmart to alter its business practices, negatively affected Walmart financially as well as their reputation among consumers. By November 2006, Walmart's stock suffered from the negative publicity and was down 30 percent since 2000. In addition, Walmart's sales growth was 3.1 percent lower than their competitor, Target, at 1.5 percent. The financial losses continued into 2007, when Walmart shares were priced at $43.16, an 81-cent drop. Two separate polls reported a decrease in Walmart's popularity among consumers after the negative publicity brought about by Walmart Watch. McKinsey & Co. reported that 2–8 percent of consumers no longer wanted to shop at Walmart. Westhill Consulting took a poll over a two-year period of Walmart's overall favorability. The results showed that Walmart's favorability decreased by 8 percent along with consumers developing a negative opinion of Walmart. The negative publicity resulted in 11 percent of consumers changing their shopping habits and 9 percent purchasing less. The release of and mass viewings of the documentary Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price during "Higher Expectations Week" brought the issue of gender discrimination, directed toward female employees, to the forefront in 2007, leading to Walmart facing a class action lawsuit. In February 2007, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit decided, in a 2-to-1 ruling, that the lawsuit would proceed as a class action on account of the 1.5 million female employees, who claimed they were denied higher pay and company promotions. The lawsuit eventually developed into a United States Supreme Court case, Wal-Mart v. Dukes. Walmart's response In an attempt to reconcile its image, Walmart banded with Edelman Public Relations to create