Walmart Wants Help From Small Businesses?
Walmart recently hosted an Open Call event asking small businesses from across the nation to show them their products.
Walmart has been grappling with its fair share of contentions as of late. From inflation-related profit dips to legal troubles with the FTC and a severe shortage of store managers to top it off, the retail giant certainly has its hands full. This begs the question, is the titanous Walmart in such dire straights that it actually needs help from small businesses? Not quite. It’s actually the opposite. Walmart just hosted its annual “Open Call” event. The event is one that gave an opportunity for thousands of upstart entrepreneurs to show off their products and vie for a chance to have their novel inventions sold on Walmart’s store shelves.
Walmart’s 9th Annual Open Call event was hosted back at its headquarters in Bentonville, Arkansas after being held digitally for the past two years. Of the 4,500 applicants, Walmart heard a total of 1,500 pitches. Walmart touts the event as one that enables them to fully connect with the small businesses of America. And not only that but also to serve as a platform to give their products greater exposure. “The opportunity that we create for them here is really unique and special in that it’s our largest sourcing event of the year. This is our ninth event. It’s the largest cohort that we’ve ever had. And we’ve had more than 13,000 products apply to come here,” Walmart Senior Manager Payton McCormick explained.
At every Open Call event, Walmart takes a special interest in products that have the propensity to give back to the communities from which the entrepreneurs came. Haith Johnson, who is the CEO of Le’Host Hair and Wigs, was one Open Call participant that has been able to grow her business in just this way. In 2020, Walmart started featuring her products in 200 stores near her community. Today her company’s presence in Walmart’s stores is 400 strong. And that presence was largely facilitated by the community that her products speak to. “We got the call of our lives, and it changed us forever,” expressed Johnson.
Other individuals have been able to garner nationwide visibility by selling via Walmart’s stores. Brian Hall, the founder of Cerakote Ceramic Coatings, explained that he was able to grow his product from being housed in 400 Walmart stores to all 3,900. That has allowed Hall’s company to bring in a net revenue equal to $3 million in a year. Hall detailed that that kind of national visibility would not have been possible to obtain without Walmart.
Moreover, even for participants whose products don’t get picked up the first time around, they are never discouraged from trying again the next year. Ana Quincoces, who is the founder of sauce company Skinny Latina, said that it took her three tries in order for Walmart to finally accept her pitch. She detailed that the first two rejections allowed for her to refine her product to the point where it is now being sold right alongside the likes of Heinz and Hellman’s. Ultimately, it’s really nice to see that a titan like Walmart is giving the little guys a chance to succeed. The United States was built on small businesses and it’s good that Walmart is using its vast presence to pay homage to the country’s humble roots.
