More than 175 businesses advanced to the next stage at Walmart’s first-ever virtual Open Call event, which invited over 800 businesses from across the country to pitch their products to Walmart and Sam’s Club merchants. Nearly 900 meetings were held over the course of the event, which aims to put more products from small businesses on store shelves and online.
“No other retailer provides small businesses with as many channels and avenues to success and we’re thrilled with their response to Walmart’s first-ever virtual Open Call event,” said Laura Phillips, Walmart senior vice president for global sourcing and U.S. manufacturing. “It’s truly inspiring to see the strong entrepreneurial spirit of this year’s participants. Despite the challenges small businesses have faced this year, they’ve brought incredible energy, innovation and ingenuity to their product pitch meetings and we are excited about what this means for our customers, our communities and our commitment to source an additional $250 billion in U.S. manufactured products that support American jobs.”
The most popular categories were food, health and wellness, and personal care. Products pitched reflect consumer trends in healthy foods, natural products, ethnic cuisine, snacks, and adult beverages.
Some of the businesses moving on to the next step include Fresh Nature Foods, DNA Vineyards, ChocZero, MyBread, Rastelli Foods Group, Pompette Beverages, Inc., and Skinny Latina.
The five states with the largest numbers of businesses receiving “yes” responses are California, New York, Florida, Ohio, and New Jersey.
Related: Walmart Redesigns Stores for Omnichannel Shopping Experience; Walmart Selects Open Call Pitch Participants.
Image: Walmart
from Specialty Food News https://ift.tt/34eCNkQ
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