Walmart Buyer Breakthrough

A story about an entrepreneur's relentless pursuit to get his toy product into retail stores, particularly focusing on his persistence with Walmart buyers.

"I made a list of every retail buyer of every store in every region of the world and I emailed or called them every single day. The Walmart buyer - I would call her or email her every day. I never forget her. One day she emailed me saying 'Nick, I do not need your daily email about your product.'

I responded, 'Listen Jen, I'm sorry, it's just a great product and I just had to tell you about it because we've really got some exciting things.' I just didn't let up. Finally, she sent me the two most beautiful words in the English language: 'send sample.'

We got this Walmart order for 2 million units - that's $30 million. At that time our revenue was only $150K a year. Our little old factory by the river had never produced 2 million units of anything. I learned two words in Chinese: 'too slow' and 'go faster.'

But then Walmart basically cancels the order after we're super deep in it. I had taken a loan from a contract manufacturer to help build the 2 million units. I harassed the Walmart buyer to hold up their end of the bargain. By the way, the product doesn't sell - not a single one. It retails at $30, gets discounted to $25, to $20, to $15. It ends up selling for 50 cents. It was like concrete on the shelf."