Want to sell your product at Walmart? Here’s your chance

Turns out Walmart sees a market for reusable mason jars.

That’s one of the products selected last year at Walmart’s Open Call event, in which the giant retailer reviews U.S.-made items from small manufacturers and chooses a handful for national distribution in its stores.

Last year, Seattle-based Intelligent Lids (iLids), which until recently manufactured its products in Fife, made the cut.

According to the company’s website, the business started when Seattle-based Traci Tenneson, “who loves her Mason jars ... wanted a one-piece, non-rusting, reusable, non-leaking lid for everyday use.”

“The impact of participating in Open Call is close to immeasurable,” said company co-founder Bill Tenneson, Traci Tenneson’s husband, in Walmart’s news release.

“Our U.S.-manufactured, reusable Mason jar lids are just about to be on the shelves of the largest seller of Mason jars in the world,” he said.

Their manufacturing recently moved from Fife to Cheyenne, Wyoming.

“Our product will be in store in about three weeks, sometime during the last week of April,” Bill Tenneson told The News Tribune via email Thursday.

Other items chosen at last year’s Open Call event included a winged eyeliner stamp from Texas and placemats for pet food bowls from Minnesota.

Walmart says last year they heard nearly 600 product-pitch meetings.

“This year’s Open Call attendees could secure deals ranging from a handful of stores in local markets, to supplying hundreds, even thousands of stores, Sam’s Clubs and Walmart.com,” according to its announcement.

To participate, go to Walmart-jump.com to apply. Application deadline is April 30. If selected, you’ll be invited to attend the event, June 18-19, at Walmart’s Home Office campus in Bentonville, Arkansas.

This story was originally published April 5, 2019 at 10:12 AM.