After The Wal-Mart Deal

Fortune Small Business:

I became an inventor while working two jobs and taking night classes in Columbus.

Every Monday, to reward my efforts, I’d treat myself to barbecued Buffalo wings - extra-saucy ones - for dinner.

One night, as I was getting ready to eat my messy wings, I hesitated. I looked at the wings and then at my manicured fingernails. I thought, “There has to be a better way.” That’s when I came up with the idea of using small plastic tongs to eat wings.

After designing the product in 2005, I hired a local attorney and applied for a patent. I named my company Utensils, found a manufacturer, and built a website. With no advisors, I didn’t know how to market the tongs. I was still building my business at night after work.

One day, during my lunch break, I ran to Wal-Mart to buy creamer for my office. When I walked by the registers, I noticed four employees wearing suits and Wal-Mart nametags. I passed them and then froze - I remembered that I had my wing tongs in my purse (I carry them everywhere).

I turned back, walked up to them, held up my tongs, and asked who could help me get my product into Wal-Mart. A store manager signed the papers that let me submit my supplier application.

At my first meeting with Wal-Mart executives, they were impressed that I’d already made the product, which they thought filled a market gap. Three months later my wing tongs were on the shelves of seven Wal-Mart stores in the Columbus area.

After the December 2005 rollout, I was thrilled: My tongs were in America’s biggest store. I left messages with Wal-Mart’s regional office to check on my product’s progress but didn’t hear back. So I figured I should be hands-off. I ignored the tongs and went to work every day, hoping I’d get word of a reorder. I expected a call, a fax, anything - but got absolutely nothing. A year passed, and my tongs were dead in the water.

Read more.

Photo by Stephen Webster.

« Previous Post

Next Post »