So someone gave me a great idea other day and it involved emailing Walmart to ask how to contact buyers for products to test in stores. This would bypasse trying to get a big publisher to give me royalties.
I could also do this for Toys R US
However very disappointed to not get a reply from two emails I sent via online form on the Walmart website however I am not in USA and this seems a problem now and again for people to contact reply.
This also involves me moving to China to get the games I invented in the 80s made cheaply.
How China can make games cheaper than USA print firms has always baffled me.
Perhaps someone can explain that?
Regards
Looks like they are worse than the Illuminati
SO let me oncentrate then on TOYS R US and perhaps suggest a few more good biggies to me
Thanks
Getting a product stocked in Walmart, even on a limited test basis, involved literally moving someone down to Arkansas and going through several steps of presentations to the specific buyer who handles your particular category of goods. Then, more often than not, Walmart will tell you how you have to change your product to fit their ideal format and price structure for it, including pretty much telling you where you should be producing it.
If you get past that step, very often they'll be asking you such pertinent details such as how you plan to fund the network of local distributors who will be responsible for manually stocking (effectively on consignment) your product into each of their stores in the manner, method and quantity of their chosing. They will want to make sure that your company is EDI compatible and that you will have 1 or more full time persons utilizing the EDI system to help coordinate your distribution network to insure the timely delivery and placement of restocks. Getting EDI compatible, mind you, is a multi hundred thousand dollar affair, at the very least.
Once you can prove to them you are capable of all of that, then they'll want to take about how many hundreds of thousands in co-op advertising money you are ready to give them, up front, so they can include a blurb about your product into their community mailers. If you toss a number up in front of them that satisfies them, then and only then will they take some time to consider how wide of a "test launch" they'll want to try your product out for (ala, 200 stores, 1000 or all 5500+) and how many they'll order in advance and how long you have to prep and get them that initial order, stocked into their stores. Of course, that is also about the time that you also get to find out if they will offer to pay you 30 days, 60 days, 90 days or even 180 days _after_ items are sold (not simply delivered) at checkout. Also keep in mind, anything not sold is not paid for and items stolen are simply your lose and if the test should fail, you will be responsible for the timely removal of the items your have on display or they'll be tossed.
No wait. That was pretty much Meijer's terms. Yeah, we had them "interested" in carrying our one collectible game back around 2002 or so. Their terms were simply a bit too risky for us to go borrow the necessary money needed to produce the kinds of quantities they wanted.
Walmart's terms would almost certain be worse.
But yep, if success, you could bypass one of those big publishers and effectively become one yourself. It only takes a handful of titles sold chain wide in Walmart and a few other like chains before your are turning some fairly impressive dollars.
Thanks,
Ryan S. Johnson
Guild of Blades Retail Group - http://www.gobretail.com
Guild of Blades Publishing Group - http://www.guildofblades.com
1483 Online - http://www.1483online.com