Walmart Wooden Canoe

I once developed WM as a customer for a product that I designed and had manufactured. The process to get it listed in their retail and online shops was one that I would not wish on anyone..it was very challenging. Bentonville, SF, back and forth...but, if you wanted to play, you had to do the dance. What is interesting about WM is that buyers have pretty amazing autonomy when it comes to selecting product for their retail sections. So wooden guide boats/canoes, why not? I'm just curious to learn about the qualification process. They have very rigorous business requirements including the no questions asked return policy. WM will take a return from a customer without any questions. When the item is returned it does not belong to WM, it belongs to the mfgr...can you imagine building a lot of 10 boats and getting them all back? You need to provide WM with an immediate replacement for each return. That could be a nightmare.
 
Puts me in mind of my time managing retail when the tents would come back after a long weekend full of sand and bottle caps, but were suddenly 'unacceptable'.
 
They have a bunch of wooden boats on their website. The Little Red Canoe is being flogged as a display piece but looks like a real canoe...
 
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