Walmart to Source More Products From US Small Businesses

Walmart has launched the “Grow With Us” program to encourage and train U.S. small businesses to pitch their products to Walmart and Sam’s Club stores. Walmart said it already stocks 66% of its shelves with goods from the United States, with 60% of that from small companies.

The aim of the world’s biggest retailer is to depend less on China imports, buy more American-made goods, and diversify suppliers amid the U.S.-China trade war.

“Tariffs are something we’ve managed for many years, and we’ll continue to manage that,” said Walmart CEO Doug McMillon in Walmart’s most recent earnings call in February, The Street.com reports. “We can’t predict what will happen in the future, but we can manage it really well.”

Shortly after President Donald Trump announced 145% tariffs on imports from China, Walmart executives traveled to China to ask manufacturing vendors there to absorb the costs of the tariffs and to negotiate prices.

While United States and China trade delegations have reportedly begun trade talks, and President Trump has said that China President Xi Jinping has called him, Walmart has rolled out this new program to encourage American small companies to do more business with it.

“More than 40 years ago, Sam Walton set a priority that still drives us today: supporting American-made products and the small businesses behind them,” said Walmart U.S. President and CEO John Furner in a statement. “Simply put, we want small businesses to work with Walmart, but we know getting started can feel complex.”

Grow With Us is aimed at training, mentoring and providing the resources that small companies need to “grow with Walmart,” Furner said.

Companies can learn more about the four open call events Walmart is hosting from May 1 to May 21 in Orlando, Florida, Kanasas City, Missouri, Baltimore, Maryland, and Austin, Texas, here.