Wal-Mart is going back to the USA.
The retail giant plans to hold its second open call event to search for “great products that are made or assembled by American workers” on July 7 and 8. Also on those two days, Wal-Mart will hold a manufacturing summit, as it did a year ago.
Wal-Mart has declared its Made in the USA program a success. The retailer sells the domestically made and sourced products in its stores and created a dedicated Made in the USA shop on walmart.com, where it tags items with a Made in the USA label.
Last summer, Wal-Mart’s first open call event yielded 800 meetings that evolved into deals for hundreds of new products, the company said.
Among the new items were much ballyhooed taco plates from Jarratt Industries — which seemed to be a crowd favorite among Wal-Mart buyers, who placed an order for one million; Luxurien International exotic wood jewelry, contemporary metal bands and camouflage rings, and Emilia PC, which acquired a factory in DeKalb, Miss., and is reshoring beauty products that are expected to hit store shelves this summer.
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In 2013, Wal-Mart said the company would purchase an additional $250 million in products supporting American jobs over 10 years. Wal-Mart plans to accomplish that goal by increasing purchasing of goods now manufactured in the U.S., sourcing new to Wal-Mart products made in the U.S., and supporting the reshoring to the U.S. of products that the retailer already buys.