Merman’s Revenge Won a Golden Ticket. Then a Walmart Merchant Made a Suggestion.

Zack Glenn grew up in Maryland, where summer gatherings ran heavily to crab. Lauren Glenn grew up in the South, where summer meant boils, shrimp and grits, and a family full of recreational anglers. Seafood was ordinary in both houses. What they noticed later, running a small food company in Jacksonville, was how many people love eating it and feel intimidated cooking it at home.

That observation became a category argument, and in 2024 they took it to Bentonville.

At Open Call, the Glenns pitched Walmart and Sam’s Club merchants with Salmon Seasoning, Cajun Style Hot Sauce, Cocktail Sauce, Southern Fish Fry, and a Seafood Boil Bag. Zack Glenn later told SeafoodSource that his case to the buyers was that the seafood seasoning set is built around regions instead of flavor profiles. Old Bay is the Chesapeake. Zatarain’s is Louisiana. Both belong to McCormick. He described the gap he was aiming at as a brand that worked across seafood broadly, at lower sodium, with sustainably sourced ingredients.

Merman’s Revenge won a Golden Ticket, and Walmart began carrying the line in March 2025.

The placement opened a door the Glenns could not have opened themselves

What that placement turned into is visible on the listings. The seasonings are sold and shipped by Walmart.com rather than by a third-party seller, they carry SNAP EBT eligibility, and the Lemon Pepper Seasoning offers same-day pickup, which happens only where a store is holding stock.

The more consequential thing happened next, and it did not come from the Glenns.

Walmart raised the idea that Merman’s Revenge and BSF should build something together. BSF is the Jacksonville seafood importer and distributor that operated as Beaver Street Fisheries until a rebrand announced in February 2026, and it describes itself as having started as a regional wholesaler near the Port of Jacksonville before growing into a national sourcing and distribution business. Its Sea Best products are carried by Walmart. Chief executive Mark Frisch has said Walmart saw “a natural fit” in two Jacksonville companies developing a seafood boil, and that the product took significant research and development work before it was ready. Walmart

Sea Best Merman’s Revenge Frozen Fresh Seafood Boil is a 1.5-pound bag holding snow crab, shrimp, corn on the cob, potatoes, pearl onions, and the Merman’s Revenge boil seasoning. It listed at $17.47 in mid-August, works out to 72.8 cents per ounce, and is SNAP EBT eligible. Sea Best has promoted it as available at select Walmart stores. The listing was showing out of stock when we checked.

A small Florida seasoning company that had never supplied a national retailer now has its name on a co-branded frozen item developed with a national seafood distributor.

The company that won the ticket was better prepared than the story usually suggests

Merman’s Revenge is not a standalone startup, and the more accurate version is more interesting. It is one of four brands inside Glenn Food Company, a small independent Florida operation that also runs the datil pepper line Datilgator along with Delightfully Hot and Pizza Monstah. The company says its products across those brands reach more than 300 Publix stores plus Piggly Wiggly and Ace Hardware locations, and that everything is made in Florida. Lauren Glenn lists herself as co-founder and chief executive.

So the Glenns did not arrive in Bentonville with an idea. They arrived with manufacturing, existing regional retail distribution, and a fourth brand built deliberately for a gap they had already mapped.

The Florida sourcing shows up as formulation rather than label copy. The Salmon Seasoning uses Florida lemons, the Blackened Seasoning uses Florida limes, and the Cajun Style Seasoning carries Florida oranges, which is not a conventional Cajun construction and gives a merchant something specific to point at.

Walmart put them on the shelf at a premium, in a subset it had skipped

The Salmon Seasoning was listing at $4.97 for 4.05 ounces in mid-August, or $1.23 per ounce. Walmart’s own Great Value Lemon and Pepper Seasoning was listing at $8.64 for 26 ounces over the same period, which works out to 33.2 cents per ounce. No Great Value seafood-specific seasoning appeared in the set we examined, which is the more useful observation. Walmart put a small outside brand into a subset its own label had not entered, and priced it accordingly.

First-party suppliers should take the co-development as the transferable lesson. A merchant carrying your item also carries every competitor in the category and sees combinations that exist only inside their own assortment. That kind of introduction never appears on a line review agenda, and most suppliers do not think to ask whether one is possible.

Third-party sellers should look at what sits on top of the first-party listing. A two-pack of the Salmon Seasoning was being offered by a seller called ALL NEEDS at $26.08, with a second seller listing the same two-pack at $24.98, against a first-party single at $4.97. That is roughly two and a half times the first-party price per shaker. Sellers should consider how much of that pattern exists in their own categories, and first-party suppliers should consider what it does to a shopper who lands on the wrong offer first.

Open Call returns to Walmart’s Home Office in Bentonville this October. Walmart says more than 100 entrepreneurs received Golden Tickets at the 2025 event.

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