Walmart’s merchant and sourcing teams are making eight regional stops across the country between April and June as part of the 2026 Road to Open Call tour, giving entrepreneurs with American-made, shelf-ready products the opportunity to pitch directly to Walmart’s sourcing team. Two stops have already taken place: Los Angeles on April 9 and New Orleans on April 15. Six remain.
The remaining schedule, per Talk Business, which covers the Walmart beat closely from Bentonville:
May 14: Dallas, Texas (Applications close April 24) May 21: Orlando, Fla. (Applications close May 1) May 25-29: Baltimore, Md. (Applications close May 8) June 11: Indianapolis, Ind. (Applications close May 22) June 18: Salt Lake City, Utah (Applications close May 29) June 24: Atlanta, Ga. (Application deadline forthcoming)
Applications are submitted through RangeMe.com. Products must be made, grown or assembled in the U.S. to be considered. The Dallas deadline closes April 24. Orlando follows on May 1.
The Road to Open Call is a direct pipeline to Walmart’s annual Open Call event, scheduled for October 6-7 in Bentonville. Open Call is Walmart’s largest sourcing event for U.S.-made products, where selected entrepreneurs pitch in 30-minute one-on-one meetings with Walmart and Sam’s Club merchants and can secure deals ranging from local store distribution to hundreds of locations, as well as Walmart.com and Walmart Marketplace.
Entrepreneurs selected at a regional stop may receive a Fast Pass to Bentonville. The Fast Pass is not guaranteed. It is one possible outcome of the regional pitch, but it is a direct invitation to the October event without going through the standard application process.
That path has also worked for suppliers who did not receive a Fast Pass at the regional event. Susan Clayton, creator of WhitePaws RunMitts, attended the Baltimore Road to Open Call stop, did not receive a Fast Pass, but used the buyer feedback to strengthen her application through the traditional process. She was invited to Bentonville the following October and secured a deal to bring her products to Walmart stores by fall 2026, per Talk Business. The regional stop was the starting point regardless of the Fast Pass outcome.
At the 2025 Open Call in Bentonville, more than 500 entrepreneurs attended and more than 100 received golden tickets, per Walmart’s own recap of the event. Each stop on the regional tour selects approximately 30 entrepreneurs to pitch, per details from the Los Angeles event.
The Road to Open Call and the broader Open Call program sit inside a larger commitment. Walmart has pledged to source $350 billion in products made, grown or assembled in the U.S. by 2030. The company said at its 2026 Open Call launch that it has reached $176 billion in cumulative U.S. spend toward that goal, with roughly two-thirds of Walmart U.S. product spend on goods suppliers reported as domestically sourced, per Walmart’s corporate site.
Since launching in 2014, Open Call has helped hundreds of small businesses become Walmart suppliers. For entrepreneurs and early-stage suppliers with shelf-ready American-made products, the regional tour is the most accessible entry point in the program, and for six cities, that entry point is still open. Applications for all remaining stops are available at walmart.com/RoadToOpenCall.