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Bob and Jaque Vavrinak win a test contract with Walmart for their product called The Door Balancer.
Photo provided by The Hauser Group
Bob and Jaque Vavrinak win a test contract with Walmart for their product called The Door Balancer.

Local entrepreneur’s product heads to Walmart shelves

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After successfully pitching his product called The Door Balancer, Branson entrepreneur Bob Vavrinak is preparing to ship product to Walmart Inc. (NYSE: WMT).

Vavrinak said after meeting with a buyer on June 13 at Walmart’s Bentonville, Arkansas, headquarters, the retailer committed to a 100-store test for The Door Balancer.

“They’re wanting to try and do it around November so we can be in for the Christmas season,” he said. “They’re basically going to see how the sales go, and if the sales go, then we’ll be constantly adding more stores.”

Walmart agreed to purchase 2,400 Door Balancer products, which retail at $8, Vavrinak said, to sell them at stores in the northwest Arkansas and southwest Missouri regions. The product is inserted in place of a hinge pin to prop the door open in a home or business.

“A lot of people have problems with their doors closing on them,” he said. “We came up with the only solution for it.”

Vavrinak said the company he co-owns with his wife Jaque has 14,000 Door Balancer products in stock, as well as another 100,000 springs ready to be packaged.

The Door Balancer was invited to Walmart’s headquarters after Vavrinak pitched the product in May at the 2021 E. Independence St. Walmart in Springfield. A surprise to him, Vavrinak already had been chosen prior to the appointment.

Through Walmart’s Open Call program, entrepreneurs nationwide applied to pitch their products at local Walmart stores for a chance to advance to the next level at the headquarters.

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