How to Sell to Menards & Become a Menards Menards Supplier

The advantage of becoming Menards supplier

How to Become a Menards Supplier – Hey everyone! This is Karen Waksman, founder of Retail MBA. And today I want to talk about selling your products to Menards. So the reason that I decided to create this particular segment is because I’ve taught tens of thousands of product companies across the globe on how to make money with your physical products and I create training around different retailers because sometimes you’ve never even heard of them. And or sometimes you just need some quick tips and strategies on how to make money with them. So that’s what this training is about.

Learn what you need to know about becoming a Menards vendor

So let’s talk about Menards. They’re unique in that there are 300 stores that they are responsible for. And they’re mostly located in Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota and basically retailers kind of in the Midwest area. So if you don’t live in those areas, you may or may have not heard of them. So one thing to think about is they’re a home improvement store and a lot of people have not heard of them because they live in different areas of the country. But I’m here to tell you that there’s tremendous opportunities in the world that people don’t even know about.

They’re basically located in 14 states currently. And you know, the amount of stores varies obviously as their retail space changes. 

They are the third largest home improvement chain store in the United States behind Home Depot and Lowes. 

They have massive stores

Definitely something to explore. So what can I tell you about Menards? They have massive stores, their space location and so forth. And the reason I share that with you is because they have the ability to buy and test out a lot of different products. Some stores are small. They don’t have a lot of room like say GNC or something like that. Very, very tiny stores.

They have plenty of room & always looking for for new products from Menard suppliers

With Menards, they have this huge warehouse spaces which means that they can really bring in a lot of new products and I love those type of retailers. Because although they buy home improvement stuff, they also buy all sorts of random stuff like grocery products and automotive products and stuff you would never think about—electrical products. 

Becoming a Menard vendor is a tremendous opportunity

So my recommendation is to walk their stores anyhow to see what they have going on there ‘coz there stores are typically almost 700,000 square feet. I mean that is insane. That is a tremendous opportunity there. So they test a lot of stuff. They put products in stores. And they buy a variety of different products. So something to think about is that they could be tremendous for your business.

Menards vendors sell all sorts of different products to local stores

Again, one of the things that is unique about them is that they’re starting to sell stuff like milk and eggs and all sorts of different things in their stores, pet supplies, even mattresses. I mean they’re getting a little bit rogue on the things that they purchase. And so again, if you’ve never thought about selling to them and something to consider, they do change this around, but something to consider.  

Seasonal products always have holiday buyers

Another thing about them is that they definitely buy products by seasons as well. So if your product is great for winter months, or summer months, they actually have buyers for winter and summer and so forth typically for seasons. It’s typically a seasonal buyer. And so that could be one retail buyer that you could reach out to beyond the appropriate buyer for your product type. So seasonal products always have holiday buyers and so forth for certain times of the year.

What can you sell to Menards

They usually have buyers for the front of the store and so they have different buyers who buy products much more than just the appropriate buyer for say, you know, your typical hardware product and so forth. So if your product is great for the summer or the winter, definitely see if they have the appropriate buyer for your product type. Again, for holidays as well. The front counter area, they have different buyers. There’s a lot of room and opportunity there.

How to become a Menards.com vendor

The other thing is that the Menards store buyer is typically different than the menards.com buyer. The buyers are typically different meaning the stores—the buyers are responsible for the products in-stores. And the online buyer is different. They buy for their website and so forth. And so a lot of times they go test out products on their website to see if your product converts. And then if it does well then they, you know, put it in their stores and so forth. 

Take a look at menards.com

So definitely take a look at menards.com on their website and to see what’s going on there and whether or not you want to sell your products to them because the online buyer definitely has a different budget from the physical store buyer. And so if you can’t get your products into physical stores, maybe you want to consider selling to the online buyer and so forth. So again, they sell so many different products. Go to their website and take a look at what they are doing.