BACKSTORY

It was either being in the right place at the right time, or it was simply meant to be. Shortly after graduating with a marketing degree from Kent State University in 1990, I had the unexpected chance to visit Bentonville, Arkansas. Thanks to a few part-time years at JoAnn Fabrics, I was invited to interview for a buying position with Walmart in the Arts and Crafts department. On January 2, 1991, I got the phone call that changed everything. The job was mine. Training would start in the stores, and soon after, I’d be packing up my life and moving to Bentonville at 23 years old.

1991 was a pivotal year for Walmart. Excel was just being woven into the system. E-mail was an entirely new way to communicate. And Sam Walton was still walking the halls, stopping to kick a desk when inspiration hit. Saturday Morning Meetings were mandatory, with Mr. Sam attending and speaking at every one. Merchandising was an art form, and the constant question was how to make things better, sharper, more intuitive for the shopper. It was a front-row seat to retail in its purest form, and it shaped everything I would go on to build.

Over the next year I watched retail history unfold. I saw Mr. Sam receive the Medal of Freedom. I heard stories my father shared about the quiet bedside conversations he had with him during treatment at our local hospital, because that is where Mr. Sam wanted to be. And I was given freedom that most twenty-three-year-olds would never dream of: to learn, to try things my way, and to place what would become some of the largest craft purchase orders in the world.

After Mr. Sam passed in April of 1992, the heart of Walmart kept beating. David Glass, Don Soderquist, Bill Fields, and an incredible leadership team carried the mission forward. One day I would get a five a.m. call telling me to be at the hangar for store visits with David Glass. Another day I would be flying out after Thanksgiving to inspect new stores in Idaho and Utah, discovering merchandising surprises like towers of microwave ovens where they did not belong. I even had the chance to host a Saturday Morning Meeting, broadcast live to every store, unveiling the first officially approved Elvis Presley costume. Elvis did not make it, but an impersonator did and the crowd loved every minute.

Those years shaped me. I became a self-taught merchant, constantly searching for ways to make the experience better for stores, vendors, and shoppers. Some ideas were radical. Many stuck. Store traiting came along, and with it the ability to get the right products to the right stores. No more sleds in Florida or bathing suits in Minnesota in February. Technology was accelerating, new systems were arriving, and I never hesitated to walk into the senior vice president’s office when something did not work at the store level.

But slowly, the focus shifted. Merchandising gave way to margin chasing. Creativity became secondary to meeting numbers. Vendors were leaned on to fill the gaps. I knew my runway was shortening.

Leaving Walmart in May 1995, with no plan except a desire to be present for my newly blended family, felt like a risk. But within a week, vendors began calling. They pulled my husband aside and said, “You do not realize this, but Christine is one of the best merchants we have ever worked with.” It happened again. And again. Before long I had a full consulting business, and my Walmart assistant left to join me. Together we worked with vendors across multiple industries, developing products, packaging, and merchandising programs that solved real problems.

One of my biggest partnerships was with Paper Magic. Together we created the first blank paper program for the creative market, unknowingly getting ahead of what would become the explosion of scrapbooking and paper crafting. When the company was sold and smaller business units were cut, we were told to run with it. So we did.

We launched DMD Industries in our garage. Six years later we had four hundred fifty employees, two hundred fifty thousand square feet of facilities, and programs in every major craft and mass retailer. In 2002, the same year we hit twenty five million dollars in sales, we received an offer we could not refuse.

Those six years were electric. Everything Walmart had taught me, think big, ask why, never assume something cannot be done, I used daily. I pushed mills to make green paper when no one believed they would. I turned waste paper into one pound scrap packs that reduced landfill waste and became bestsellers. I refused to accept no from the tissue paper industry and ended up changing the way tissue was packaged worldwide. We tripled the number of packs that could fit in the same retail space and opened the door for new designs and new experiences.

During those years the internet was starting to show its potential, although it was out of reach financially for most small businesses. Still, I was curious. We dabbled where we could, AOL discs, early websites, early content, and I felt that spark of possibility.

After selling the company and exploring a few ventures, we found ourselves running Outdoor Water Solutions almost by accident. It gave me my first real taste of what it meant to build a brand, tell a story online, and watch how digital communication could reach people in completely new ways.

When our time there ended, I dove back into entrepreneurship. In 2009 we launched Canvas Corp, focused on the DIY and home market. The retail landscape had changed dramatically. Innovation was not valued the same way. Buyers were harder to reach, and knockoffs were everywhere. But online everything was different. I built our website, blog, and social channels and brought our brand to life digitally. Consumers loved it. Our online sales took off. And I learned firsthand how powerful the right online experience could be.

We sold Canvas Corp in 2019, and for the first time in decades I did not know what was next. Randy went on to help local businesses. I took time to explore. With a clear head and no pressure, I studied technology, watched trends, and looked for real opportunities.

And then it clicked.

While contemplating creating an online pet supplies shop I realized that current e-commerce sites would not allow me to create it the way I thought it need to be done.  Something built on the principles that shaped me from the start, merchandising, clarity, discovery, and an intuitive experience.

I began building. First a massive pet shop, using affiliates to avoid inventory and designing it as if it were a real store, one of everything, merchandised with intention. Then I added an office store. Then I connected the two. Then I realized what I had created, the first online shopping district, a digital shopping mall without walls, boundaries, or traditional limitations.

Why me? Because I learned merchandising from the greatest retailer in history. I lived through the birth of modern technology. I built, grew, and sold businesses from the garage up. And I never stopped asking the same questions Mr. Sam asked every day: how can this be better, how can we serve people better, how can we make the experience unforgettable?

That is the heart of this journey.

My passion, my experience, the team around me, and the possibilities ahead form the foundation of what comes next. A platform that gives new merchants a place to learn the trade. A system that invites innovation instead of stifling it. A structure that puts shoppers first and brings products and services together in ways that solve real problems.

I believe online shopping can be better. I believe merchandising matters more than algorithms. And I believe that with the right platform, the right vision, and the right team, we can build something that changes the way the world shops.

And we are only getting started.

Christine