Linda’s Salsa can already be found on shelves in several area grocery stores, as well as stores ranging three states.Made by Monmouth woman Linda Putnam, right in the Maple City, the line of salsas has grown in popularity, as Putnam tells WGIL sales have tripled in the last year and a half.
Until now though Linda’s salsas have never been featured in what could be considered the motherload of retail stores; Wal-Mart.
“I guess I’m still in a lot of awe. It hasn’t hit me yet,” Putnam says. “You know, Wal-Mart’s a big thing and the potential there is, there’s a lot of potential there but we just plug away everyday and do like we’re doing.”
Amazingly, Putnam only has one other person working in her business, with another woman that assists part-time.
There’s so much more to the business than making than salsa says Putnam, from selling, managing, promoting and perfecting the product’s appearance.
She also has been given plenty of advice from Jim Boyd with the Small Business Development Center out of Macomb.
Boyd says that getting into Wal-Mart represents the next step for Linda’s business.
“She now will have to make a lot more business decisions as opposed to product decisions and how I make it and I’m going to launch a new product or how I market it this way,” Boyd says.
He says with Wal-Mart while there is increased exposure and larger order volumes, the big box retailer takes more decisions out of manufacturers’ like Linda’s hands.
