St. George family’s Squatty Potty to be sold in Wal-Mart stores

The Squatty Potty will be sold in Wal-Mart stores starting in November, undated | Image courtesy of Squatty Potty, St. George News

ST. GEORGE — The creators of the locally invented Squatty Potty hope to change the way America poops, and after landing a deal to sell their product in Wal-Mart stores, they believe they are one step closer to helping more people efficiently clear their colons.

The Squatty Potty continues its success story with its inclusion in Wal-Mart’s U.S. Manufacturing Commitment, a recent initiative to invest $250 billion into domestically produced products by 2023.

Billed as a health product, the Squatty Potty is a stool that allows for a more natural position during elimination on the toilet. It will be available in approximately 300 Wal-Mart stores starting in November.

Squatty Potty manufactured in Leeds, Utah, undated | Photo courtesy of Squatty Potty, St. George News
The Squatty Potty will be sold in Wal-Mart stores in November, undated | Photo courtesy of Squatty Potty, St. George News

Company CEO Bobby Edwards co-created the Squattty Potty with his parents, Bill and Judy Edwards. The St. George family came up with the idea when Judy Edwards was struggling with colon issues, eventually determining her problems with elimination were largely a matter of positioning the body correctly while using the toilet.

There was no product readily available to address this issue, so the Edwards went about producing the Squatty Potty for sale. The family started production in their own garage in 2010 and has watched the company grow substantially since then.

Representatives from Squatty Potty participated in Wal-Mart’s Open Call for U.S. products, a daylong event at the retail giant’s headquarters in Arkansas looking for “Made in the U.S.A” products.

After starting out with an online-only presence, Squatty Potty’s move into brick and mortar retail stores was a slow process in the beginning.

“We had a lot of success early online,” Edwards said. “We sold a lot of Squatty Potties through Amazon or through our squattypotty.com website, but we were really having a hard time getting into retail.”

As the company initially pitched the product to retailers, Edwards said they misunderstood the product as a fad or gimmick.

A major breakthrough came when the product was accepted to be sold at Bed Bath & Beyond stores.

“It sells really well in Bed Bath (& Beyond),” Edwards said. “At times we’re the No. 1 selling product.”

From there, the floodgates opened, and Squatty Potty is now sold in an array of retailers, including Target, Lowe’s Home Improvement, Kroger stores, Ace Hardware and the Utah-based Harmons Neighborhood Grocer stores.

Edwards said he realized it was just a matter of time before Squatty Potty would become available in the country’s largest retailer.

“Part of our mission is to change the way America poops,” he said, “and that means reaching everyone.”

Landing in Wal-Mart stores would be a huge step toward reaching more people, he said.

The crux of the Wal-Mart deal laid in the fact that the product is produced in the United States. That was no problem for Edwards, who said any Squatty Potty products sold domestically are produced domestically. Some manufacturing occurs in Canada, but that is for products to be shipped and sold internationally, he said.

Two facilities operate in Utah: in Leeds and Logan. The company employs 21 people in the Southern Utah area.

“We do have some competitors out there that are not made domestically, and I think that really gives us an edge with competition,” Edwards said. “Americans like American-made (products), especially when it can be made as cheaply in America.”

“You’re looking at a lot of manufacturing being moved back because China’s not competitive.”

The turnaround time on production is another benefit to domestic production, Edwards said. Products can be delivered in one week versus 11 for international production.

“We don’t have plans to move everything to China. We intend to stay here.”

Email: [email protected]

Twitter: @STGnews

Copyright St. George News, SaintGeorgeUtah.com LLC, 2016, all rights reserved.

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8 Comments

  • Brian October 10, 2016 at 9:19 am

    This is the beginning of “the end” for Squatty Potty (pun intended). Doing business with Walmart is a race to “the bottom” (pun intended).

    Here is the Walmart playbook:
    1. They’ll squeeze you to death on price, from day 1, and continue until you have almost no profit left.
    2. They’ll insist on seeing your books and micromanaging your business to see if they can squeeze out anything else from anywhere else in your supply chain. It will be brutal.
    3. They’ll threaten to make a competing product themselves if you don’t lower your prices further and put pressure on you to move all of your operations to China (pronounced “Jina”, for you Trump sheep).
    4. You move your operations to China and they squeeze you again anyway. You rue the day you ever did business with them.

    Soooo many US products, companies, and entire industries have met the same fate. Walmart is a wormhole that carries crap from China to the US, and jobs and money from the US to China. I avoid giving any money to Walmart unless I have no other options.

    • Bob October 10, 2016 at 5:16 pm

      blah blah blah. the owners of that company will likely become very wealthy. The product quality will likely go way down

      • .... October 10, 2016 at 11:51 pm

        Blah blah blah blah and Blah blah blah blah and Blah blah blah blah blah and Blah blah blah blah and blah blah blah blah …

    • .... October 11, 2016 at 7:42 am

      Hey Brian. Have Bob tell you about his claim that the United States Government owns big pharma. LOL !

  • old school October 10, 2016 at 10:54 am

    A direct steal of Allen Harper’s “Poop Stool” made famous in television series “Two and A Half men”. I’d like to know what “research”, or scientific basis the company used to come up with this “brilliant” product. Retailer interert is likley in anticipation of the upcoming Holiday shopping freenzy that made millionaires out of creators of the “Bumper Dumper” and “Pet Rock”, though probably should try and get some national coverage first, by soliciting one of the talk shows like Kelly Live, Dr Oz, Jimmy Fallon, OR, maybe “Ballon Boy” can take it for a ride around the block!!!

  • Bob October 10, 2016 at 5:18 pm

    seems a step stool or couple blocks of wood will do just as well. If you’re dependent on such a contraption try putting more fiber in your diet.

    • .... October 11, 2016 at 7:40 am

      Well I’m sure that works for you considering you just walk out to your outhouse.

  • Common Sense October 13, 2016 at 7:09 am

    This is a local company and a local product and you all are literally dumping on them. That’s messed up. I actually bought one for my husband. It has pros and cons. I support our local entrepreneur and our community. (Mainly by not shopping at Walmart)

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