South Carolina Business Review

Lowcountry S.C. entrepreneur scores 'golden ticket' from Walmart

By Mike Switzer

Published March 13, 2025 at 6:30 AM EDT

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Wendy Kushel, founder and chief growth officer at Wendala’s in Bluffton, S.C.

Out of 5,000 applicants who applied to the Walmart Open Call held at Walmart’s headquarters this past September, 700 brands were invited to present. Out of those 700 brands only 92 received a deal with Walmart, known as the coveted “Golden Ticket”. And that resulted in an order for 10,700 jars of our next guest’s proprietary hand scrub. Mike Switzer interviews Wendy Kushel, founder and chief growth officer at Wendala’s in Bluffton, S.C.

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Mike Switzer

After almost 20 years, Mike Switzer retired from Wells Fargo Securities in 2001 as Senior Vice President/Investment Officer and Certified Portfolio Manager. In 1999, he and his wife, Maggie, purchased and operated for eight years the Baskin Robbins ice cream store on Forest Drive in Columbia. They grew the store from a bottom-tier operation in the Baskin Robbins franchise system to one in the top 5% nationwide within three years, tripling sales along the way. While operating the ice cream store, Mike and Maggie received patents for a portable ice cream sink and fold-down sneezeguard they invented and in 2002 started Magnolia Carts, an ice cream cart manufacturing company, which they sold in 2013.

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