Want a peek behind the scenes of how your pancakes get more protein, your coffee stays responsibly sourced, and your receipt keeps shrinking? We sit down with Walmart VP Tasha Tandy, once a third-degree black belt and small business owner, who now leads Breakfast, Baking, and Commodities, to explore how discipline, empathy, and smart partnerships turn shelves and screens into real customer value.
We talk through the nuts and bolts of price leadership and why “better-for-you” shouldn’t cost more. Tasha explains the surge in functional eating, protein, and fiber inclusion, and the clean label movement reshaping the ambient grocery. She shares how her team co-creates exclusives with suppliers, uses multi-sourcing to protect availability, and designs products for the right channel from day one, whether that’s a digital shelf, a fulfillment center, or a local store for same-day pickup. The holiday “Bake Center” takes center stage as a seasonal playground for flavors like pumpkin and peppermint, paired with operational rigor to keep millions of cans, mixes, and turkeys moving efficiently.
We also dive into responsible sourcing with a timely look at coffee. With crop pressures elevating prices, Tasha outlines how Walmart and Sam’s Club leverage scale to secure supply while protecting farmers through transparent, ethical sourcing. Throughout, the throughline is culture: people-led and tech-powered, grounded in listening to operators and customers, and focused on building trust through consistent prices and relevant products. You’ll come away with an insider’s view of how merchandising decisions get made, and how a martial arts mindset helps teams persevere, iterate, and deliver.
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More About this Episode
From the Dojo to the Aisles: How Walmart VP Tasha Tandy Brings Discipline, Innovation, and Purpose to Grocery Retail
When you think about the beating heart of retail innovation, strategy, and customer focus, you may not immediately imagine a third-degree black belt shaping Walmart’s grocery shelves. But that’s exactly what Tasha Tandy brings to the table. As Vice President of Merchandising for Breakfast, Baking, and Commodities at Walmart, Tasha leads with a discipline forged in martial arts and a purpose rooted in customer impact.
Her journey, from martial arts instructor and small business owner to merchandising leader at the world’s largest retailer, is more than a personal success story. It’s a testament to how values like perseverance, integrity, and service can translate across industries and define leadership in even the most complex retail ecosystems.
Let’s take a deeper look at the strategic and human-centered approach Tasha brings to Walmart, and how her work is influencing both the aisles you walk and the digital shelves you scroll.
Solving Customer Problems, One Aisle at a Time
At the core of Tasha’s role is a guiding principle that sounds deceptively simple: solve customer problems.
Her purview, breakfast, baking, and commodities, covers a substantial portion of the grocery footprint in any Walmart store. We’re talking cereal, coffee, tea, spices, shelf-stable cheese, canned vegetables and fruit, baking mixes, sweeteners, oils, and much more. It’s a massive assortment that touches everyday lives in tangible, meaningful ways.
But it’s not just about managing product categories. For Tasha, it’s about improving the quality of life for millions of customers, helping them afford healthier food, feed their families more efficiently, and enjoy a little indulgence without breaking the bank. And that customer-first mindset is echoed across her team and Walmart’s broader culture.
“We’re human beings serving other human beings. When you keep that top of mind, the work becomes not just a job, but a responsibility,” Tasha explains.
From Small Business Roots to Walmart's Scale
Tasha’s entry into Walmart was anything but traditional. She started as an hourly associate and worked her way through various roles, including buyer’s assistant, store planner, process strategist, and analytics lead, before landing in her current merchandising position.
Before all that? She was running a martial arts school, teaching students perseverance, focus, and leadership while managing the day-to-day operations of a small business.
It turns out that experience was an ideal training ground for her career at Walmart.
Running a Walmart product line, especially one as broad as breakfast, baking, and commodities, is, in many ways, running a small business at scale. You manage profitability, work with supplier partners (many of them small businesses themselves), adapt to evolving customer needs, and constantly innovate to stay ahead of the curve.
“Two-thirds of the suppliers we interact with are small businesses. That alignment, coming from small business and now helping support them at scale, is a full-circle moment for me,” she shares.
Clean Label, Functional Eating, and the Future of Food
One of the biggest shifts in food retail today is the increased customer demand for clean label and functional foods. That means products made with ingredients you can pronounce, with added nutritional benefits like protein and fiber, and without the steep price tag often associated with "better-for-you" foods.
This is a space Tasha and her team are laser-focused on.
“Customers want clean labels, but they also want products that taste great and don’t cost more just because they’re healthier. Our job is to make that possible,” she explains.
Tasha sees trends like protein-enriched baking mixes, low-carb breakfast staples, and fiber-enhanced snacks not just as market shifts but as opportunities to create value. Her team works with suppliers to co-develop exclusive products that meet these needs, delivering innovation while maintaining Walmart’s commitment to everyday low prices.
That’s where merchandising meets mission.
The Intersection of Physical and Digital Retail
As Walmart continues its evolution into an omnichannel powerhouse, merchandising leaders like Tasha are at the frontlines of redefining how product strategy supports customer experience, both in stores and online.
A major challenge? Shifting the mindset of suppliers and internal teams who are used to thinking in terms of physical shelf space first.
“We have to stop thinking shelf-first and start thinking customer-first,” Tasha says. “Sometimes the right place for a product isn’t on a store shelf, it’s on a digital shelf, fulfilled from a warehouse, or shipped directly to the customer’s door in a day.”
This shift allows Walmart to carry broader assortments, test emerging trends faster, and serve niche dietary or lifestyle needs without being constrained by physical store space.
Digital shelves also help democratize access to specialty products that might not have enough national velocity to earn a spot in every store, but that still matter deeply to a subset of customers.
Partnering with Suppliers for Innovation and Impact
Tasha’s role is as much about building supplier relationships as it is about building the right assortment. Collaboration is key, especially when developing exclusive products or sourcing core commodities like sugar, flour, or canned vegetables.
But this isn’t just about efficiency or economics. It’s about ethical, sustainable sourcing that supports global farming communities and ensures long-term supply resilience.
She points to coffee sourcing as a powerful example.
“We have to think about where that coffee is coming from, how farmers are treated, and whether we’re investing back into the supply chain. Responsible sourcing isn’t just a nice-to-have; it’s critical to long-term success and trust.”
This collaborative approach creates a win-win: Walmart delivers consistent quality at scale, suppliers gain national exposure and volume, and customers get trusted products that align with their values.
Leading with Culture, Not Just Strategy
Walmart’s size and scale are unmatched, but Tasha believes it’s the culture that truly sets the company apart. She describes Walmart as a place where leadership is defined by how well you listen, empower others, and stay anchored to the customer.
She embodies that in her leadership style, meeting with her team regularly, seeking feedback from store operators, and mentoring the next generation of merchant talent.
“I’m here because great leaders saw something in me before I saw it in myself. Now it’s my turn to pay that forward.”
That ethos ties directly back to the legacy of Sam Walton. As someone who worked with Mr. Walton directly, host Andy Wilson recognized in Tasha the same commitment to servant leadership, agility, and humility that built Walmart’s foundation.
“Sam always said the key was to inspire people. Tasha, you’re doing that every day.”
Retail as a Force for Good
At its best, retail can change lives, not just through access or affordability, but through jobs, development, and community impact. Tasha lives this reality. From managing inflationary pressures and keeping prices low to designing clean-label assortments and sourcing responsibly, her work ripples across the global food economy.
But for her, it’s all rooted in one thing: solving real problems for real people.
That’s the future of food retail, and it’s being shaped in Bentonville, aisle by aisle, by leaders like Tasha Tandy.
