The Wall Street Journal's Startup Journal site has a really interesting look at how difficult it is for a vendor to get their product sold at Wal-Mart. The article follows two young men as they try to sell Wal-Mart buyers on their invention, an ergonomic pen that many independent retailers had already accepted. To put just how hard it is to get on Wal-Mart shelves into perspective, out of the 10,000 vendors last year who tried, only 200 succeeded. Hate it or loathe it, Wal-Mart remains a very visible and lucrative place for many products, and the competition to get in is quite fierce.