The vendor, Walkenhorst’s, has been selling quarterly packages and special purchase items — such as food, appliances, clothing, music, and hygiene products — to incarcerated people in California for more than 40 years.
Many of its customers, however, know little about its history, which began in the 1960s when it was founded in Napa, California.
Prison folklore has it that the company was started by guards who worked for what was then the California Department of Corrections, but the company denies this story.
“Walkenhorst’s was not started and has never been run by corrections officers,” the company wrote in a letter for this story. “Walkenhorst’s is a family-owned company, currently operated by its third generation.”
Today, Walkenhorst’s has hundreds of employees across the United States where it does the bulk of its business. The company also provides products to Canada, Mexico, and other countries. It primarily sells products to federal and state prisons, and jails, “with few exceptions,” the company wrote.
“Stewart and Danny [Walkenhorst’s] started the prison portion of the company,” said Natalie Tovar, Walkenhorst’s representative, in an interview. “They knew someone who sold items to prisons. That person was retiring and asked if they wanted that business. That’s when Walkenhorst’s started doing business in prison. Today it’s their main business.”
Tovar visits all 34 of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation’s prisons. She said Walkenhorst’s started marketing to the incarcerated population in the 1980s. “We’re number one in all CDCR prisons,” she said. “We are the most consistent, and that’s the feedback I get from all the prisons.”
“As Walkenhorst’s is a family company, we genuinely care about our customers and the service they experience,” the company’s letter states. “We try to ensure that our customers receive their packages with their ordered items, quickly and efficiently and we think we excel at that.”
“Anyone can order a package from us,” said Tovar. “There’s a rule within CDCR that we can only hold a package for ten business days [before shipping].”
“One of the things I feel good about saying is that we have the best customer service,” said Tovar. “We have one call center. That’s in Sparks [Nevada].” We communicate well.”
Tovar said Walkenhorst’s competitors Access Secure and Union Supply are corporations, but, “This is a family — a business that has been passed down from generation to generation.”
According to incarcerated customers, Walkenhorst is the better choice. “Access is trash,” said Quinn Cory Martin, 43, incarcerated at San Quentin. “I ordered eleven promos, and they sold me everything at regular price. I only go to Access for Keefe coffee, the eight ounce Columbian freeze dried, in the red bag.” He said the company was out of that brand and sent him Folgers coffee as a substitute. “They never have stuff in stock.”
Several years ago Walkenhorst’s moved its operation and warehouse. “Walkenhorst’s relocated to Nevada in order to increase our selection of products for our customers,” the company wrote. “It was determined that Nevada was the best place from which to be able to provide our customers with that increased selection.”
“There’s no state income taxes in Nevada,” said Tovar. “The warehouse is bigger and nicer. It was built exclusively for Walkenhorst’s.” She said Access and Union also have warehouses in Sparks.
The pricing of packages always raises concern for the incarcerated. Many say Walkenhorst’s charges are “too high.”
Tovar explained that oftentimes the incarcerated compare Walkenhorst’s prices to its competitors’ promotional pricing. “Our dollar deals are a better comparison,” she said, adding, “Inflation has affected the prices we’re paying so we make the increase we’re seeing.” As a consumer herself, she said, “Items are going up for me too. [Incarcerated people] don’t see what I see in the supermarket. I get sticker shock.”
According to Tovar, a CDCR employee at California State Prison Calipatria did an independent study on the top three vendors’ pricing and compared some 100 random items. The finding, she said, was Walkenhorst’s prices turned out to be the lowest of the three. No details from that study were provided for this story.
Pricing aside, Walkenhorst’s is known by the incarcerated at San Quentin as the vendor that gives back to the community. The prison’s annual Day of Peace is where the giving is most noticeable. For years the company has contributed free bags of candy, chips, cookies and other treats to make the event enjoyable.
“I appreciate their service and what they do — coming out listening to us and sharing their stories,” said Messigh Perry-Garner, 30. He’s a member of San Quentin’s Inmate Advisory Council, a liaison group of incarcerated individuals that works between the prison administration and the prison population. “They’re very efficient in getting orders here,” he said. “They’re faster than their competitors, and you get what you order.”
“I’m happy a part of my job is to sponsor events and participate in them,” said Tovar. “We also sponsor Angel Tree,” an organization that sends gifts to children from their incarcerated parents, so the children feel like a parent is buying the gift. “Walkenhorst’s gives back because it’s a really good thing. It’s not just for business. It’s because we care.”
For Tovar, being able to sponsor Angel Tree was “a big deal,” she said. “Angel Tree sponsored me and my brother when we were kids. I think that’s important to the child. We’ve been doing that since Christmas 2014.”
The next event Tovar said Walkenhorst’s will sponsor is Get On The Bus, a program that takes children of the incarcerated to visit their parents in prison, free of charge.
“My dad was incarcerated here [at San Quentin],” said Tovar. “I also had two uncles [in prison]. That was in my teen-age years. I think in a lot of ways I get to do good things in the prison, so I feel a lot of purpose here. I thoroughly enjoy what I’m doing.”
Three years ago, Walkenhorst’s shared moments of uncertainty with other vendors when the Covid-19 pandemic swept the nation. “Walkenhorst’s was very affected by Covid, just like other businesses,” the company wrote. “One of our largest challenges during Covid was supply chain issues. Fortunately, our employees met the challenge.”
Walkenhorst’s wrote that it became difficult to receive different products for sale as many manufactures shut down and were no longer producing products. “This caused delays in Walkenhorst’s receiving products,” they wrote. Like many companies, they bounced back and thanked their staff. “We are proud of the amazing work our employees did.”
“Our competitors have gone through several reps since I started,” said Tovar. “California is my number one territory.”
Tovar also visits prisons in other states where Walkenhorst’s does business. “I visited ten prisons in Ohio last year, but at some point I’ve visited all 30 of the prisons in that state. If a prison is to be visited in the U.S., I’m going to go.”
For nearly a decade, Tovar has been Walkenhorst’s pillar inside the CDCR, where she meets with different prison administrations, and IAC members, “on all yards,” she said. For her, it’s about providing a valuable service to what is seemingly an invisible community.
“We also love to receive feedback from prisoners regarding the items that they would like us to provide,” Walkenhorst’s wrote. “As long as those suggested items meet the security requirements, we strive to add those items.”
There’s no longer a Napa, California office for Walkenhorst’s. “We closed that down completely,” said Tovar, who works from her home in California. She said the company has a warehouse in Ohio. “Josh Walkenhorst’s moved to Ohio with his family to take care of that warehouse.”
For nearly 60 years, Walkenhorst’s has been keeping its business in a family that today “provides approved items to many facilities across the country,” they wrote.
