New York (AP) – In a Walmart store in New Jersey, a worker puts the final touch a cake With a sponge of edible ink Bob on the top. A colleague creates a buttercream Bordeau de Rosette for a different cake, while another colleague frost a level of what will be a triple bridge dessert.
It is graduation seasonThe busiest period of the year for the 6,200 employees the largest retailer in the country Trained in hand cakes compared to customer orders. The cakes themselves come, pre-fabricated, frozen and in a variety of shapes and sizes, suppliers, not bakeries in the Walmart store.
But there is no sugar sugar the importance that the company gives in its company personalized cake. His army of cherry craftsmen is the best paid Schedule workers In a typical American Walmart, excluding managers. Cake decorators earn an average of $ 19.25, compared to $ 18.25 for all non-managerial store workers, a company spokesman said.
Melissa Fernandez, 36, started working in the electronics area, then in the Walmart wireless services to North Bergen, New Jersey, before transferring to the cold meats in search of better salary. But Fernandez had an eye on a work of decoration of cakes and after spending two months to train by a store colleague, she picked up a full -time piping bag in 2021.
“I love to cook at home. I love painting,” said Fernandez. “I love doing something artistic, and I always wanted to be part of it.” After 11 years with Walmart, she said that she now won about $ 24.40 an hour.
Despite their Elite status in WalmartThe retailer’s cake decorators attracted detractors on social networks. Business Promote its personalized bakery products on Tiktok and encourage workers behind such creations to do the same. Critics accused Walmart decorators of stealing ideas and undermining the work of professional cake artists with their low prices.
After Tiktok, the videos praising $ 25 heart -shaped cakes from Walmart with borders that look like a vintage surprise lace before Valentine’s Day This year, a few bakes produced their own videos explaining why their cakes cost much more and criticizing those of Walmart.
The debates followed in the comments sections to find out if Walmart represented the evils of capitalism or met the needs of the masses.
A personalized leaf cake that can be cut to serve 96 people costs $ 59 at Walmart, about a third at half the price that a sample at the national level of Independent bakeries Online list for similar size cakes. For $ 5.20 more, Walmart customers can add strawberry or “Bavarian cream” topics which, like bare cakes, are provided by the supplier.
The tranche of the cake market for the celebration that Walmart holds vast based on figures provided by the company. According to a company spokesperson, one of the four out of four cakes in the United States comes from Walmart, and its employees will collectively decorate more than a million cakes in May and June.
The number of cakes decorated every day where Fernandez works almost 50-60 when school graduates Come, compared to 30-35 per day for the rest of the year, said Michael Demarco, director of the store of the store’s fresh food. It attributes the talent of decorators and promotional efforts on Tiktok.
“We get a lot of regular customers. We do much more business because of viral sensations,” said Demarco.
A tiktok video This has shown that Fernandez designs a $ 24 version of a personalized bouquet cake – 12 cupcakes that are individually decorated and arranged to look like a bouquet of flowers – received almost half a million views. Bouquet design was one of the most popular cakes in the North Bergen store last month, a company spokesperson said.
Damped heart-shaped cakes, as well as cakes that look like meals like sushi or a bunch of spaghetti and meatballs, are also popular, she said. Fernandez has also created “burning” cakes: an icy cake surmounted by an image printed on paper, which is set to reveal a different image below.
“Tiktok helps me stay up to date,” she said. “Lots of trends I see there, during this week or in this month, customers will come on this subject. And we are also up to date.”
Jazzing A hand cake requires skills, whether or not someone has cooked, she said. Founding the butter frosting through a bag and various spikes of piping to give the desired design without poorly placed stains is not the same thing as drawing or painting, explained Fernandez.
“There are a lot of pressure points that you need to practice so that the borders are correct and the right thickness or the right texture,” she said.
Tiffany Witzke, who has been a Walmart cake decorator since July 2016 and works in a Springfield store, Missouri, has more than 912,000 subscribers on Tiktok. The work attracts people who “can be extremely qualified and talented,” said Witzke, adding that customers want more and more complicated conceptions.
“When I started, it was just borders and writing,” she said. “Now everyone wants more and more on their cake.”
Liz Berman, owner of The sleeping baker, In Natick, Massachusetts, said that she was not worried about losing customers against Walmart because of her attention to details and the premium ingredients she uses.
It charges $ 205 and more for a half -size leaf cake, the bouquets made up of two dozen miniature cupcakes cost $ 110. All the cakes are made from zero, and Berman said that she designs everything herself.
“It’s just a completely different business model,” she said. “All I do is custom.”
For Walmart, the cake decoration company offers higher beneficiary margins than certain other areas, such as grocery store and electronics, according to Marshal Cohen, chief advisor to the market company Circana. But it also resonates with buyers looking for affordable luxuries.
“We entered a period when the consumer says:” It’s quite good “,” said Cohen.
The customers interviewed at the North Bergen store a recent weekday seemed to be satisfied. George Arango, 34, picked up two personalized cakes, one to celebrate a colleague’s retirement and the other for a colleague to obtain another job. After looking for prices on various stores in stores, he decided to try Walmart.
“The price is fantastic,” he said. “I’m going to go out with two cakes for $ 40.”
