In a Walmart store in New Jersey, USA, decorators are using edible ink to draw SpongeBob patterns on cakes, while another person is using cream to create rose borders. Another employee is frosting a three-tier cake.
According to the Associated Press, graduation season is the busiest time for Walmart cake orders, and the largest retailer in the US has trained 6,200 professional cake decorators to meet the demand.
While the cakes themselves come from external suppliers and are pre-frozen, not baked on-site in the store, Walmart’s emphasis on custom cakes is evident. The company claims that cake decorators have the highest hourly wage among non-management positions, averaging $19.25, higher than the general Walmart employees’ $18.25.
Melissa Fernandez, 36, transitioned from the electronics department to the deli section and eventually became a full-time cake decorator. She says she loves art and baking. After two months of training in the store, she officially started in 2021, and now earns $24.40 per hour.
Walmart actively promotes cake decorating designs on social media, and decorators also share their work through personal accounts, attracting a lot of attention. However, this has also led to some professional bakers criticizing Walmart for undercutting prices and copying designs. For example, before Valentine’s Day this year, Walmart launched a $25 lace heart-shaped cake, which sparked controversy over pricing and creative sources after it went viral online.
Nevertheless, Walmart still holds a steady one-fourth share of cake sales in the US. It is expected that over 1 million custom cakes will be made by the company’s employees from May to June alone. In Fernandez’s store, the daily decorated cake count during graduation season has doubled from the usual 30-35 to about 60.
Fernandez’s $24 “Bouquet Cake” attracted nearly 500,000 views from netizens. She is also skilled at making popular themed cakes like heart shapes, sushi, spaghetti shapes, and fire to ice transformations. She says social media helps her keep up with trends, and customers also make requests willingly.
“It’s not just drawing.,” she says, “To accurately squeeze out the cream edges, you need to practice controlling pressure points to achieve the perfect balance of thickness and texture.”
According to Marshal Cohen, an analyst at market research firm Circana, the cake decorating business has higher profit margins compared to grocery or electronics, catering to consumers’ desire for “affordable indulgence.”
Recently, customers interviewed at the North Bergen store seemed very satisfied with the products. George Arango, 34, chose two custom cakes to celebrate a colleague’s retirement and another colleague finding a new job. After comparing prices on various store websites, he decided to try Walmart.
“The price is amazing.,” he says. “I spent $40 on two cakes.”