Storyline
Inside a bakery at a New Jersey Walmart, Melissa Fernandez assembles and decorates cakes. “The Cupcake Bouquets are number one right now. It’s the biggest seller,” said Fernandez. “So it’s twelve cupcakes set up to look like a flower bouquet.”
Across the country, cake decorators at the nation’s largest retailer collectively decorated more than a million cakes during the May and June graduation season.
Fernandez promotes her skills on social media. A TikTok of her making the cupcake bouquet has almost half a million views. Fernandez said, “Well, TikTok helps me to stay up to date. A lot of trends that I see on there, within that week or within that month, customers will come asking about it.”
The 6,200 Walmart cake decorators in the U.S. are the highest-paid non-managerial hourly workers in a typical Walmart store. There’s no sugar-coating the importance Walmart places on this part of its business, which drives sales, excitement and repeat customers.
“That’s one of the most important things, and that’s price point. Walmart has the best price point out of everybody else in the business,” said Michael DeMarco, Walmart coach at the North Bergen store.
The company says its custom cake business is currently increasing at double-digit percentages year to date.
“What we are seeing is the consumer entering into an era of “dups”—duplications—less expensive versions of the original,” said Marshal Cohen, Circana Chief Retail Advisor. “Walmart offering up decorated cakes that would normally cost hundreds of dollars, offering them up for a fraction of the price. And in many cases, they may be almost as good, or in the consumer’s mind, just as good as the original upper-end product.”
This article and video were provided by The Associated Press.
Script
[Walmart cake decorator Melissa Fernandez making a graduation cake]
[Red filling]
[Cake decorator making a Cupcake Bouquet]
Melissa Fernandez (interview): “The Cupcake Bouquet is our number one right now. It’s our biggest seller.”
[Cupcake Bouquet]
Melissa Fernandez (interview): “So it’s twelve cupcakes set up to look like a flower bouquet.”
[Fernandez putting on a hair net]
Melissa Fernandez (interview): “Well TikTok helps me to stay up to date. A lot of trends that I see on there, within that week or within that month, customers will come asking about it.”
[Fernandez making a graduation cake]
Melissa Fernandez (interview): “I make twenty-four dollars and forty-something cents.”
[Exterior of Walmart store]
[Walking video from outside to interior of Walmart]
[Cake display case]
Michael DeMarco (interview): “That’s one of the most important things and that’s price point. And Walmart has the best price point out of everybody else in the business.”
[Cupcake Bouquet]
Marshal Cohen (interview): “What we are seeing is the consumer entering into an era of ‘dups’ – duplications – less expensive versions of the original. Walmart offering up decorated cakes that would normally cost hundreds of dollars, offering them up for a fraction of the price.”
[Cupcake Bouquet being decorated]
Marshal Cohen (interview): “And in many cases they may be almost as good, or in the consumer’s mind, just as good as the original upper end product.”
[Fernandez writing on a cake]
[Fernandez handing a cake to customer George Arango]
George Arango (interview): “Oh the price is fantastic. I’m walking in and out with two cakes for forty dollars.”
[Fernandez decorating a cake]
Marshal Cohen (interview): “The question always comes up when a large retailer starts to enter into, we’ve certainly seen this with online retailers, big box retailers, warehouse clubs. The challenge always is, you know, are they knocking out the local merchant? And what we’ve learned over time is no, the local merchants has the ability to be able to service the customer in a different way. But what we are seeing is this is creating almost like a new found opportunity for those that have a skill set that are artistic and have the ability to be able to now find a home to put that.”
[Fernandez making a cake]
This script was provided by The Associated Press.
