Walmart cake decorators see top hourly pay as business thrives during graduation season

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 was provided by The Associated Press.