In the age of personalization, Walmart is taking advantage with its bakery business, which rings up about $3 million a week from cakes decorated in its U.S. stores. The cake decorators also earn more on average than other store workers.
“We decorate on average 150,000 cakes a week across our U.S. stores, and it increases around graduation season when we sell more than 1 million cakes decorated for customers,” said Kaylee Lukis, corporate spokeswoman with Walmart.
Jamie Rhine and Deborah Henderson work full time at Walmart Store No. 359 in Fayetteville as cake decorators. Henderson joined Walmart four years ago but transferred to the bakery in the past 18 months. Rhine was a stay-at-home mom with three kids before she joined Walmart as a cake decorator a year ago.
The cake decorator job at Walmart is the highest-paying, non-management position in a supercenter. Average pay for a cake decorator at Walmart is $19.25 per hour, compared to $18.25 for all non-managerial store workers, the company said. Hourly pay also varies by state, ranging from $17 to $30 in Northwest Arkansas, according to Indeed.com. Walmart said the pay is higher for this position because of the skill level needed.
The duo starts their typical day around 6 to 7 a.m., and they work an eight-hour shift. They don a hairnet and apron, wash their hands, and then put on plastic gloves before they check the orders in the system.
Walmart allows shoppers to order custom cakes online through the mobile app or website. The customer also gives the time and date the cake will be picked up. Henderson, who starts her shift a little before Rhine, said they typically sort out the orders according to the time they are due and then decide who wants to work on what order.
“At this point, we are both so accustomed to everything that it really does not matter what design it is,” Henderson said. “But if there is anything that one of us is really good at, then we will discuss it. We focus on what the customers want and work from photos, Pinterest and so on.”
TRAINING, FLEXIBILITY
Rhine said she had no formal cake decorating experience, but she did the Walmart computer training modules and worked with a decorator in-store to practice flower techniques and other creative frosting crafts.
“Walmart really took a chance on me for sure,” Rhine said. “But I love it, and it’s been a great fit for me. I am active on TikTok, where I share my cakes, and I love the creative aspect of this job.”
Henderson said she had a soft spot for cakes, remembering all the care her mom would take on her birthday to make and decorate the perfect cake.
“We did not have a lot of money, so my mom always made and decorated our birthday cakes,” Henderson said. “And it was ingrained in me. I decorated my first cake at 10. I was so excited even though it was a simple design with grapes all over it. I did it by myself, and I was very proud of it.”
Like Rhine, Henderson had no formal training but learned the craft on the job following the company training and working with another decorator.
They do their decorating on a stainless steel workstation located front and center of the bakery counter where they also can help customers while they work. During the morning that the Northwest Arkansas Business Journal job shadowed the decorators, several customers stopped to ask questions. One lady grabbed a cookie cake from the display near the counter and asked Rhine if she could personalize it for a co-worker who was retiring that day.
Rhine was in the midst of decorating a two-layer heart-shaped tailgate cake in Arkansas Razorback colors. She took the cookie cake and asked the customer about the message and the desired frosting color. She then grabbed her black frosting bag with the right tip for lettering. In just a few seconds, Rhine had personalized the cookie cake to the customer’s satisfaction, and the customer was on her way.
Rhine then returned to the Razorback cake. She cut the heart shapes for the cake with a large stainless steel cutter. She said the cutter is new and makes it much easier to cut uniform cakes for stacking. The excess cake she did not use in her design went into the compost bin.
Henderson and Rhine do not bake the cakes they decorate. Walmart purchases the cakes, cookies, filling and frosting from third-party suppliers. Cakes are kept frozen in the bakery. Each morning, they take out the cakes they are going to work with that day and place them in the cooler.
CAKE OPTIONS
The decorators said one question they get often is about the cake flavors. The choices for the custom cakes are limited to white, yellow, chocolate or marble — chocolate and white combo. Filling choices are strawberry or Bavarian cream.
The frosting comes in gallon-size tubs in basic colors and can be mixed by the decorators for customers’ hues. Frosting choices are whipped or buttercream. Henderson and Rhine said they prefer the buttercream frosting because it holds its shape better and is easier to work with. That said, they understand the whipped frosting has less sugar and is a popular choice for moms ordering kids’ birthday cakes.
Henderson said sheet cakes and cupcakes are popular for kids’ parties, and a custom-decorated cake to serve 12 costs under $20. A new popular confection is a cupcake bouquet that includes a dozen cupcakes arranged in a floral bouquet.
Henderson was working on a Halloween bouquet from the design catalog the bakery receives from Walmart’s corporate office each season. The catalog describes the details for how to achieve each custom design. The cupcake bouquets also ring up just under $20 and can serve as a table decoration and dessert.
Henderson unfolded the bouquet form and added 12 vanilla cupcakes to the cardboard form. She said when the bouquets came out in May, they were so popular bakeries could not keep the bouquet forms in stock.
‘A PERSONAL MEANING’
Each decorator works with a turntable for their cake, which makes it easy to spin for consistent icing flow. Henderson was busy frosting cupcakes, decorating each one with different flowers in a Halloween theme. She filled in the gaps between the cupcakes with frosting and added plastic rings in the shapes of ghosts and pumpkins.
She finished the design with sprinkles and edible glitter spray. It took her less than 30 minutes to complete the intricate bouquet design.
Rhine was busy with the tailgate cake, stacking layers and smoothing vanilla frosting. She added fancy borders in red and black around the edges of the top, bottom and middle of the cake. She changed out the frosting tips several times to create a more custom look. She placed a plastic football on top of the cake and gave it some shimmer with the edible spray. Her custom design also took less than 30 minutes from start to finish.
The duo said during busy weeks they will decorate about 60 cakes. Their shift is not just about decorating custom cakes, it also includes restocking bakery items outside the bakery counter, such as cupcakes, ice cream cakes and cookie cakes. They also wash their utensils and clean up their workspace at the end of their shift.
“I love this job because cakes have a personal meaning to our customers,” Henderson said. “When a kid brings in a crayon sketch of a design he or she wants, and I can try my best to bring it to life on a cake, that is a great feeling. I had a customer who wanted a cake to celebrate his wife, whom he recently lost. He shared so many details about her that I was able to create the perfect tribute to her life.”
Rhine said customers will bring in photo albums of parties, weddings and other celebrations they enjoyed with cakes from the Walmart bakery.
“We get to share in their special days, and that is a great feeling,” Rhine said.
Editor’s note: The Supply Side section[1] of Talk Business & Politics focuses on the companies, organizations, issues and individuals engaged in providing products and services to retailers. The Supply Side is managed by Talk Business & Politics, and is sponsored by HRG[2].
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