**What does YOUR walmart charge for a full sheet?!?!** - Page 4

mmdd

I think that we all once worried about Costco and Walmart prices at one time or another.
Please do not try and get hung up on suppermarket or superstore prices!! they are NOT your competition!
Those guys can charge ROCK BOTTOM because their ingredients- foam and add water plus their labor ( DEAR I SAY SWEAT- SWEAT!) labor is different.

Let her go to Walmart and save yourself the head of trying to provide her with the stuff that you and I ( & others on this cite) can identify!
Your (our) PRODUCT IS a HOMEMADE product with REAL INGREDIENTS and some level of LOVE. Can these guys say THAT!

I THINK NOT!

Don't let her scare you, allow her to make room for someone else who could appreicate your talent and skills

I'm sorry I forgot to anwser the question - I DON'T CARE (anymore) what they charge

Good to know about that icing that doesn't melt! MMDD it must be wonderful to be able to bless those people in that way! I find that those are the friends that spread the word about your cakes the most because the actually appreciate your efforts and what you put into them (besides the ingredients). Good for you MMDD. and about the question..I don't care either, I just cake snoop every once and a while. If they handed out samples like they do other products, they would loose customers BEFORE people spent their $$$'s

Don't worry, you didn't offend me. I really hesitated taking this job, but money is money and you do what you have to do to pay the bills

I'm going to take those dec. classes just to get something out of the job

Unfortunately, I've done such a good job there that after a month they offered me a Jr. Mgmt position with double my pay that I can't help but stay there for awhile. Maybe I'll make enough to open my own bakery, but until then I'll hide my disdain and snickers under my breath while I give them a half hearted job of decorating (definately not my best works)

Barb

In my brochure I state that you can "buy" a cake anywhere, if you want a imaginative creation, I'm your gal. People are always commenting that they love my cakes because they don't taste or look like "store bought" ones. I take that to include "Wal Mart"!

I live in Ky, and I order my cakes from walmart all the time. For a single mother they are pretty much the only cakes I can afford. I like their cakes. My family has always ordered cakes from them and I have never heard anything bad about them til now.

I'm from Lima, OH. ,around 35.00 to 40.00. I charge $50.00 for my full sheet cakes. I let my customers know that my cakes are fresh to order. You really have to price your cakes in your area. Just call others decorators and ask how much they charge for their cakes. I price my cakes base on Walmart, Meijers, and Rays supermarket. 3d cakes a little more. But you got to understand, people in my area is not willing to spend alot of money for cakes, that why they go to Walmart. I was told before, that a person will used their government card to buy a cake from Walmart.

Didn't read all the posts, but a full sheet from me (18x24x3") the feeds 100 people is $350. No, I don't have me decimal in the wrong spot . IDK what my Walmart charges, I'll have to find out and report back.

Umm, yeah, like a very popular type of frosting that is made by many here. I tried making it once and cleaning it up was just grossing me out.

One thing to keep in mind, is that stores like Walmart don't need to make money off every item they sell you. Unless there is laws to protect prices ( like milk and such ), they are allowed to mark down that stuff to a loss if they feel like it.

They can make a loss or very little money on a cake because the client, once they bought that cake, will go around the store to pick out more stuff to put on that cake like candles, party hats, napkins and whatnot. Then they might even get stuff they wouldn't have bought have they not been in there in the first place.

That's where they recoup the money from the cake. And it would be interesting to see how long the ingredient list on their cakes is and how many of those ingrediends you really understand if icing doesn't need to be refrigerated. You get what you pay for.

One thing that a lot of people do not know about grocery store cakes is that they do NOT make any money on them. That is how they can sell them so cheap. Their goal is to get people in the store to buy things that do make them money. Most likely, if you are buying a cake at Walmart or Kroger or any grocery store, you are also shopping for your groceries there. That is where they make their money, not on their cakes.

I don't try to compete with the grocery stores. I have a lot of people turn me down on price, but that's okay.

Warning! Climbing on my soapbox: At the risk of being crushed by the "opposing" viewpoints, I agree with the post above. I like WalMart cakes and love Costco cakes. I think they taste just fine. I think for most parties, they look just fine. And....of course I love their pricing.
I recently agreed to bring the cake to a dear nephew's birthday party. Well...I got sick, so I gave his mom a $20 bill and told her to get a cake from Costco. No regret, no worries, no problem. No one at the party cared that it was a Costco cake, not one of my custom cakes.

When I began this cake decorating hobby nearly 3 years ago, I had ZERO idea of the money and time needed to produce "custom" cakes at home. Since I am retired and do not plan on doing cakes for sale (also not legal in my State), cake decorating provides a world of fun things to try. It is a blast! It is also quite expensive and time consuming. BUT--it's my Hobby. (All hobbies are expensive and time consuming: golf, deep sea fishing, refurbishing old cars, etc.)

Until the age of 56, I had NEVER tasted a "custom" cake from an "expensive" bakery. We got cakes from local bakeries and grocery stores, or the cake was made at home. Now my family and friends (who receive free or nearly free cakes.....) love MY cakes and don't want the "other ones". They have been officially spoiled. However, spoiled or not, if they agree to bring a birthday cake to a kid's party or a work function (and I don't wish to make it for fun/practice), they will bring a cake from Costco (1st choice), or Walmart.

Just because WE know the time and effort and care and angst that goes into a custom cake, doesn't mean that the other frozen ones are "bad", just that ours can be better.

OK, climbing down off soapbox now.

i just had the same comment from someone wanting a cake...stick to your guns and do them for YOUR price...if they don't like it they can go to walmart and get a mass produced box cake.....my experience with them before starting my own is that they never looked the way i wanted! being a cake decorator myself i know how much time and materials it takes to make a cake and if they don't like the price then send them to walmart!

I worked at a Walmart bakery for 4 years. They run at a loss 90% of the time. The goal is to get you in for the cake and then you will buy the ice cream, forks, napkins, soda and chips there. They are DESIGNED to run at a loss. We were at a loss 9-10 months out of the year (except for grad season), and we never got in trouble for it because that was the expectation. And yes, they get cakes that were baked in their cardboard boxes that they come in. BAKED in the cardboard and sealed with plastic wrap. The cupcakes came in by the flat, the wedding cakes were ordered in white or chocolate. The icings were ordered in tubs and the colors were ordered also. We were only allowed so many roses on a cake (although we broke that rule all the time), and had to crank out so many cakes per hour. 

 

There is no way to compete with that. So I don't. I appreciate them for what they can do- they weed out my clients for me!!!

I always wondered about how they made any money off of them, and I am usually pretty intelligent, but this had bot occurred to me. Duh!