I'm Sorry, But I Have To Say This....
Decorating By ge978 Updated 6 Jul 2007 , 11:28pm by mbdecorator
Well as I've said in many other threads, it's all about marketing and who the product is marketed to and who the INTENDED consumer is. If everyone studied economics and marketing from early on, this would be clear- and one would not be seduced by all the advertising on TV and elsehwere that makes us erroneously believe we all are deserving of everyetahing bright and shiny and pretty and should get what we want whether it's in our budget or not. I'm not trying to step on a soapbox about it- but it breaks everything down in logical terms when you look at a marketing textbook, and you cant go back to getting confused about generic brands vs luxury items.
And you're right, nobody should be raked over the coals for being any particular consumer. Everyone has their reasons for shopping where they do or for what they do. Being rude or uninformed is icky from either end lol
(And ditto thumbs up on ice cream cakes- of course I am not a cake eater lol, i like to bake/deco, but ice cream is my vice ACK @ the thought of working at Baskin Robbins lol)
Just have to say I hate McDonalds food but I love their cakes that are still frozen when they hand them to you already decorated. (I prefer cake hot from the oven or frozen--not room temp) I searched our area one year because that's what my brother wanted for his 28th birthday cake even though he was offered a mouthwatering cake or cheesecake to be bought from a top baker in our area. He was so happy with his lil' kids McDonalds cake and I tell you something, so was I. I LOVE THOSE CAKES! My brother and his girlfriend are coming over for dinner next week and in fact that's going to be our dessert. My DH is horrified, but dang it--I may hate the creepy clown but I love those cakes with the candy figures---we always bite their heads off 
mmmmmmm McDonals cake!
Hey I gotta admit...our Kroger has an amazing red velvet cake! I TRULY dont care too much for the mart cakes. But I remember back in the day before I started doing this...just thinking "CAKKKKEEEE!!!"..when I saw them...lol.They do some cute work as well..I dont think anyone here wants to belittle the store decorator...I give them kudos...for what they do with the time they have. I know they cannot take HOURS & HOURS working on ONE cake...or they would lose their jobs. Just like the scratch/box thing....it doesnt make you less of a decorator. And to be totally honest, having to turn out so many so fast....where the store has set designs and icing and frozen cakes .....its bound to give you certain experience the rest of us DONT have...sorry to say it...but if they make em look good in the time they have...they could do something for real when they are able to take their time!
I also think most of us scratch and even box bakers...feel that we are with our cake from start to finish...whereas some of the cakes coming frozen at the stores and you didnt bake them..we dont feel as we are insulting your cake when we talk about the taste...and I know many use premade buckets of icing ( again if someone doesnt like it...you didnt make it its NOT your fault). I dont think when we complain we are aiming it at the decorators...just the big corporations who are making the lives of small business people and specialty shop owners a living hell...we once had a topic way back....about walmart...where you can pick up your wedding cake and get your nails done and have your hair done while your car is being serviced as you pick up your medications from the pharmacy and buy a cell phone ...oh and buy jewelry...and a few groceries.....and stop in the built in restaurant to eat before you leave...then pull thru their gas station attached in the parking lot on your way out!!!!! I dont want to belittle the decorator...just the mentality of people who do not realize that ...yes...we do a high end product and our art/craft deserves acknowlegement and more money..when we bake it fresh and spend hours and hours doing gumpaste and fondant and deliver and set up..etc...the marts' dont do that. then some customers expect us to charge the same or less..but as far as being tasteless etc...nah..I like some of them...and I agree there is a market for all of us.
People are always telling me I am so strange because they love the taste of my cakes yet I'm always buying white cake with white icing from the grocery store. They sell cake by the slice and I love it! So you won't hear me ever putting them down.
I had one customer laugh and say she was shocked she just paid me $350 for cake for her daughters party. I laughed and said "That's a lot of money. There is no way I could afford my cakes". It's true.
I never bought cakes before that were anything other then Costco or grocery store cakes. I don't think I will anymore though as everyone makes me bake their cakes. SO the only time I get them is for me.
I do think that when people say to run to the grocery store or Costco they mean because you can't get the scratch cake with the decorating like you can from custom bakers. At least that is what I'm hoping they mean.
Nobody here faults you for buying a cake, but I do have a question for you. After looking at your photos....why did you buy a cake again?
There are times when I buy, but only if it's an icecream cake. I suck at making them. My freezer turns them to ice crystals..... 
I only eat store bought cake cause i'm so tired of my own cakes lol.. like many said its a hit and miss no matter where you buy them or how many times you've bought them from that place. 
my kids have watched me make cakes enough and i've taught them too; one year i was so tired from making several huge orders - it was my oldest son's birthday also- i asked if he wanted to make his own cake. he could pick out the frosting or make it which ever he liked and the mix. he did. baked it; frosted it; decorated it with i want to say smarties but it had a banana; cherry; lime; orange etc in it. he used those and mini marshmallows to make a border; it was two tierd lol. i have a pic i'll post soon. it was good.
Well hun, I am glad you said it.
I was a decorator and dept lead in a walmart bakery.
When I first came into this room I thought I was in heaven. I really like the ideas I get and being able to help people too with the knowledge i gained from being a bigbox decorator.
I personally don't care to eat cake (don't like sweets to eat really) so I don't really compare flavor or texture but, I do know that the cakes there are ok tasting. So that's not the problem.
I think that we all have our place in this wonderful industry. Whether it's the local bakery who does only a couple if any cakes per week or the bigbox stores who do hundreds of cakes a month (I know I counted em).
K, on a sad note, I did encounter some snobbery when I let slip (blatently, and damn proud) that I was a walmart decorator. That's in the past and we'll let sleeping dogs lie.
But I don't work there now and am freelance and able to have full creative control with whatever materials I want. I still have some time constraints but for the most part I am allowed to decorate as I please.
Am I now a cake snob? Nope. I believe that if someone is one a budget then go right ahead n go to the grocery store. That's fine by me.
We just have to keep in mind that there are different niches in the same market.
So let's get it out of our minds that we have to compete with local bakeries or the walmarts of the world.
We have our special place as artists.
One thing I always do if I can't help a customer (whether it's with budget or whatever,) is to steer them towards someone who can help them. If that means sending them to walmart, so be it.
I have to agree with the previous poster that it's more about the customer coming in and telling us that they will only pay $20 (or less) for a 3D Dora cake to serve 60 than it is whether or not the cake came from a grocery store or wherever. Yes, we all have been caught from time to time purchasing a small piece of cake or a whole cake from such and such a store if only to see what their product tastes like from time to time 
...
I don't think it's the intent to squash the hard work that people working in the grocery or mega-mart bakeries put in. We'd all quit if we had to do the sheer quantity those folks have to do in such short amounts of time.
It still comes down to taste regardless of where the cake is purchased from. I've had expensive cakes that taste like cardboard and $3 cakes that taste like cardboard. I'd rather have the money leftover if the cake is going to taste like 
.. I've had awesome grocery store cakes and awesome private baker cakes. Regardless of how much or little a cake is, would prefer to have the great tasting cake! It comes down to ingredients and how the cake is prepared regardless of where it is coming from.
OTOH, what BUGS THE HECK out of me... when my SIL goes out and gets some crappy tasting chain store cake (there is one in the area that is cheap, yet for some reason their bakery staff hasn't figured out how to handle the cakes properly because I've gotten cakes from this same chain at other locations and they're really good tasting) that's not personalized for my niece or nephew's birthday, when if she'd just have ASKed, I would make the most personalized "WOW! It's my BIRTHDAY cake!" that as they grow older other they always had an awesome ______ cake just like they wanted on their special day. It'd be worth more than the box they'll play with for 20 minutes and throw away in 3mo because they don't like clutter and wouldn't cost SIL a dime.
I've bought cakes from Vons, Save Mart and COSTCO. Every cake I've gotten from COSTCO has been delicious. I even bought one a few months ago because I didn't feel like baking for 250 Cub Scouts...heh.
Vons..eh...cakes were a little dry and the decoration was really, really bad. Save Mart...cakes were kind of dry there too; decorations mediocre. I got my grad cake from there in 2002 and it wasn't even edible. We threw the whole thing in the trash. We never bought another one after that, but I've had others at people's birthday parties and they weren't half bad.
Store-bought cakes definetly don't compare to home-made, scratch cakes (at least in my experience) but sometimes, we are just too tired/busy/lazy/etc. to get into the kitchen and do it ourselves.
I definetly feel that right now! Three cake orders and two cupcake orders for tomorrow (not simple ones, either!), 111 degree weather, student, and I work full-time at an advertising agency. I don't know how many more 4-hour nights I can handle...Thank goodness my mommy can help me bake some of them tomorrow. Otherwise, I don't know how I'd find the time, and these people would probably be having to get a cake from COSTCO. Limited time + horrific weather = me not wanting to bake/decorate...at all! So I can totally see why some people still buy cakes even if they can make one better.
I'll be the first one to say I'd never pay my prices for my cakes. haha. With three kids and a fourth on the way, there's no way.
I know I wouldn't buy one of my cakes, my husband would have a cow. I don't like the icing on the cakes around here so I won't buy a grocery store cake. I know that my kids would be thrilled if I bought one though, we have to look at them every time we go grocery shopping.
The only time someone has annoyed me over the purchase of a grocery store cake was when one of my husband's coworkers got one for his daughter's graduation. The thing that had me going is the decorator at our local grocery SUCKS, his borders fall far short of the average grocery border, and the coworker told my husband that his wife had told the grocery that if the cake looked like the last one she'd refuse it. She knew that the same guy was going to be decorating so if she didn't want it to look like crap why did she order from them? 
And to refuse it if it looked bad when she KNOWS the quality of the decorating, 
it's not like she was ordering from somewhere that normally does great cakes.
We live in an area with a high unemployment rate so I can understand when people go to the grocery store. I also remember having a mom who did character cakes for our birthdays, they were neater than a grocery cake but for some reason I always wanted one from the store (she wouldn't do it).
I found out that Sam's club sells their cupcakes and cakes in bulk (already made without icing!) I think you have to buy5 boxes of 30 cupcakes and I think it's 5 LARGE sheet cakes and the rounds I believe there are 8 of the 8 inch rounds. But if you are in a pinch and need to buy a frozen one (not decorated) that seems to be the easy way to go. I don't know how they taste but that was good scoop to know. One of my cake decorating students works at Sams. You have to call ahead for the cakes and I believe the icing too. Just thought I would pass that along. If anyone has tried the cakes (unfrosted) could you pass on your opinion of how they taste.
ps. I have not read this entire thread but I don't think it's a problem to buy grocery store cakes, in fact my daughter just asked (or should I say begged) me to buy a "Farm Fresh" cake for our guests coming this weekend.....
I don't have a problem with people buying grocery store cakes so much.... It's my mother I have a problem with.... if anyone else wants to buy one so be it go for it! They can be decorated way better then anything I could do anyway. But when my mother is offered a very nice cake that even the best grocery store baker couldn't make for her (because they just don't offer it) she would rather have a dry nasty tasting cake.... And I'm sorry if I offend any of the Store Decorators here, it's not a direct smack in the face to you it's my local stores, their cakes are disgusting. I don't know what they do differently everywhere else but my local stores it's just nasty... they are dry and flavorless and the icing is a different texture and taste then my homemade butter cream... even the whipped topping icing is funny tasting and it's supposed to be the best lol....
I personally won't buy store bought cakes anymore... I used to before I got into decorating and I had to buy one for my daughter's birthday last minute on the day of the party because we had a major disaster and lost the cakes but ya do what ya gotta do... needless to say me, my husband, and our daughter didn't like the cake and didn't eat it...
When my cakes are at the parties I've always got people wanting seconds.... which makes me feel good lol no one has ever asked for seconds on a store bought.
I don't want anyone taking this post the wrong way... I'm not insulting any of the store decorators or anything like that it's my local grocery stores that I'm unhappy with... the product they are selling for so cheap is just nasty... and tastes cheap... and I explain to people that say "Oh well I can get a 9x13 sheet at such and such for $9.99 and you want $23.00 for it why shouldn't I go there" well my response is nicely stated "you get what you pay for" and if they choose to go there then so be it... but that $10 cake tastes like crap and looks like crap... I'm sorry just my opinion about my local stores.
I used to buy all my cakes from either Wal-mart or Kroger. For the most part, they were good tasting and nice looking. I make my own now just because I enjoy doing it. My son loved his bday cake I made him last month. He said that none of his friends would have one like his because I made it unique for him, heavy metal bands and all. But I still by the chain store cakes when I'm in pinch or just simply want to eat something that I didn't have to bake. I salute all you chain store decorators. You have a hard job to do with very little compensation.
I've been reading quite a few threads lately about grocery store cakes, people wanting their cake for a lower price, etc etc.
I would like you guys to know what its like on the "other" side of things
My nephew's bday is Saturday...I can't make his cake. So me and my sister went looking for one. We only have a budget of about $80 for food, cake, drinks, utensils, etc for about 20-25 people.
So you know what i did?? Yep ..I bought a grocery store cake...UGH GASP
Not all of us are no taste cheapskate pain in the a**es who don't know what a good cake is!!
So remember some of us who have to buy a cake at the last minute and don't have a budget for all of your oh so delicious top of the line cakes....would i like to be able to afford one? Yes..of course, but i shouldn't be made to feel bad because I go to the grocery store instead!
be glad you got that off your chest
I like some store bought cakes, they are moist and yummy on many occassions.
However, I agree with some previous posts that it's not the cakes or the decorators, it's the customer's who know that you do a custom cake down to the T of what they want but still only want to pay $17.99.
We are not talking about apples to apples here. They want some fancy several tier, chocolate dipped strawberry, 5 layer with each layer being a different flavor, 3D, gumpaste flower laced sensation.
It is not realistic, and will get an attitude about the fact that the castle cake will cost them $150.00.
But will try to use it against you with the "well, I will just go to (chain store) to get a cake then", as if you are suppose to just cave.
That's what gets to me. It costs what it costs, they know that before they call.
Giving me attitude and trying to insult me by saying I'll just go to the chain, is not an insult. All it does is ensure that you do not get that custom cake you had your mind set on (still not trying to put the chains down, but you can not get the cakes I am speaking of from a chain).
What is insulting to me is that they (customer's) try to bully you with a chain to lower your prices.
And I do realize it's the lack of knowledge on their part as to how the cake they are requesting is being produced. It costs me $17.99 to just think about some of the stuff they ask for.
I'm done, just don't understand how people think they can get something for nothing all of the time.
I started my cake decorating obsession because of this whole debate.....I have no problem with grocery store cakes...but, I couldn't get a Grocery store to match my son's first birthday theme...so I went on a mission to figure out how to do it!
In the end.....I started my obsession with Cake Central...and still ended up buying his cake from Kroger, because dang it, this decorating stuff isn't easy!!....and I LOVED IT...Call me weird but, I Love their icing too!!
But, this year, I'll be making his 3d Elmo cake....not because I don't want grocery store cake but because I want to make him that cake....but, if the time wasn't available or money was tight you better believe I'd go to the store and buy a Grocery Store cake with the plastic elmo figurine on it to.
I have referred many people that ask me about cakes to a grocery store. And I don't feel bad about it at all.....I honestly tell them too...hey, I wouldn't pay that much either!! LOL
I'll be the first one to say I'd never pay my prices for my cakes. haha. With three kids and a fourth on the way, there's no way. This year, my kids haven't even gotten a fancy cake, they were just as happy with me baking a cake and letting them help ice it and put candy or fruit all over it.
Anyway the only thing I get upset about is the people who decide that since they are on a budget but they want a 3D cake or something, that they should be allowed to buy a "gourmet" cake on a grocery store budget. That's not fair to the decorator to expect that, and its not right. We can't just go into the Mercedes shop and say "I only have a Ford budget but I really want a Mercedes, and I think I deserve one for a Ford price." They'd show you the door real quick! I think that is what most decorators on here complain about....not that people are buying grocery store cakes (and I happen to like that whipped icing that comes on those things! Yum!) but its that people are complaining about the fancier bakers' prices. I know full well there are some things I can afford, and some things I can't...but its not for me to gripe at the people who sell the things I can't afford.
very well said
I'll be the first one to say I'd never pay my prices for my cakes. haha. With three kids and a fourth on the way, there's no way. This year, my kids haven't even gotten a fancy cake, they were just as happy with me baking a cake and letting them help ice it and put candy or fruit all over it.
Anyway the only thing I get upset about is the people who decide that since they are on a budget but they want a 3D cake or something, that they should be allowed to buy a "gourmet" cake on a grocery store budget. That's not fair to the decorator to expect that, and its not right. We can't just go into the Mercedes shop and say "I only have a Ford budget but I really want a Mercedes, and I think I deserve one for a Ford price." They'd show you the door real quick! I think that is what most decorators on here complain about....not that people are buying grocery store cakes (and I happen to like that whipped icing that comes on those things! Yum!) but its that people are complaining about the fancier bakers' prices. I know full well there are some things I can afford, and some things I can't...but its not for me to gripe at the people who sell the things I can't afford.
Amen, well said. I just had the same thing happen yesterday. They want it for nothing, my time is worth something. I'm a little higher than the grocery store but lower than the bakeries here, I CAN"T match Wal-mart or Sams for sheet cakes and that's what they want here, so I send them on their way. I agree, we all want a Cadillac with a Focus budget. Sorry !! Me included, but I get what I pay for also............................
I just have to say....for my son's 4th birthday and my youngest daughter's baptism (6 mos. later) I went to a particular bakery in Omaha. I heard they made awesome cakes. So, I ordered a Superman shield. It looked fantastic....the taste though....not so great. It was a small bakery, not a walmart or target. Their BC tasted funny and the cake tasted as if it had been frozen for a month! I thought I would give them another chance, since I had heard such wonderful things. When we started to eat our daughter's baptism cake....it was the same thing. Funky BC and month old frozen cake. (You can definitely tell it had been frozen for awhile.)
I have bought Target and Walmart cakes. They taste good at the stores I go to and they are always fresh.
However, this is the reason I have started to bake my own cakes. I get to try new reciepes and fillings. It's a lot of fun. I love it and I hope I get better at it.
Momkiksbutt wrote:
Nobody here faults you for buying a cake, but I do have a question for you. After looking at your photos....why did you buy a cake again?
Thank you...I'm buying a cake because there was a bit of a family problem that prevented me from doing it myself. Plus, my nephew changed his mind between Star Wars and a tractor cake so many times I was glad to just order it and be done
And this thread wasn't about those customers who demand grocery store prices for 3-d, fancier cakes etc. Its really about reading over and over about cheap people , no taste in cake, etc etc. I was just pointing out that I'm sure most people would love to have the nicer cakes but simply can't afford them.
And Kitagrl: omg I cracked up when you said you wouldn't pay your prices for your cakes. I was laughing because i was just telling Twinsy the other day that I wouldn't pay the prices for my cakes either
I think sometimes what gets misunderstood as big egos, is the frustration at the rudeness of people in general. Just the other day, I had a girl call asking for the price of a 1/4 sheet cake with spiderman on it. I asked her how many people she needed to serve since I offer 5 dfferent sizes of sheet cakes and don't call them 1/4, 1/2 etc. She repeated slower and louder, "I need a 1/4 sheet cake", I again asked her servings and explained why, got slower and louder, "don't you make a 1/4 sheet cake?" I said no. Finally she said maybe 20 people, now we're getting somewhere. I told her $20.50 plus tax, to which she replied, "Oh, well I thought you'd be cheaper than Wal-Mart" I explained that all my cakes are baked fresh from scratch, the icing is home-made, etc. and I can not match Wal-Mart prices. She replied, "Oh, well I only called because I thought you should be cheaper than Wal-Mart."
OK, now why not just call, ask the price, say Thank you and hang up? I don't care if anybody buys a cake at Wal-Mart, but why do you have to insult me on the way? People in general have just lost their sense of common courtesy.
<Climbs down off her soapbox!>
-Lori
I agree whole hearltedy. I'd be a huge liar if I told you that I never bought and enjoyed a supermarket cake. I also would be a huge liar if I tried to tell anyone that I have never had to plan a party on a budget. The problem is when you have customers that want grocery store prices and they look at you like you are trying to steal from their kids college funds when you give them a quote for a cake. I don't think it is ego so much as frusteration, from people who put their all into their cakes and feel that their "all" is worth more than ... That being said, I can say honestly that I love to go into the grocery stores and watch the decorators "do their thing". There is an older woman who does the bakery in a small local grocery store here and she is just inceredible, I for one would never ever try to take that away from her. Again I don't know that it is "ego" so much as exasperation.
Good thread...good points
And Kitagrl: omg I cracked up when you said you wouldn't pay your prices for your cakes. I was laughing because i was just telling Twinsy the other day that I wouldn't pay the prices for my cakes either
LOL the other day a friend of mine who is starting up a sewing business made me a custom diaper bag with custom embroidery and name on it (its WAY cute) and I paid her $65 (including shipping). My husband was like "Um, the $10 ones at Walmart do the same job..." I was like "Yeah but people pay me more than that for a cake that lasts one afternoon and this will last me a couple years." He was like "Yeah well so does the $10 one from Walmart." (He was half serious, half giving me a hard time) Anyway so you can see its a good thing I MAKE cakes. My dh thinks $25 for an ice cream cake is alot for a cake so its a REAL good thing I sell instead of buy!!!!
When people come to me they want some special filling or a special design that the chain can not give them even if it is a sheet style cake. Yet they still want the chain price.
Not putting them down for being cheap would never say that about anybody, I can sqeeze a penny until the nose runs and do on many occassions.
But I think sometimes on here the rant is misconstrued about people wanting that special thing for a chain price, that's all I am saying.
I actually like Cosco cakes. They taste pretty good the only problem I have with most grocery stores is that they don't have mych flavor. I know that there are some out there that can make good cakes and I give them props.
I've been known to buy a cake once in a while when I don't have the time or the energy to bake and decorate one. But I've also been known to buy an undecorated one and decorate it myself. There is nothing wrong with buying a cake from the store.
I know it is hard for us that we can't match the store price. I've been doing slot of calculations lately and a 1/2 sheet cake costs me aprox. 12.00 to make. And yes lately I can get 35.00 out of them but I don't have a problem to sell it for just over my cost if its going to make the customer happy. Because I tell you what a happy Customer is great word of mouth. Once you get that reputation people are willing to pay anything just so they can have your cakes. So I make sure I don't over look the ones on a budget, they need a good cake too.
I too, like some others on this thread, used to work at a Walmart Bakery.
now, not to be cocky or anything like that...there were 4 decorators and I was the only one with outside experience. I've had quite a few customers specifically ask for me to make their cakes. My boss even asked me to make his wedding cake at home (a beautiful 3 tier monstrosity covered in fruit), because as he said "i know what the cakes COST here...but I know what you are WORTH! (i was glowing for DAYS He said that the store didnt need any more money but I didnt get paid enough for my services.
Most of the managers and higher-ups were at his wedding and assumed that the store made his cake....he quickly corrected them and said that I did out of my house. And to boot..the store manager had 3 peices of cake and said it was the best she had ever had! Out of THAT wedding cake alone, I got 4 more orders (for smaller versions of the wedding cake) and another manager asked "what the hell are you doing working for us anyways?! " I've even had managers of Walmart refer CUSTOMERS to me because the store cannot do certain things (3D cakes, certain themes, etc)
Now our store cakes arent too bad...(one a 1-10...I'd give them about an 8 1/2) but we are the closest bakery (other than the one on the Base-and theirs are NASTY) so people will pay whatever....
But i think if we were all paid what we thought WE were worth and not what OTHERS think we were worth...we'd all be millionaires
I think it completely depends on the grocery store. In the town I live in, your grocery store options are WalMart and Houchens. WalMart cakes in general are fine. They're not fantastic, but I'll eat a slice and not complain. They have their place. The ones from Houchens, though, are terrible. The ones in our town only have frozen cakes, and they are terribly dry and the icing is gross. I can't even stomach a bite of those cakes.
Obviously, my cakes are the way to go (haha), but I'm not offended when people buy Walmart cakes. I've bought my share of grocery cakes in my day, and there's nothing wrong with it. What I find funniest is that my family have become bigger cake snobs than I am. If we're at a party where someone else made the cake (even other homemade or "real bakery" cakes), I'll eat the cake, but my mom and my granny will pick at theirs and whisper to me about how dry the cake was, how greasy the icing was, and how mine are SO much better. Gotta love family!
And Kitagrl: omg I cracked up when you said you wouldn't pay your prices for your cakes. I was laughing because i was just telling Twinsy the other day that I wouldn't pay the prices for my cakes either
LOL the other day a friend of mine who is starting up a sewing business made me a custom diaper bag with custom embroidery and name on it (its WAY cute) and I paid her $65 (including shipping). My husband was like "Um, the $10 ones at Walmart do the same job..." I was like "Yeah but people pay me more than that for a cake that lasts one afternoon and this will last me a couple years." He was like "Yeah well so does the $10 one from Walmart."
(He was half serious, half giving me a hard time) Anyway so you can see its a good thing I MAKE cakes. My dh thinks $25 for an ice cream cake is alot for a cake so its a REAL good thing I sell instead of buy!!!!
Kitagirl -- I too laughed when I read your earlier post! I too would not pay my prices for cake!!
And yes, I get a Dairy Queen ice cream cake every year for my b-day -- I wouldn't have it any other way! And if I do want a little cake -- it has to be my vanilla cake with store-brand fudge frosting. I sit with the tub of frosting and put a spoonfull on each bite of cake!
With that said, I do think everyone's "attitude" often comes from the price issue and it always being throw in our faces. I think much of our society has big-box-store syndrome (myself included) where we think everything in this world should cost the same as the big stores. My DH could go to Lowes or Home Depot and buy a wrench for $x, but instead he chooses to go to the local everybody-knows-your-name hardware store where he walks in the door, they know what he wants before he tells them, and they walk you back to the counter and check you out themself and he has to pay a little more. The wrench at the big store is just as good as the wrench at the little hometown store, but you are paying for the extras.
I think the same holds true for cake. You can get a good cake at a big store, but you may want to go somewhere more personal and pay for the "extras" like delivery and one-on-one contact with the owner, etc.
I can completely understand being in a pinch and picking up a cake! I also give lots of credit to anyone who stands for 8 or 10 hours decorating cake in a big store under all of the pressure of a corporation -- I know that has to be hard!!
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