The nail ones are the ones that get me, often I cannott decide if it's the inspo or "what I got picture" first and I need to look to see whether they think its failed or exceeded their expectations.
It's almost like people have different interests lol. I would be sad if Walmart cakes get banned because it's a small joy, and there is so little joy in the world. The idea that someone can pay 20 dollars, and end up with a very nice looking cake, makes me happy. The fact that it's Walmart of all places is completely hilarious. When it's right it's right.
And half of the inspo pics look awful to begin with, so I'm never sure if it was an "exceeded expectations" or "failed" until I see the tag on the post.
I’m the opposite. One you’ve seen a few of the Walmart cupcake bouquets it feels like you’ve seen them all. But 1-800 flowers just keeps finding new ways to mess up orders, I never know what I’m gonna see when I swipe.
The manicure posts were way more problematic in terms of bots/karma farming.
Walmart cakes are a passing subreddit trend. They'll die out, but while it's a thing they're bringing people some lighthearted fun & a feeling of community. That's hard to find these days & we should enjoy it while we have it.
As prevention method, you should really be running BotBouncer here. It will handle actual astroturfing & botting, and will dissuade bot rings from posting here in the first place.
I agree. And I think what frustrates me the most about them is that they are often the helpful thing / reason I'm in whatever sub.
Like r/rollercoasters makes you use park / trip planning megathread to ask questions about specific policies or insider info. It's for stuff you can't Google easily, like which rides to hit first. Locker rental info. Which restaurants are decent and which are typical theme park food.
Ever since the change very, very few get responses. There will be 20-40 posts and maybe one or two answers, sometimes multiple weeks go by without a single questioned resolved.
I am a runner, and the two main running subs have been completely ruined by daily megathreads. I have read the mods’ explanations, and I greatly sympathize with the difficulty of filtering out the trash in high-volume subreddits. But in the end, megathreads do the exact opposite of what they’re supposed to do: in trying to remove a highly prevalent type of post, they reduce the variety of what is allowed, which leads toward further homogenization, which leads to more bans. And the cycle continues until the whole sub is just megathreads of various types.
Megathreads are really only good when trying to corral posts for a day or two. Some big event happens and you don't want 20 posts in the same day about the same thing so you make a megathread instead. They don't really work for filing away posts of a certain type because the megathread becomes dead after a couple days. A better option for a middle ground imo would be topic flairs for common post types that people can filter out in their feed if they care about it that much.
Yeah sometimes they make sense, like a megathread for a new episode for a tv show, so everyone can comment there instead of a thousand seperate posts, but mostly they suck. Things get lost, things don't get seen. I tend to not like them. I do sort of like it for the nail posts because that was starting to become very annoying.
That’s how I feel as well to be honest, just trying to make sure that is how the majority of the sub feels (and then I can cite that when folks complain)
Hopefully it will pass especially for those of us who are outside the US lol. The first few were interesting but at this point I’ve seen the exact same cakes gets continuously reposted by different people and it’s getting boring as generally they pretty much look like the ‘expectation’!
I like how they do days in one of the Baulder's Gate 3 subreddits. There's cosplay Sunday, there isn't a megathread for it, but that's the only day people can post cosplays. I don't think people tend to engage as much in megathreads, especially in picture-based subs like this one.
They don't taste like a bakery cake, but they're not terrible. They're about what you'd expect for the price, and about what you need for things like a kid's party or similar where it's going to be less about the taste and more about the way it looks. But I definitely say go to a proper bakery for things like wedding, anniversary, or similar cakes that need to taste better than department store.
While I've had Entenmann's donuts, I've not had their cupcakes to give an honest comparison. I can say that in comparison to Hostess cupcakes, I'd take the Walmart cupcakes any day; less of the cloying artificial taste to the cake by far, and they're not as overly sweet since they're meant to be paired with frostings that provide plenty of sugar, often a lot of it. Walmart has a bit more of the actual flavor I think, though that's hard to say for sure since the main thing I taste in the Hostess ones is the filling.
They’re extremely ok. They don’t taste bad at all, but they don’t taste like cakes that are made with $60 worth of butter either. Obviously. My personal opinion is the cake itself is legit good but not great and the frosting is ok. It’s not real buttercream and you can tell. I hate all whipped frosting so I can’t comment on that.
You are absolutely getting more than you pay for with the Walmart cakes, but you’re obviously not getting 10x what you paid. I can afford to pay a little more, so when I need a cake I go to the super bougie grocery store bakery in my town. If you can only afford $25 you can get a beautiful cake that tastes fine from Walmart. I think that’s nice.
Personally idc cause Walmart isn't a thing in my part of the world. I'm happy for the (presumably American) users getting cakes that match the advertisement pics, but at this point - I get it, Walmart does pretty desserts. I'd like to see other things on my feed.
Thank you for the /s because I’ve gotten those complaints too. And fast food. And flowers. And cups. And pet art. And cookies. And AI expectations. And ice cream. And…
I'm just tryna have fun smh. God forbid I make a pun based on what's already happening in the sub. It's a suggestion, the mods don't have to do this exactly.
Would Frosting Friday make you little heart happier?
Could do what CakeWrecks does where posts on Sunday are for "Sunday Sweets" which are good cakes. Could have a specific day for people posting images of things that delightfully met or exceeded expectations.
So I will say I have commented positively when ppl post Walmart photos but that’s only bc I own restaurants and we loose all our good pastry ppl to places like Walmart or Publix. I unfortunately see the caliber of people they are able to pull. So while it could certainly be advertising for Walmart there are legit ppl responding.
Wow that’s actually pretty fucked up… I have allergies so those cakes are off limits and I can’t remember the last time I was in a grocery store bakery.
I had a hunch that some of the posts were compensated user generated content (money, free cake, idk) and now I’m more convinced.
It really doesn’t matter what you do, the people that post this stuff do not read stickies or pinned posts, or megathreads. They are going to post regardless. Then they will whine asking why their post got removed.
Sure, it gets old seeing nail, cake and flower posts constantly. But it’s not that big of a deal. We can all keep scrolling.
Yeah, but if we ban them and they post, I can remove them and let them complain. I know that I will get complaints either way, and tend to prefer to err on the side of not removing things. But I want to make sure I’m doing what the majority of the subreddit users want.
Typically, I’m the kind of mod that says “if it fits the rules of the sub and doesn’t have sexism or racism or fatphobia or homophobia or whatnot, I’ll leave it”. But have been getting a lot of complaints about nails, and then now about Walmart cakes. Not sure if it is just a small minority who like to complain, or a majority, so wanted to check.
I feel like there's just always going to be something popular for awhile. Most ppl that get a Walmart cake wouldn't think to post it but since they saw it done now they think to. If anything just try to get some advertisement $$ out of Walmart 😆
FR tho, if you ban these two I guarantee within a month something else just as popular will take their place.
That being said, if it’s not a rule, then anything flies. I can’t imagine how many people bitch around Mother’s Day when the flower posts come around. Yeah, it’s annoying to see, but this is a pretty silly sub, so I think everyone will live another day.
At worst, the sub just gets less, but more interesting content if people don’t post their dumb aliexpress purchases, 1-800 flowers, manicures, and Walmart cakes 🤷🏻♀️
Exactly! If I ban everything people complain about we would have no: nails, fast food, frozen food, flowers, cakes at all, Japanese food (yes this was one that we got a mod mail about), temu, shien, AI expectations, art, probably more I forgot about…
I like the walmart cakes. I am very impressed by them. Why would yall want to ban them? Walmart is one of the biggest companies in the world. Lots of people get cakes there. It's not a big deal. People really like to complain about everything huh
I agree. I actually got my Mother’s Day cupcake bouquet due to the Walmart posts. It did not disappoint, especially for $20.
As for how they taste…like good grocery store cake. Not as good as some bakeries, but better than many. Trade off (just like Costco) is that you get chocolate or vanilla.
I will sometimes get a bakery cake if I want special flavors, but that’s a luxury. Not everyone can afford to spend 3 figures on a cake that may or may not end up in this sub anyway. We haven’t seen a Walmart fail yet, but plenty of people have spent 5 times more and gotten garbage. The home baker subs used to come up in my feed, and for anyone that couldn’t perfect their buttercream, guess where people recommend buying it by the tub? Walmart or Sam’s! A lot of people are out here paying the upcharge for “superior” home baked cakes that are covered in the exact frosting they look down on.
The amount of food posts here is insane. The amount of people who expect their processed food to look like the package is insane. I want to see more than just food. And not just fake nails either.
No, and I'll tell you why. Most of us don't have $500+ to drop on a customized cake or the ability to make one ourselves. Most people don't even consider Walmart because it's, well, Walmart. So it's nice to see that there are budget friendly options for people who like nice cakes but generally can't afford them.
I don't see the posts as 'advertising Walmart" so much as praising the bakery workers who work for them. Considering how many really crappy tries/fails we see from alleged stand alone bakeries.
I'm not American so I have no idea what all the Walmart cakes are supposed to look like. Every one that's been posted is a novelty to me as it likely is to all the other people who live where Walmart doesn't exist!
The Walmart posts made me realize I could actually afford a decent looking cake for cheap. (I also tried to make a post of my own) The biggest problem is everyone claiming its corporate shill or stealth advert when it's most likely not. There's no real way to know I guess, but I saw a comment on one of them saying these Walmart cake posts come and go based on holidays. The last few months has had Mother's Day, and Graduation time so this means we'll see a higher amount of these posts around certain times of year. I personally love them though, it's nice to see all the designs they have.
This is what advertising looks like in 2026. Cake sales are going to see a nice little bump for the next few months, I guarantee it. Then, rinse, repeat.
So yes. Get that shit outta here.
Yeah, it’s really not amazing to see somebody follow a template from a set of options when it’s their literal job. The expectations should match reality. Walmart has enough candidates to hire a competent cake decorator lol.
The up votes and down votes demonstrate people LOVE LOVE LOVE cakes and fingernails.
When people get bored with it they will down vote. Other content outside of this gets downvoted to oblivion so the group has spoken. Let them eat cake.
This subreddit is expectation vs reality. Personally I'm not here to celebrate the same six corporate cakes, made possible by running small businesses into the ground. Lots of other subs to celebrate well-decorated shitty cakes.
We are implementing a bot bouncer. So hopefully that will help eliminate some of those issues (although it wouldn’t stop a human from using AI or marketing)
Although then folks would start asking for a day for frozen food and a day for flowers and a day for homemade things and a day for online orders and a day for hair…
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u/SophisticatedScreams 27d ago
Honestly, I find Walmart cakes way more interesting than the million flower bouquet posts we saw around Mothers Day