A Walmart worker shared that stores experienced an overwhelming demand for the cupcake bouquets after they went viral, leading to some supply issues on Mother’s Day weekend.
What is the Walmart cupcake bouquet, and why did it go viral?
Walmart’s bakery offers colorful “flower bouquets” made up of 12 cupcakes for special occasions, like Valentine’s Day. The cupcake flowers sit on top of a piece of decorative cardboard that is made to look like a vase. The vase structure gives the bouquet a three-dimensional effect, creating the illusion that it is a real bouquet.
Several Walmart workers and customers with large followings have posted videos featuring these elaborate bouquets to TikTok. The bouquets are not just beautiful, but they are pretty affordable at $20. Those two factors, coupled with the fact that Mother’s Day weekend was May 9 through May 11, led to them recently going viral.
Substitution
Walmart clearly wasn’t expecting for them to go as viral as they did. Stores struggled to keep up with an influx of orders Mother’s Day weekend.
One customer who was impacted by this showed in a viral TikTok the substitution she received after ordering a cupcake bouquet for Mother’s Day.
She ordered a pink, orange, yellow, and red bouquet for pick up on May 10.
As it turns out, her Walmart ran out of the supplies to create these bouquets—namely, the cardboard vase—and had to improvise.
The customer said in a TikTok comment that she received a call from a Walmart worker who filled her in on their dilemma and gave her a few options: They could cancel the order and issue her a refund or make do with what they had on hand.
The customer chose the latter option, and she shared what the bakery worker came up with in the second part of her slideshow. The result is a more cake-like-looking bouquet, featuring 11 cupcakes glued down to a cake box in the shape of the bouquet. The worker got creative, making the flower’s stems out of frosting. They still managed to add a bow to the design, “tying” together the flower’s stems.
The color scheme is exactly what the customer initially ordered—pink, orange, yellow, and magenta. And the bakery worker completed their creation with a few cake toppers—two butterflies and one that reads “Happy Mother’s Day.”
@jhernandez180 was pleased with the final product and appreciated the effort that went into crafting it. “They honestly did an amazing job,” she wrote.
Insight from a worker
A Walmart worker offered further insights on her own TikTok account about some of the supply issues.
“If you get a text message from Walmart this weekend saying your order’s been canceled for the cupcake bouquet, it’s literally because we don’t have the boxes,” she shared. “It’s out of our control. There’s no way to get any more.”
The worker claimed that one store alone had to cancel 75 orders. “So if you happen to get a text message or an email, it’s nothing personal. I wish we could do every order that’s come through, but unfortunately we’ve had to cancel a lot,” she said.
She added that Walmart was “not prepared” for the virality of the bouquets and subsequent influx of orders.
“I know it’s Mother’s Day weekend, but we literally can’t do nothing about it. So, hope everybody has a happy Mother’s Day. To the ones that did get their bouquets. Congratulations,” she said.
As of Tuesday, the cupcake bouquets were no longer available to order on Walmart’s site.
@traeandsimonesnaynay #walmart #cupcakebouquet #maddness #viral #oneofthosedays #cakedecorator #cupcakefrenzy #mothersday #walmartcakedecorator #viralvideo #fyp #share #follow ♬ original sound – Natasha (NayNay)
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