This Is Hands Down The Worst Grocery Store Bakery

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Bona fide bread heads know there are few experiences in life that rival being enveloped in the warm, comforting scent of a bakery. On the flip side, a lackluster experience can leave you feeling betrayed by the carb gods. If you're like most consumers, you probably patronize grocery store bakery departments frequently, and for our money, you can't beat Publix's selection of bread, cakes, and desserts. When it comes to grocery store bakeries to avoid, however, the people (online) have spoken.

Walmart may have a reputation for affordable groceries, but the chain leaves lots to be desired where its bakery department is concerned. On Reddit, a poster solicited other people's opinions on Walmart cakes, to which one person replied, "They look much better than they taste." Another commenter was marginally kinder, dubbing Walmart's cake frosting as "edible," but ultimately declaring, "The frosting has a cheap taste just like the donuts. Like off brand sugar was used." A similar sentiment was shared on Facebook, where a Walmart shopper stated, "Three times ... I purchased cakes or bakery products that had weird tastes." And on TikTok, a disappointed customer presented their over-frosted, poorly decorated, and incorrectly flavored cake that they had to redecorate after getting it home.

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If you're the curious sort and want to know why Walmart's bakery is subject to so much criticism, one Redditor offered this opinion: "It is frozen stuff. All the cakes, cookies, doughnuts, and various snacks all [come] in on the frozen truck and [are] thawed before being put out for sale." Possibly adding credence to that claim, a former Walmart staffer on TikTok stated, "Nothing is actually baked in the bakery. It's warmed up from frozen." It must be said that the chain bakes some of its bread in-store (typically anything labeled as fresh baked daily), and that Walmart has never publicly commented on whether it uses frozen baked goods. However, the use of frozen dough and baked goods is common in the bakery industry, so it's not a far-flung proposition.

Assuming that these claims are at least somewhat accurate, can freezing really affect the quality of bakery treats? One study published in the International Journal of Food Science and Technology found that partially baked, frozen cupcakes experienced textural changes and loss of moisture based on factors like par-baking time and the length of frozen storage. Though it's possible to protect cakes against quality decline when freezing, mistakes like freezing the wrong types of cakes or not packing frozen baked goods correctly can lead to the quality issues that come up in some Walmart shoppers' complaints.