Cake Story Aggravating Me

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I was curious so....

http://www.snopes.com/2015/12/02/meijer-cake-glurge/

TL:DR

The original poster is sticking by the story and supermarket is not confirming it publically ----so take that as you will.


A Michigan woman's photo of a Meijer cake went viral, but the retailer is oddly silent and the story hasn't been verified.
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Picked out a cake at Meijer. Asked bakery-looking-employee if she could write on it for me. She said she would, and after a long time, she came and presented me with this cake. I looked her In the eye and said thank you before I even looked at the cake. After looking, I nervously laughed and headed to check out- it didn't really matter to me that it looked so bad- I thought people would think it was funny. The cashiers at the self check out didn't think it was so funny though, and called a few more cashiers and a manager over to look, even taking pictures. To my surprise, after they discussed it, one cashier put her arm on my shoulder and said "the girl who wrote that has Autism. Thank you for smiling and thanking her- even though she's not supposed to write on cakes, you probably made her day." So I guess the moral of the story is that kindness is important!
— at Meijer Gaines Marketplace.
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Per Aldrich's account, the decorated cake was purchased at the Gaines Marketplace Meijer in Caledonia, Michigan. Aldrich stated in the update that she asked a bakery employee to write "Happy Birthday Mandy" on a cake, and was somewhat surprised by the barely legible result. She said she went to the register and that other Meijer employees noticed the cake's appearance, subsequently informing her that the autistic employee who served her wasn't "supposed to write on cakes." Aldrich concluded that "kindness [was] important," noting that a different employee stated the cake inscribing probably "made [the bakery employee's] day."
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One commenter in the original thread voiced concerns about the tale, expressing concern that the purportedly autistic employee might have been disciplined for the possible transgression. Aldrich replied, asserting she "wouldn't even let" Meijer provide the cake at a discount:

Right?! I told them not to worry about it, because I really didn't mind. I wouldn't even let them discount the cake. I hope she was ok after they talked to her- I'm sure they had to at least ask her not to write on any more cakes!

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Lisa Sarber Aldrich

Grand Rapids, Michigan

· Yesterday at 7:06am · Kentwood, MI · Edited ·

1. I am a real person.
2. This is not a Meijer marketing ploy.
3. I never asked for all this publicity, I just wanted people to consider being nice to each other.
4. This is my breakfast today, as it has been since Saturday:
140 Likes · 44 Comments · 415 Shares
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Although the Meijer cake story spread like wildfire on social media and in "good news" sections of the web, the company has remained curiously silent. Meijer representatives don't appear to have replied to or even acknowledged any of the many posts to the brand's Facebook wall about the cake, and their Twitter reply timeline is similarly devoid of any comment on the story. As such, it wasn't clear that the claim was independently verified by anyone aside from Aldrich. (Update: A WXMI employee contacted us, stating the station verified Aldrich's claims with Meijer.) It's entirely possible that the story (whether or not readers found it heartwarming) was true as presented, but Meijer hasn't openly claimed credit in the avalanche of viral attention.

My brother was an associate manager for a Meijers for 15 years.

His Meijers hired people with disabilities, and I believe the company gets a tax break. This would be Autistics that would have been in Special Education (in life skill classes etc...not the guy taking AP calculus ).

They would be assigned to work in the deli, bakery, stocking home and beauty items and bottle return. Jobs that are fairly routine and not much change in day to day tasks.

In the bakery, they would assist the team leader in setting up runs etc. The workers are paid whatever the going rate for that job is. (Not shelter workshop work).

The woman probably bought her cake during the off shift. They do "personalize cakes" at any time, but if it was someone like this woman in the story was only there, the manager should have been paged. My brother wrote "Happy Birthday" on many cakes at 1 am. The woman would not have been "taught" how to do piping and lettering.

He's guessing someone paged the manager, and he/she never bothered to show up. The woman wanted to be helpful and did it anyway.

Some heads were rolling the next day. That scenario isn't supposed to happen. In the deli, you can't clean the equipment unless you've been trained etc. People are assigned specific tasks.

At least they were 10.years ago.

I first hard about it on Reddit and I wondered why was it even relevant. Why isn't she allowed to decorate cakes? Does she work there? Who in the right has permission to disclose her label to strangers? Is this supposed to be some awareness thing to show that people with autism can do normal things and work jobs? Or was it to keep the customer from getting upset and filing a complaint against them for sloppy writing?

Perhaps autism was the real reason that the cake was a mess.
Many autistic people have motor problems and would not be good at decorating a cake.

I'd have taken the cake because it would be just as tasty regardless of how well decorated it was.

I would have graciously taken the cake without making a comment. Being a Sid myself, I know how hard it would be to decorate a cake. I've tried it before and failed miserably. I think that store should do the same thing that the Italian restaurant did. Fire the customer.

It bothered me as well. If the employee wasn't supposed to be decorating cakes it was likely because they hadn't been trained to do so, which would result in sloppy work, not because they were autistic. Autism has nothing to do with it. Give me a cake to decorate and I probably wouldn't be able to do much better- which is exactly why you seek a professional in the first place. Also the fact that the employee outed their coworker's condition isn't very nice. Maybe the employee was fine with people knowing, maybe not.

The story annoys me because it is self-congratulatory ("Look at meeee, I was not mean to an autistic person!") and it seems like the moment anyone does anything that involves passing up the opportunity to be a jerk the whole internet falls all over itself congratulating them for their amazing kindness.

However, I think the intended "moral" is relatively sound: don't flip out on people you don't even know for trivial nonsense that they might have been trying really hard at, since you don't know their situation and will look like a jerk.

Most people without experience are not going to be good at decorating cakes, autistic or not. Whoever they were, the person gave it a go and did their best I'd assume, so there was nothing so spectacular about not being an ass about it.