Walmart has become notorious for putting small and local businesses out of commission with their comparatively low prices. Now, an unlikely new Walmart product has people up in arms — fancy cakes.

People are furious that Walmart is now selling affordable heart-shaped cakes.

Just in time for Valentine’s Day, Walmart unveiled the perfect celebratory product — fancy heart-shaped cakes at Walmart’s usual bargain-basement prices. Hooray! Who doesn’t love a cake, right?

A LOT of people, apparently. The cakes instantly sparked outrage on TikTok among professional bakers, who feel that Walmart is encroaching on their territory in a way they believe is wildly unfair.

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Professional bakers are angry that Walmart’s cheap cakes are forcing them to lower their prices.

There’s no doubt about it — cake decorating is an art, and it takes a lot of time and effort to develop those skills. That’s why a professional cake is so expensive — the elbow grease, not to mention the extensive time, required to make a cake with fancy flowers and icing decor is really on a whole other level.

But now, Walmart is selling cakes just like that — in a “vintage” style that reminds many people of the 1950s, with lots of rosettes and other flourishes — for just $25. A custom cake will run you far, far more.

For example, one professional baker said that they would normally charge $144 for a cake similar to one found at Walmart for just under $25. For obvious reasons, this has bakers very nervous.

One baker on Reddit perfectly explained why. “My family owned a bakery back in the 80s. We went out of business due to the rise of supermarkets that had their own bakeries,” they wrote. “It was the ability of the corporate chains to buy the raw ingredients in bulk that snowed us under.”

Presumably, that’s exactly what’s happening here — whether it’s Walmart or McDonald’s, huge conglomerates can buy materials often below cost and in bulk, making it so that small business owners can’t compete, even though the ingredients conglomerates buy are often vastly inferior.

As the Redditor went on to say, “Our product was superior, but almost twice the cost, and nothing we could do about it. Foodservice has razor-thin margins, and there isn’t a lot of wriggle room when large competitors move in.”

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But several bakers also contend that fancy cakes should be a “luxury,” not a cheap Walmart product.

The bakers’ perspectives are definitely understandable. Much like Walmart’s faux Birkin bag that went viral over the holidays, there is a huge difference between a handmade, professionally constructed product and a cheap knock-off at Walmart, whether it’s a handbag or a cake.

The difference between a cake and a Birkin, though, is that Hermès isn’t going to be put out of business by people buying $50 fake Birkins. A real Birkin is a five-figure purchase out of reach to almost everyone. These are two different customer bases with little overlap.

Cakes on the other hand are a different story, and many bakers feel that a custom-made cake is a “luxury” that people should pay the requisite price for. In a since-deleted TikTok, baker @birdysbakery said they were deeply annoyed by people “complaining” about what professionals charge, “when having a birthday cake is a luxury. It is not a need.”

Unsurprisingly, that went over like a lead balloon — and it’s hard to argue that it’s not a wildly elitist take. Birthday cake is not a luxury. It is eggs, flour, and sugar and you can get one in a box for $3. Nobody owes it to a baker or anyone else to “earn” a frigging cake.

Still, professional bakers’ feelings are understandable. It’s not really any different than the rest of us worrying that our jobs are going to be swallowed up by AI, in the end.

But there’s one reason home bakers shouldn’t be this up in arms: Just like people who buy Birkins are never going to buy a Walmart knock-off, many of us who want a truly delicious and gorgeous cake aren’t going to buy one at Walmart. We’re going to call a professional baker.

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John Sundholm is a writer, editor, and video personality with 20 years of experience in media and entertainment. He covers culture, mental health, and human interest topics.