Mickey Starling
reporter3@greenepublishing.com
As graduation time rolled around, Jessica Ratliff was tasked with providing a cake for the large celebration at her church, given to honor the congregation’s seniors. With only four hours to spare before the party, Ratliff picked up her cake from the Winn Dixie bakery, in Madison, though the main sentiment asked for was strangely missing from the cake.
Upon ordering the cake, she asked for “God bless our graduates” to be written on the cake. The bakery employee stated that she would have to check the copyright rules to see if she could put “God” on the cake. Puzzled, Ratliff asked her to check on it and let her know, which the employee agreed to. Due to time constraints, Ratliff agreed to purchase the cake without the desired wishes expressed if she had no other options. However, according to Ratliff, she was never contacted about the copyright rules or given any information or options. Her cake’s message was “Congratulation’s Graduates Class of 2023.” The apostrophe was there for no apparent reason to Ratliff, just as no reason was given to why “God” was left off the cake.
It should be noted that the bakery manager was not working due to dealing with health issues and had no knowledge of this issue. Ratliff posted her story and a photo of the cake on Facebook, which quickly generated nearly 100 comments and over 30 shares. “I just wanted to inform our community about what seemed to be a recent change,” said Ratliff. For Winn Dixie’s part at the corporate level, they made it clear that this was an “isolated situation.” Greene Publishing, Inc. reached out to the store’s corporate office, in Jacksonville, for clarification, and here is their response: “We are committed to providing an inclusive environment where all beliefs and values are respected. We sincerely apologize for the recent misunderstanding with a cake decoration request, and we have since reached out to the customer to offer our apology and offer to provide resolution. We want to assure our valued customers and community that this incident does not align with our standards, and we have taken the opportunity to coach our bakery team to ensure our policy is carried out to the satisfaction of our customers. We appreciate the community's continued support and understanding in this isolated situation.”
Ratliff was contacted to confirm the apology and attempted resolution from the mishap. According to Ratliff, she has received no contact or offer of resolution from the corporate office. Janet Diamond, Community Relations Coordinator at the Madison store, did offer an apology to Ratliff, which she appreciated. While the corporate office may have come up lacking in their response, Diamond and others in our Winn Dixie have exceeded expectations in their understanding of the situation. Furthermore, other Winn Dixie employees from surrounding stores also offered support and reassurance to Ratliff concerning the error made on her cake.
The importance of the local response can’t be overstated. Businesses survive in a small town when they understand they are the guests of consumers who make or break them. The fact that our Winn Dixie sprayed “God bless our Military” and “God bless our Graduates” across their front window shortly after the cake incident underscores their understanding of our core values in this community. It was also a clear signal of their awareness of how important rural communities consider their constitutional and religious freedoms. “I was very happy to see an abrupt statement, my exact wording request, written on their front windows,” said Ratliff.