South Carolina Restaurant Allegedly Resold Costco Pizza At 700% Markup
Yes, having a Costco membership can be a godsend in some regards. You can stock up on frozen foods to last you until the end of time. But if you were a restaurant, would you go as far as to buy some Costco brand frozen pizza and pass it off as your own?
Apparently that’s what a restaurant in South Carolina did, reports The Post and Courier.
Coquin, a wine bar in Charleston, is selling “Roman-style” pizzas for $18 and $20 depending if they are plain or have toppings as a way for the restaurant to transition into delivery during this worldwide pandemic. However, the Post and Courier had been alerted by both patrons and employees of the restaurant that the pizza they were offering for delivery had in fact been pre-purchased from Costco’s frozen food section .
According to the Post and Courier, a reporter spotted the owner of Coquin receive a delivery order and walk up to his private residence leaving with “Fresh Pizza, Oven Baked” boxes. Afterwards the reporter discovered four-pack boxes of Kirkland’s Signature Cheese Pizzas with Breadcrumb Crusts (about $10 for four pizzas) in the restaurant’s dumpster.
When asked directly, however, the owner denied that the pizzas sold for delivery were from Costco.
Even with fresh toppings thrown onto Costco’s already existing $2.50 cheese base, this comes out to about a 700% markup. Which is arguably just as bad as hoarding toilet paper and disinfectant and selling it at a higher price during these times.
Coquin’s website for pizza delivery is currently down at the time of publication.
