One surefire way of making sure that your food tastes amazing is to season it with a bit of inebriation. Getting high or drunk can make even the blandest of foods—even a budget frozen pizza—taste like it came out of a Michelin star kitchen.
That must be what this bar is banking on.
Michelle Charlotte (michellebellexo) is a bartender who has managed to accrue a massive 4.2 million TikTok following posting a variety of content pertaining to her job on the social media platform. In one of her popular clips, she responds to a commenter who was shocked to learn that the bar she works at is charging patrons $8 for a frozen pizza. “$8 for a jack’s pizza is crazzzzy,” the commenter wrote.
Charlotte agreed that she also thought this price was crazy, but for an entirely different reason. She thinks it’s crazy cheap and explained why in her viral response.
@michellebellexo Replying to @Jordan Corona what’s actually crazy is the number of people in the comments thinking $8 is way too expensive for a frozen pizza, but they have no problem paying $8 for a single Tito’s and soda 😂 #bartender #divebar #frozenpizza #cheap #businessowner #barowner ♬ original sound – Michelle Charlotte Bartender
The TikToker said that it basically boils down to markups, saying establishments that serve liquor typically charge a 400-500% markup on booze and places that serve food usually charge a 300% markup on the food items that they’re serving up to diners.
In general, food service establishments should be charging at least double the cost of food products in order to turn a profit. Of course, there are other factors that go into the preparation of said food. Higher markups might need to be implemented to help offset the cost of skilled labor, business utilities, and other operating costs.
Charlotte says drunk people will pay for anything, and therefore 300% markup could easily be attached to the Jack’s Pizza her establishment purchases from Walmart. The pizzas cost $3.86.
“So really we should be charging $12 for these pizzas and I know people would pay it; drunk people do not care. The owners they don’t wanna raise the price though because they are not trying to make money off of these, they’re only making $4 every pizza. They just wanted to have some kind of option for people to be able to eat something and we don’t have a kitchen. If you think $8 is too much you don’t have to order it. We all hate making pizzas anyway.”
TikTokers had a variety of different opinions on Charlotte’s frozen pizza price-point rant. One person writing that the only way they would purchase the pizza at that price would be if the bar at least tried to zhuzh it up a bit: “I’m only buying it if you add peppers to the cheese one for me.”
But another commenter agreed with Charlotte, stating that the bar was at least serving customers the entire pie: “It’s also a WHOLE pizza. Like a slice of pizza is $5 at most pizza places!”
Another TikToker echoed Charlotte’s sentiments about buying the pies while drunk: “I wouldn’t buy the pizza for $8 sober. but drunk I would buy 5 of them.”
One user said that folks who think the markup is excessive line clearly don’t understand how businesses and product markups work: “People genuinely don’t understand food service. They assume the food/drink should cost what the business pays.”
Someone else argued that the price point wasn’t that bad even for a frozen pie, pointing out that offerings from Dominos cost way more: “$8 for a whole pizza and people are mad…dominos, Pizza Hut etc are like at the lowest $10-$20 per pizza.”
The Daily Dot reached out to Charlotte via email for comment.