Walmart has been home to many unintentionally weird products, but for one Tennessee man, the California Pizza Kitchen “pizza” he bought from the hypermarket chain takes the cake. That’s because it’s a pizza like no other: it came with no crust or bread, turning the Tennessee man’s hopeful pizza night into an angry rant online that went viral.
The particular pizza misfortune happened to TikTok user drewtastic658 from Nashville, Tennessee, who bought a couple of California Pizza Kitchen’s Crispy Thin Crust BBQ Chicken pizzas. When he opened the box, turns out the “crispy” and “thin” crust was cardboard, and all the toppings, sauce, and cheese were placed on the circular cardboard piece. There was no bread crust at all:
“They forgot the crust! They put the sauce– this is cardboard!… This is what I paid $7 for?! Cardboard?! Are we out of our minds?!” rants the TikTok user as he scratches off the cardboard “pizza” to confirm that there was indeed no crust. Luckily, the second pizza box he bought was actually complete with a crust, though he was still sore about what he considered a scam.
“Walmart and California Pizza Kitchen, I want my money back. Now!” the TikTok user adds. So far, only California Pizza Kitchen has responded to the complaint, saying, “That’s definitely not the pizza experience we promised! Send us a DM and we’ll make it up to you. 💛” This gesture from CPK, however, has invited further complaints from similarly aggrieved pizza buyers.
People online are making fun of the cardboard pizza
At the time of writing, the Tennessee man’s impassioned pizza complaint has reached at least a million views online, most prominently on X/Twitter. Many online users have found the man’s reaction to the cardboard pizza rather hilarious and the pizza situation absurd, “His fault for buying thin crust,” jokes one commenter, while another quips, “It’s Detroit style.”
Walmart, meanwhile, hasn’t responded, though some people have explained why, “Well, it’s not Walmart’s fault,” though to the TikTok user, it kind of is, “They chose to sell this product to me, they are partially responsible!!” Others have found the TikTok user’s reaction a little too exaggerated, “Factory mistake… relax bro. It’s a seven dollar pizza. 🤷🏼♂️.”
For some reason, the discussion went to politics, with certain commenters humorously blaming the current administration for this rather bad “shrinkflation” for pizza, “Trump got people eating horse candy, dumpster pickles, and cardboard pizzas 😭.” However, more serious online users have pointed out a suspected corporate correlation: “My husband works in insurance. CPK was just sold to private equity,” regardless of how substantiated it is.
