Pinoy reseller draws criticism for flying ‘fresh’ US pastries to PH

Sab and Cucay Shop also faces backlash over dirt under the nails, high markup, and lack of retail partner status.

A Philippines-based Instagram store is facing backlash for reselling freshly baked goods from popular US bakeries without being an official retail partner of at least one of them—while netizens have raised concerns about how the pastries were handled during transport.

In a now-deleted post on Sept. 17, Sab and Cucay Shop announced that it was locally selling fresh cheese rolls from the famous Porto’s Bakery in California. The owner said the boxes were purchased hours before traveling to supposedly ensure freshness.

The announcement was accompanied by a photo of the store owner holding dozens of pastry boxes. Netizens questioned the handling of the pastries, with some pointing to visible dirt underneath the owner’s fingernails in the photo.

Some users who inquired with the store said a box of 12 cheese rolls was being sold for ₱3,199. At Porto’s Bakery branches in the US, the same box costs roughly $14.28 (₱900) for freshly made rolls and $21.99 (₱1,300) for frozen bake-at-home rolls.

Porto’s Bakery cheese rolls reportedly last for up to 48 hours when kept at room temperature, and up to five days when refrigerated. A flight from Los Angeles to Manila, meanwhile, takes a minimum of 14 hours, not accounting for layovers.

Sab and Cucay Shop also sold freshly baked cookies from Crumbl and Levain Bakery, two other popular US bakeries. While prices for the resold Levain cookies are no longer available, customers said the shop sold a box of one dozen Crumbl cookies for ₱3,399—despite costing $39.99 to $43.99 (₱2,500 to ₱2,700) in the US.

Threads user @theoddventurer said he informed the bakeries of potential violations of their terms of use. He also posted a conversation with the official Levain Bakery Instagram page, which said Sab and Cucay was not an official retail partner.

“Our cookies are not made with any preservatives so they should not be purchased from a re-seller. We’ll reach out! Thank you so much for letting us know,” Levain Bakery said in its message to @theoddventurer.

Responding to the backlash, Sab and Cucay Shop initially reassured customers that it was handling the baked goods with utmost care.

Hours later, the store then said it would no longer sell pastries from Porto’s, Crumbl and Levain and fresh goods in general.

Netizens then speculated that the store may have received a cease-and-desist order from one of the bakeries. However, no such order has been publicly confirmed.

“This experience has taught us so much, and we will carry these lessons with us moving forward. Honestly, we feel defeated, and we wouldn’t wish this kind of agony upon anyone,” the shop said in a Threads post on Sept. 19.

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