What’s the tea, y’all?!
Well, it’s that Meghan Markle is allegedly doing some shady s**t with her tea biz — at least if a new report is to be believed!
So, Prince Harry‘s wife has been pushing herbal teas as part of her As Ever lifestyle brand recently. In fact, last week, she sold out of two tea flavors — Herbal Hibiscus Tea and Herbal Lemon Tea — just minutes after re-stocking them on As Ever’s site. Not bad, right?
The teas aren’t cheap, either. The Suits alum is hawking them in dozen-bag sets that’ll run ya $12. But here’s the thing: according to a report in the US Sun, Meg allegedly bought another company’s teas, tripled the price, and re-sold them as-is rather than producing her own products! WTF?!?!
Related: Jam Expert Absolutely TRASHES Meghan Markle’s ‘Runny’ Apricot Spread!
Per that outlet on Wednesday, Meghan outsourced her As Ever tea bags to a company called Republic of Tea. They are a US-based brand with headquarters in California, but its tea-making factory is a couple thousand miles away in the tiny town of Nashville, Illinois.
Internet sleuths were the first to pick up on the connection between the companies last week. They scoured the source page of As Ever’s website and found the brand was low-key listed as “Republic of Tea.” Per the news outlet, in the days since eagle-eyed netizens figured out the connection, the branding has been flipped over to the “As Ever store.”
But the tea connection still holds! Insiders close to Meghan confirmed to the US Sun that Republic of Tea is indeed her supplier. But they ALSO claimed that the As Ever tea blend is “different” from what Republic of Tea sells for themselves. Uh-huh…
That is a central issue here, too, because if you were to buy comparable teas straight-up from Republic of Tea, you can get 36 bags for anywhere between $11.50 and $14.00. In other words, buying the same number of branded tea bags from As Ever will cost you THREE TIMES as much!
People are definitely skeptical about the whole deal, to say the least. Royal expert Margaret Holder delivered a gnarly blow to the Duchess’ tea troubles with this quote to the outlet:
“Customers are paying a considerable increase for Meghan’s label. She is taking advantage of celebrity branding. But it’s a case of Meghan Mark-up not Meghan Markle.”
Meghan Mark-up! Ouch! That’s pretty clever.
Republic of Tea is pretty experienced in the tea game, b-tea-dubs. They sell a wide range of teas, including branded ones linked to both Bridgerton and Downton Abbey. So, maybe it makes sense that Meghan’s As Ever tea team turned to their direction for some expertise.
But still, what a brutal reveal! Alleged price-gouging?! Over tea?! Really???
[Image via MEGA/WENN]
The post Meghan Markle PRICE GOUGING — Buying Another Brand’s Tea & Charging Customers 3x As Much: REPORT appeared first on Perez Hilton.