Max Kassner is proud to say that he goes to Costco almost every week.
While Boston College men’s basketball pulled off a 70–66 win over Detroit Mercy on Friday at Conte Forum, Kassner—sporting a referee uniform—unintentionally went viral for showing off his Costco membership card to another student in the stands.
ACC Network caught the moment, and the video spread across social media on accounts including SportsCenter, Barstool Sports, and Bleacher Report. Sportscenter’s Instagram reel had over 7.7 million views as of Tuesday.
In the video, Kassner, CSOM ’24 hands the card to Paige Fleming, MCAS ’23, who flips it over, revealing the Costco logo to the camera. She then mouths the word “wow” with an approving look on her face.
Both Kassner and Fleming said they found their viral moment funny.
“It was just really funny because I just had no idea that I was on camera, and it was perfectly captured,” Fleming said.
Kassner said people he hasn’t talked to in years reach out to him to ask about the video.
“Every 15 minutes, another one of my friends would come up to me and be like ‘Oh it’s here now,’” Kassner said, referencing the number of popular social media accounts that reposted the video. “It was just a wild day.”
Fleming, who met Kassner at that game through mutual friends before their viral moment, was talking to Kassner about how he has a car on campus. They talked about places Kassner drives his car to, Fleming said.
Costco is one of those places.
“I was like, ‘That’s funny and random,’” Fleming said. “And then he said, ‘Look at this,’ and then pulled out the Costco card.”
Bringing his Costco card into a conversation is not unusual for Kassner, he said.
“Most of my good friends knew that I liked Costco well before this video,” Kassner said. “They said it was very on brand.”
The attention hasn’t stopped just yet. Ahead of BC’s game against Maine on Monday, a member of BC’s sports marketing department reached out to Kassner and Fleming to see if they would appear on the big screen in Conte Forum for a “Costco Cam.” Kassner wore the same referee shirt he wore in the original video.
According to Kassner, the clip can be interpreted in a number of ways. One of those ways, which many commenters across social media platforms seem to agree with, is that Kassner was flirting with Fleming.
“To disappoint some people, it was very sarcastic, and it was sarcastic on his part,” Fleming said.
But Kassner wouldn’t reveal the true meaning of the moment.
“I can leave that up to everyone’s imagination,” Kassner said.
