From what I’ve read the main expense in a Pizza is the cheese? So if they are building a low-cost pizza, that’s what they’ll cut corners on – mediocre cheese.
Yeah, seems so:
The answer to your question depends on who is making the pizza, what the exact toppings are, and the quality and amount of each topping. Obviously, a chain like Papa John’s or Domino’s will get better pricing on a per unit basis than will a mom-and-pop operator because of greater volume and bargaining power. But, as a typical example, I have read that a 16-inch pizza with 10-ounces of mozzarella cheese, sauce, and 6 ounces of pepperoni will cost an operator around $2 (for the ingredients). I would guess that adding an additional topping might increase the cost by another 10-20 cents, depending on the topping. The dough itself will typically cost $0.011/ounce if made from scratch. For a 16-inch size using about 21 ounces of dough that would come to about $0.23. Generally speaking, the most expensive pizza item is the cheese.
and
The sauce is probably around .50 at most, cheese is around 1.50-2.00, pepperoni’s are a penny each so if you put 20 on, that’s 20 cents…you can figure out the rest depending on what you put on it. My cost if different than everyone elses I guess…but that’s mine, around 3.50-4.00
From a pizzamaking forum. How awesome is that? 
