Ordering grocery pickup through Instacart may be one of the best conveniences to come out of the 2010s for working folk who may not have the time to get to the grocery store.
That is, until it isn’t anymore.
Legend of the Male Instacart Shopper
Social media conversations have given rise to the stereotype of the male Instacart shopper, another iteration of the longstanding joke that a man looking into a refrigerator or cabinet has the item he is looking for staring him in the face and is still unable to locate it.
Unfortunately, stories from largely female Instacart customers have established that this particular trait may carry over into grocery shopping.
Recently, one customer says she asked for Cheez-Its cheese crackers in her order and received a truly baffling substitution from her Instacart shopper: Iams cat food.
A Curious Snack Replacement
In her TikTok, Taneka Collins (@funnybear47) says she did not ask for the substitution, and suspects that the item was chosen because it had yellow packaging.
“I see what y’all were talking about now when y’all say guys can’t shop on Instacart,” she says in the video. “Bro, look at this. I ordered Cheez-Its. Look what he replaced it with. Because it’s yellow? I don’t even have a f*ckin’ cat. You picked some because it was yellow. I ain’t joking.”
The Daily Dot has reached out to Collins via a comment on the video.
Similar complaints have been lodged in the public forum of TikTok by previous customers, from one male shopper who insisted there was absolutely no salsa in the grocery store and chose to substitute marinara for it, to a male shopper who substituted kiwi fruits for lemons.
The common problem, according to customers who have made complaints, is that shoppers are often looking in the wrong section or have chosen to substitute items that have nearly nothing in common with the original item asked for.
Viewers Weigh in With Their Own Instacart Shopper Fails
Several viewers pointed out that in a lot of cases, the pet food and human food aisles where the two items would be stocked are nowhere near each other in-store.
“First of all, they’re not in the same aisle,” one commenter wrote.
“How are you in the cat aisle looking for cheez its!” another said.
“I am screaming,” a third added. “This man made a decision and left the whole aisle to go to the pet aisle. I will never understand.”
@funnybear47 Im about to sue for pain and suffering #instacart #fyp ♬ original sound – Taneka Collins
Others shared some head-scratching swaps Instacart shoppers have made for them in the past.
“I ordered Cinnamon Toast Crunch and that man got me candy canes!” one commented.
“I ordered whipped cream and it was replaced with a pack of blue balloons,” another said.
“A dude once replaced a two-pack of pens with a 96-sheet pack of construction paper,” a further user wrote.
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