In recent months, many users on TikTok have gone viral and sparked discussion after lamenting the high prices of fast-food restaurants.
Earlier this year, a user shared their shock after paying $14 for breakfast at a popular fast-food chain. A few months later, a user said they had to pay $53 to feed their family at Taco Bell, even though they had recently received the same amount of food at an upscale restaurant for $66. Another user simply called out fast food chains for dramatically increasing their prices.
Given these high costs, it’s understandable that some may seek cheaper alternatives they can make at home. However, one has to be careful what they’re ordering, as TikTok user Jess (@jesstheprequeldoesmiami) recently discovered.
“We did an order through Restaurant Depot because they’re usually better priced than Costco,” Jess says, opening a large box. As the video continues, Jess reveals that the box is filled to the brim with hash browns.
“I assumed for $5.49, it would be a reasonable number of hash browns,” she exclaims. “This is an unreasonable amount of hash browns.”
@jesstheprequeldoesmiami #costco #hashbrowns #groceryhaul ♬ original sound – Miami Cougar
Jess’ video currently has over 2.2 million views as of Friday.
Later in the video, Jess reveals that there are 12 boxes of hash browns, and each box contains 20 hash browns. That’s 240 hash browns or around $0.02 per hash brown.
“McDonald’s, almost the exact same hash brown, you’re paying like 2 bucks a piece, bud,” notes Jess’ husband.
“Guess we’re having a hash brown party at my house!” she says.
In the comments section, Jess reveals that this may have been an error on the part of Restaurant Depot.
“We just looked again and they’re no longer listed!!!” she wrote. In another comment, she added, “We checked into this and it appears there was a fluke of Instacart for us to get this many.”
In the comments section, users expressed jealousy at Jess’ situation.
“So what you’re saying is we should be shopping at restaurant depot…,” said a user.
“The were definitely only suppose to send you one of those not the entire case,” offered another.
“Walk me through how I can have this exact same problem,” stated a third.
The Daily Dot reached out to Jess and Instacart via email and Restaurant Depot via website contact form.
Update 10:31am CT Nov. 27: In an email to the Daily Dot, Jess offered more details about what happened.
“We thought we were only getting 1 pack of 20 hashbrowns. For only $5.49, we weren’t expecting anything close to what we got,” she explained. “A lot of people have said ‘It’s a restaurant supply store, what did you expect?’ but they have a ton of smaller portions in stock, so we assumed it was going to be the smaller portions — especially when we’ve purchased other potato products from them, and the unit costs were far higher.”
That said, it appears it was a glitch or an inaccurate listing.
“I went back on Instacart and noticed what we ordered is no longer listed, and that other comparable products were a lot more expensive, so we believe that we got this pricing by mistake,” she stated.
“For the record we received 240 total hashbrowns,” she continued. “My plan is to start cooking my way through them, and I will be doing a series of dishes I make. I’ve been saving hashbrown recipes and people have been sending me some, as well. So far I plan on making hashbrown spam sushi, hashbrown burgers, and hashbrown croutons.”
Funny enough, this isn’t the first time such a thing has happened to Jess.
“I did once accidentally order 7 pounds of cilantro from Restaurant Depot,” she detailed. “I made a ton of salsa and then donated the rest to a rabbit rescue.”