‘Between 2:49 and 2:50, he checked out’: Customer gets male Instacart shopper. She can’t believe the substitutions he chose

10.05.2024 20:00

The Daily Dot

Instacart is designed to make people's lives more convenient, but that isn't always the reality. Some shoppers make the experience seem like more trouble than it's worth. For as long as Instacart has been a thing, many have gone viral after exposing just how badly their Instacart shopper got their orders wrong. And the one thing all these Instacart shoppers have in common is that they're male.

As the Daily Dot previously reported, it feels like male Instacart shoppers use "weaponized incompetence" and deliberately do the job poorly to avoid the hard work involved in doing it properly. Arguably, it's why we've seen male Instacart shoppers provide moldy bell peppers, cat food instead of Cheez-Its, and sometimes, as is the case with Mizelle Mulder (@mizellemulder), substituting half the order wrong.

But in this latest example of male Instacart shoppers failing their customers, Laur (@lnoelle13) broke down exactly what the shopper did wrong in a video that has amassed over 500,000 views as of Friday.

"You know that feeling when you order Instacart and the shopper starts shopping and it's a man?" she began. "Love that feeling."

She then went through every item she ordered, and what item it ended up being substituted with.

There was one large orange to replace a bag of clementines, one single yogurt to replace a 4-pack, a small regular cream cheese to replace a large whipped cream cheese, and a giant cucumber to replace a bag of mini-cucumbers.

This was all accompanied by on-screen text that read, "When your Instacart shopper is a male." But the most egregious moment for Laura was when the Instacart shopper asked about replacement almond butter.

@lnoelle13 Is this a safe space? #instacart #instacartfails #instacartshoppers #maleinstacartshoppers #sundayscaries ♬ original sound - Laur

"I probably should have known that this would be an issue when it was 2:49pm, and I received a picture from my Instacart shopper that said they don't have almond butter," she said. "And it was just a shelf of peanut butter. And then he said 'What would you like as a replacement.'"

She continues, "And then at 2:50pm—as I was zooming in to read what peanut butter options there even were—he checked out. So between 2:49 and 2:50, he checked out. So how was I going to choose a replacement?"

Laur concluded the TikTok with a PSA for Instacart.

"Please stop telling me that these male shoppers have five-star reviews and choose excellent replacements and have such good service, when this is the crap that I get," she said. Laur didn't immediately respond to the Daily Dot's request for comment via TikTok comment.

Demonstrating how widespread the problem is, commenters shared their own surprising experiences with male Instacart shoppers.

"I once ordered flowers," one recounted. "I got a single organic cucumber as a replacement for the flowers."

"I had a male Instacart shopper one time that told me there was no sliced bread, non at all in the store," another shared. "He got me a 3 ft French baguette instead. I had to make tiny sandwiches for a week."

While a third said, "I ordered diapers once and he brought me kitchen sponges because he doesn't go on the 'feminine' aisles."

The Daily Dot reached out to Instacart via email.

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