Online supermarket shopping is the most convenient thing since sliced bread. But that’s until your sliced bread is replaced with a doughnut. Our recent survey highlights some of the strangest substitutions…
Hair-removal cream instead of razor blades, cocktail sausages replaced by oranges, and lemon soap instead of lemonade are among the baffling substitutions that shoppers have received in their online grocery orders.
As part of our survey of more than 7,000 supermarket shoppers, we asked about the strangest substitutions they had ever received. One shopper said:
‘I ordered a frozen turkey crown for two people last Christmas and received a giant whole turkey to feed 17. I couldn’t fit this creature in my freezer and had to get a friend to cut it up with a chainsaw. The delivery driver had gone before I realised what I had been given. This year I chose my turkey in store myself.’
Other bizarre substitutions included eggs instead of margarine, blonde hair products replaced with those for a brunette, and a bunch of tomatoes and a basil plant instead of tomato and basil soup – presumably on the grounds that you could make your own.
Should’ve popped to the shops
The survey also found that Asda was most likely to make substitutions (51% of orders), with Tesco and Waitrose next (39% of orders). Iceland orders were the least likely to contain substitutions, while Waitrose customers were the most satisfied with the substitutions chosen for them.
We wrote about substituting on Which? Convo in 2010 when online supermarket shopping was still quite a fresh idea. Here’s a sample of some of the substitutions you told us about. Sue wrote:
‘I ordered a dark brown hairdye and Tesco substituted ash blonde – (since then I have made full use of the ‘do not substitute’ function).’
While Chris’ shopping contents even got the delivery driver laughing:
‘Christmas. Tesco sent a bag of loose Quorn mince as a substitute for… a Quorn Roast. It was so funny, even the van driver laughed.’
So have you had any peculiar substitutions recently? Do you still find online supermarket shopping convenient or have the substitutions put you off?
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