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Original poster

Supermarket substitutions

73 replies

sashh · 14/08/2018 15:34

OK this has not been done for a while.

Tesco have just delivered, the item substituted was spring roll wrappers.

Guess what was substituted? Clue it was edible.

OP posts:
Ginosaji · 14/08/2018 17:39

Pickers*

Bezm · 14/08/2018 17:47

Did you pay the prawn price or the spring roll price? I'd love to know the thought process of the food picker!

MonaLisaSimpson · 14/08/2018 17:54

My last online shop I bought some microwave packets of rice: 2 plain and 2 coconut. I got 5 packets delivered: 2 plain rice, 2 coconut rice and 1 brown rice and quinoa. It wasn't on my receipt. Trouble is I'm a very fussy eater and I'm scared to try it!

MonaLisaSimpson · 14/08/2018 17:56

Actually if anyone has any suggestions what a very fussy non meat eater would have with brown rice and quinoa they'd be gratefully received...

Original poster
sashh · 14/08/2018 21:02

bez

£2.10 for £8 of prawns, shame it wasn't something I like.

OP posts:
maggienolia · 15/08/2018 10:33

DH ordered a 70cl bottle of Scotch and got a 1.5 litre one instead.
Funnily enough he didn't hand it back...

Wellyboots86 · 15/08/2018 11:13

HI, I work for them (not as someone who does subs I hasten to add, I just deliver it to people). I’ve seen way stranger ones than that trust me!
Few examples - still mineral water subbed for deionised water for cars
- toilet roll subbed for toilet duck
- Egg noodles subbed for eggs

I used to do that job too and when they scan an item it gives them a suggested sub, sometimes they are absolutely stupid but you can override and pick your own.

The main issue seems to be one of 2 things:

  1. person can’t be bothered to use their brain as they don’t want to be at work and so don’t care

  2. person is aged under 20 and has never done a day’s shopping or cooked a meal in their life so haven’t got a clue how food actually arrives on their plate

DarlingNikita · 15/08/2018 11:17

toilet roll subbed for toilet duck I love that Grin

cjt110 · 15/08/2018 11:23

My asda delivery driver once said he delivered to someone who had ordered potatoes and was subbed with strawberries.

RoseDog · 15/08/2018 11:27

Last week the medium cheddar i ordered from Tesco was unavailable so instead they sent....

NOTHING there was clearly no other medium cheddar in Tesco Hmm

MongerTruffle · 15/08/2018 12:21

The substitutions are done by a computer - the staff have no idea what you originally ordered until they finish scanning everything.

rosesarered9 · 15/08/2018 12:22

I once ordered buckwheat groats and got breadcrumbs.

tillytoodles1 · 15/08/2018 12:38

My cousin got a packet of sanitary towels instead of crisps, They were for her husband's lunchbox!

foxychox · 15/08/2018 12:40

I ordered a chicken and got cod fillets - not great for making soup from leftovers.....!

Pompom42 · 15/08/2018 12:50

No Monger truffle that's not true I used to work in Sainsburys and it's up to the picker to choose the subs if original item was unavailable. Sometimes the handset would choose an alternative for you or you could skip that and choose your own, or you could press an option that said "no sub" and the customer wouldn't get anything.

MonaLisaSimpson · 15/08/2018 12:56

Nothing will beat, for me though, double cream being substituted for double cream last Christmas. Same brand, same size carton, same price, same everything as I'd ordered! The delivery lady was as stumped as me.

Jeffjefftyjeff · 15/08/2018 12:56

I got new born baby nappies instead of larger size. So much more likely to have been an acceptable swap if same size or larger! I thought: this picker has never had anything to do with babies!!!

Pompom42 · 15/08/2018 13:04

MonaLisaSimpson

That'll be because everything gets moved around a lot at Christmas and on the handset it'll say "double cream" and you'll look in the place it usually is and it isn't there so you go to do a substitute on your handset and whilst doing that you notice the cream in a different place out of the corner of your eye. Unfortunately once you're committed to sub an item you can't go back. So you just end up scanning the correct item anyway but it'll show up as a sub on the bill even though it is indeed correct

Onesmallstepforaman · 15/08/2018 13:13

At the supermarket I work for , the pickers 'gun' will suggest three items to substitute in sequence. IF the customer has not ticked the no substitute box.
If no Warburton rolls, sub might be kingsmill. If no kingsmill, maybe an own brand. If no own brand, in store bakery sub. There's an opportunity for the pickers to override at the end of the sub tree and select something they think will suit. I don't think ours would let you sub toilet roll for toilet duck.

StraffeHendrik · 15/08/2018 13:14

Ha, I ordered 12 of those ready made single servings of formula.
They substituted it for 12x 1kg boxes of formula!

Worst bit is DH didn't notice anything odd when he took the order in (how?!) so we had to pay £80 for it!

SheGotBetteDavisEyes · 15/08/2018 15:02

The substitution thing is why I never shop with Sainsburys as on the odd occasion I've tried they always replace missing items with something of higher value but don't price match.

Tesco/Ocado/Waitrose are much fairer, so that's where we shop!

IloveJudgeJudy · 15/08/2018 15:11

Pompom42 actually at the big warehouse picking operations the picker doesn't do the sub themselves. If they have to offsale something it moves to the next picker to pick the sub as the warehouses aren't laid out like a shop with all the crisps together, etc; they're laid out with hotspots and the computer tells them what to pick and they can't deviate. If the shopping is picked in a shop, that's different. It's down to the picker.

IloveJudgeJudy · 15/08/2018 15:13

Pompom42. Where I work you can always go back on the scanner right until the point where you've scanned off that particular picking trip.

frasersmummy · 15/08/2018 16:16

Jeff I had a friend ask Tesco about this

apparently its a brand loyalty thing.. if you order pampers then they think you wont want another brand.. aye ok i i can see that with soup etc but seriously you need the size of nappies you ordered

Member745520 · 15/08/2018 16:23

@tillytoodles1 it seems to work the other way too - on a similar thread years ago somebody ordered Tampax and it was substituted with a packet of Twix!! Now that could have gone in her husband's lunch box Grin