To think this is a bizare substitution?!

[AppleCrumbleCake]

Had my online shop delivered earlier. I’d ordered a bottle of factor 50 sun cream and it was obviously not available so they substituted it.

Now I would have assumed they’d substitute it with another factor 50 of a different brand, or a lower factor of any brand, but no, they substituted it with a bottle of aftersun!

Made me laugh.... I guess I might have needed aftersun if I didn’t use suncream! (They pick the delivery from a very large local supermarket, and despite the hot weather I really can’t believe they had no other suncream to pick from!)

What shopping substitutions have amused you?

In six years shopping online at Waitrose, I've never had crazy substitutions. I did get 7kg of loose carrots once, which the driver and I laughed about, I think it was my fault. I wanted seven carrots, he took the others back and refunded the difference, no problem.

One time the driver said he thought someone had made a mistake because he was delivering six bags of cat litter. He was relieved when I said that was what I wanted; I'd moved in that morning and my cat was going to be confined to the house for several weeks. Getting the litter delivered with the grocery order was the only way I could guarantee being here when it arrived, and having it in time for my cat being delivered the following day. I did a big grocery order the day I exchanged contracts because it was only a week between exchange and completion.

I think these days in most companies the substitutions are done by computer, and also there is a great amount of time pressure on the pickers, so they are all doing their best in difficult situations.
I like the kiwi polish/kiwi fruit thing, that has to be computer logic!

Years ago when Sainsburys first started internet shopping, you made your selection from an alphabetical list. If what you ordered was out of stock, you got the next item on the alphabetical list.
So you ordered bacon but got bananas instead, or your leeks were replaced with lentils, exciting times!!

What baffles me is when I order something simple, like a sliced white bloomer, and get "No Substitute Available" message. It's hard to believe that there is absolutely no other white bread in the entire warehouse.

A couple of Christmases ago I ordered a kilo and a half of sprouts, but they sent me five or six sprouts in a small bag. Apparently they were running out of sprouts so rationed them per customer! Not even a serving for one person!

I'm not sure if it was true, but I remember a thread where the op had ordered Tampax and they'd sent her Twix instead

We once received a cabbage instead of korma paste but it wasn't listed as a substitution. I emailed Sainsburys who apologised and sent me a voucher 'to buy something nice to eat with the cabbage'

I've ordered things like washing up liquid before which has then been out of stock due to a promo. And apparently no substitute available. I can't quite believe they had no other washing up liquid in a massive tesco store!
I once ordered a small pack of smoked salmon which was then out of stock. they subbed it with a huge pack - I handed it back to driver and said it was too expensive. Driver took it off the bill and gave me it anyway. Had a similar thing with washing powder. Ordered a small box on promo, they subbed a huge box but didn't charge extra.

We're in Birmingham and shop online with Tesco, I don't think we've ever had any really stupid substitutions. And they're usually good at delivering the quantity we ordered even if brands or pack sizes change. That said sometimes they say there was no substitute and I think surely there should have been - like our last shop when we didn't get our frozen chips.

Our biggest issue tends to be stuff getting split because of poor packing. Also short dates, not always mentioned on the order sheet. And bananas are a total lottery whether they're ripe or green.

Ordered aptamil, got a bottle of bleach. Laughed about it to the delivery man, he didn't see the problem.

I'm not sure if it was true, but I remember a thread where the op had ordered Tampax and they'd sent her Twix instead

It is in the long running substitution thread on Money Saving Experts
forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=1322337

I ordered a net of lemons and got a bottle of lemon washing up liquid.

Not sure squeezing that onto salmon would have been very nice

with Tesco and Asda, if they substitute, then you only pay for what you order.

We get lots of goodies that way!

very few silly substitutions. Wholemeal bread swapped for .... wholemeal bread. Cheese for ... cheese and so on.

Didn't have many problems, but once I ordered two large pineapples as it was 2 for £2 or something.
They didn't have any large ones, so sent 4 medium ones! Pineapple for days!
I also once accidently ordered one solitary banana. My husband took the order in that week. When I asked why he hadn't queried the single banana he said : "I just assumed you wanted just one for a recipe."

I've never had a silly sub, but I sometimes get completely random extra items that have probably fallen out of someone else's shopping, e.g. a bottle of (cheap) wine. The best one of those was a jar of peanut butter. My 4 year old is allergic to peanuts and we have to avoid even traces of nuts. Luckily I noticed and handed it back to the driver.

Ordered really easy garlic (pre prepared in a jar type stuff) and got really easy ginger instead of, you know, actual garlic.

My sister ordered a "birthday boy" cake candle and got "birthday girl".

Ordered lavender sleepy snoozy baby bath....received Nivea anti ageing cream! "Here's something to combat your sleep deprivated haggardness! "

ordered two carrots but got a parsnip and an orange - this is some kind of cosmic blending genius. I hope this happens to me. Order two grapefruit, get a jacket potato and lemon...

A colleague once ordered so many apples by mistake that she actually bought the whole box into work for us all to help ourselves! I think she'd meant to order 5 but ordered 5 kilos or something.

I do an online shop nearly every week with Sainsbury's, always stipulate no substitutions. If they haven't got what I want then I don't want anything different. Waitrose have a thing on their site where you can leave a note for the picker to say if you haven't got such and such then I'll have a certain alternative. Always check the use by date as well, I send stuff back if it's within a day or two, especially for fresh meat, dairy, chilled etc.

Ordered a Halal chicken...got substituted for an organic chicken.
Delivery driver insisted I keep it as it was organic and “top chicken”.
Even if was hand reared and fed the finest corn...it was no good to me!

Also got a tin of chopped tomatoes instead of cherry tomatoes...not so easy to wrap with mozzarella and basil.

Ordered lemongrass to make Thai green curry- got lemongrass shower gel :/

Dog food instead of cat food

Ordered a peppa pig 1st birthday card, they substituted it with a peppa pig “you’re 2!” Card 😂

Asked for lemons, got lemon shower gel.

I got lard instead of butter once. Couldn't really use that on my toast!

I once ordered tinned tuna and it wasn't in stock so I got ........... nothing. Apparently they couldn't find anything else to substitute it with. The other million types or brands of tinned tuna clearly not a near enough match.

I have been given some really good substitutions though. I once ordered a cheap lump of beef for dinner and was sent their extra special roasting joint! For the cheap lump price! I think I did a little dance of joy that day!

I asked for bayonet fitting lightbulbs and got sent screw fitting. Useful That's the worst though. Sainsbury's tend to be quite good. A few months ago I got told they had no sub for a sliced wholemeal loaf.