Substitutions
My grocery order has just been delivered, and it had some substitutions, which were quite acceptable. The young man helpfully holding up the crate so that I could transfer the contents to a bag – I always regard it as a weight-training exercise, which gets easier as the items are removed – told me that most of the substitutions are usually quite reasonable. Sometimes, though, they beggar belief, and bear little or no relation to the requested item. For example, one customer had ordered bread, but it wasn’t available and it had been replaced with tomato ketchup. What was the thought sequence there? Bread for sandwiches for cheese for pickle for ketchup . . .
Questions then arise about the state of mind of the employee whose job it is to select items for a customer’s list. These staff members are variously called Online Pickers, Online Assistants, Retail Assistants, or Personal Shoppers.
Everyone has off-days or lapses in concentration and I can well imagine how strange or unusual substitutions can be made occasionally. Lemon bleach for lemons?
Never having ordered food for delivery I have not faced these issues. So far I have been successful in making substitutions if I need to!
ReplyDeleteI only ever use the home delivery option for my wine order as my favourite is not stocked in our local store. I always say no to substitutions though as goodness knows what I'd get otherwise!
ReplyDeleteWe have had home deliveries and have been lucky with substitutions. I used to get texts as the shopper went through my list but this wasn’t needed too often.
ReplyDeleteWhen I do my shopping at 7 AM on a Sunday, the aisles are blocked that early with Pickers. I've not used their service yet, but bread, now there's a story. Had a teen put a cantaloupe on top of my bread. I now bag my own groceries every week.
ReplyDelete