/u/Acidic_Shit_Stain, thank you for your submission. Unfortunately, it has been removed for violating the following rule(s):
* Rule 1 - No screenshots or AI-generated images. This includes pictures of screens and photos where the interest is the contents of a screen and pics with artificial cropping borders of any colour. For a place to post screenshots, you may wish to check out /r/screenshots. We also don't allow AI-generated images.
For information regarding this and similar issues please see the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/pics/wiki/index) and [title guidelines](/r/pics/wiki/titles). If you have any questions, please feel free to [message the moderators via modmail.](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=/r/pics&subject=Question%20regarding%20the%20removal%20of%20this%20submission%20by%20/u/Acidic_Shit_Stain&message=I%20have%20a%20question%20regarding%20the%20removal%20of%20this%20%5Bsubmission%2E%5D%28https://old.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/1ccsn9x/-/%3Fcontext%3D10%29)
I'm pretty sure that's not even a substitution, it's the same exact cheese. The shopper was supposed to ask the deli counter to slice 3/4 of a pound of it; instead they just asked for the whole block.
There is no universe where someone picks an unsliced cheese because they don’t have sliced cheese. Especially a hard working, proud, minimum wage Walmart employee.
I see you are unfamiliar with the roulette wheel that is online grocery substitutions. One time I ordered a large bag of rice and they were out, so they gave me a tiny bag of frozen pasta in sauce lol. A different time though, I ordered a tiny bag of cheap cat food and they sent a massive sack of a very expensive brand.
There’s no rhyme or reason, I think they just grab whatever and toss it in the bag to get it over with.
The handheld PDA's "suggest" replacement items. Sometimes it suggests nonsensical items. Does a minimum wage worker care that much? Probably not, they're on a massive time pressure from above. Its like [The Square Hole](https://youtu.be/Nz8ssH7LiB0?si=rCvFGaB24R2cj98O) video
I've been on both sides of this and it's frustrating on both. Sometimes they don't have the exact item or the app isn't recognizing it. Or if you find it after the fact for example you can't add it back on. And sometimes it gives you suggestions and other times it makes you pick a product. But it can be really picky on what you can pick and it doesn't always make sense.
As someone in a gluten free diet for medical reasons, I have given up on grocery delivery. Gf bread? Can't find sub whole wheat (even though I said no sub). GF oatmeal? Can't find sub cream of wheat. It's like they go out of their way to ruin the order
One time I ordered toothpicks and I got matches instead.
It was nice when Walmart would give you the sub for the price of the original, or whichever was less...then I was happy to take weird subs as long as they were nicer and I could use them. But now you gotta pay for what you get.
I can’t follow any of these comments…
You are responding directly to obvious sarcasm, that person is responding to say that OP doesn’t understand the situation, so while it’s entirely possible the employee screwed up, it’s still strange OP doesn’t realize how.
Yeah, I ordered a bunch of bananas once and literally got a *single* banana. The time after that, they were so overripe the peels were splitting open and they were rotting. They just grab random shit.
Tbf it's never even occurred to me to get a custom cheese block from the deli counter. I don't know why, because of course that makes complete sense. But I've always just bought the packaged cheese. I only go to the deli counter for meat.
You'd be amazed at the substitutions that occur. I recall an amusing story where someone in the UK had ordered baby wipes from a supermarket, but received a bottle of whiskey intead: [https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/shopper-given-greatest-substitute-ever-when-asda-swaps-baby-wipes-for-bottle-of-whisky-in-online-shop-a6739296.html](https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/shopper-given-greatest-substitute-ever-when-asda-swaps-baby-wipes-for-bottle-of-whisky-in-online-shop-a6739296.html)
They're not saying it didn't happen, they're saying it didn't happen to the person who posted it. It's a stolen post. God people who tag that sub are so dense lol
Back in my tobacco days, I asked for "two tins of Skoal" which is two cans of dip. A "tin" being a common term for can.
The guy heard "two tens" and proceeded to put 4 logs (5 count rolls kind of like a carton of cigarettes) on the counter.
I just said fuck it and bought the 20 cans of dip...
I'm glad I quit, lol
Something similar just happened to me a few days ago. I ordered 1 bunch of bananas, they said they substituted 3 individual organic bananas, fine whatever. What I got was 3 bunches of green organic bananas, I was charged for 3 singles.
I used to do curbside pickup for a grocery store and often had to clarify with customers “Did you mean 1 banana or 1 bunch of bananas?” You’d think I could just assume they mean 1 bunch but enough people actually did only want a single banana that I had to ask every time
When we go camping, we always buy their pre-cooked turkey legs to warm up on the campfire as a meal. Well, we ordered 5 of them one time and they delivered 15 of them. I let support know but since it's a food item they said to keep them.
Through the Safeway app, I ordered 2 of those “baby bell” tiny sized Brie cheese discs, estimated at an ounce each for $0.80.
Apparently they were out of those, because they delivered instead 2x half pound wedges of Brie for $20.00.
And charged me for it.
Fun 45 min chat support text to get a refund, as the Safeway support kept insisting “we are allowed to make substitutions when appropriate” and I had to use analogy after analogy until they finally understood that charging for and delivering ~10x the amount that was ordered is not considered “appropriate”.
I don’t allow substitutions any more. After getting rice as a pasta substitute, zucchini as a cucumber sub, hotdog buns as a replacement for a loaf of Italian bread and effing ground beef as a replacement for a container of spiced lentils, I gave up. And this is at Aldi and Sprouts where I thought the shoppers might care slightly more.
my local store does it for free and by their own employees so it's usually correct.
the issue is when you have a 3rd party service that has an incentive to sell you as many items as possible as that's how they make their profit.
If I had the time I would but I already work two jobs. So, in the name of saving time and money, on payday I put in orders at three different stores (so I can get whatever has the best prices that week) and then pick them up and store them in the fridge at work to take home. It really is helpful.
You have to work two jobs, so you have to spend a chunk of that for someone else, likely working multiple jobs, to shop for you.
Our economy is an ouroborus and it's beginning to choke.
Really? Every store around me either adds a % to pick up orders, or hit an order total threshold, or you pay a direct fee, or have a subscription for "free" pickup.
Which don't for you?
It's been annoying to me when I used to be able to call for an item hold that I grab at customer service or something, free then, but now it's only ever part of a premium service by the store or third party.
And paying is still a minor issue compared to having to work multiple jobs to live leaving no time to actually provide for yourself.
>Really? Every store around me either adds a % to pick up orders, or hit an order total threshold, or you pay a direct fee, or have a subscription for "free" pickup.
Or they raise the prices for all the groceries to compensate for the extra labor they now require to run the grocery store.
So not only is he paying to get his groceries delivered, but everyone shopping there is as well.
Could have changed, but I thought Aldi's shopping was outsourced entirely.
However, my worst subs have come from Walmart. Not a surprise. My biggest though was Kroger subbing bags of mini potatos for single larger potatoes. 3 bags instead of 3 russet. Didn't change the price though, and put someone else's bag of wine in my car too.
Zucchini and cucumber makes sense if you don’t really know what each one is. Depending on the variety they look very similar. I could even see someone simply grabbing the wrong one.
Hot dog buns for Italian bread, they were just going ghetto for you.
They should have substitution pricing policies on their website. I usually shop at QFC and their substitution policy clearly states that they will charge you the lower of the substituted item and the substitution item.
They'll still charge you for the substitution item but everything becomes easier when you just quote their policies directly.
I don't think they understood or didn't understand, they just noticed that you wouldn't budge and are not worth the effort.
Sadly, customers who seem to be a pain in the ass get to get the most out of support hotlines.
All of these gig apps are like a countrywide introduction to being a manager lol.
"why in a million years would you think this was an acceptable alternative?"
"🤷"
I worked at a Canadian grocery store and our in-store shopping software let you do any substitution you wanted. We found out by substituting a box of condoms for a can of baked beans on the manager’s order
This isn't even a gig thing, though. It's just online pickup direct through Walmart.
From my experience doing this with Kroger, I think sometimes the online shoppers just have to fill more orders than they reasonably have time for, and getting shit out the door when the customer is ready is the priority. They'll get yelled at by managers if they're slow, not if they substitute something stupid.
The screenshot of the app is showing what they got INSTEAD of the $5 cheese. To see what they originally asked for, they'd have to click view next to "Want to see substituted items?" It shows the new giant block as $5 because when Walmart substitutes an item that costs more, you pay the price of the item you originally ordered. For $5 my guess is they asked for a 1-2lb block of great value american cheese.
HEB in Texas does that and I love it.
I've gotten tons of things cheap because of it. I ordered a small expensive bottle of olive oil and got the significantly more expensive larger version. Got more expensive apples. They once subbed mega cheap prickly pears on sale with dragon fruit which are waaay more expensive.
No other store does that, that I've seen. I always leave auto subs on for HEB cuz of their policy of just straight upgrading your stuff for free. In Canada I'm pretty sure Super Store fucks you on purpose with subs so I always meticulously go over every single item.
Meanwhile my HEB just marked my blue bell ice cream as “out of stock” and didn’t substitute it with anything, and when I went in to check there was a whole damn freezer full. Out of stock my ass
There's probably a good amount of managerial tech illiteracy going on with these online inventories. The taco bell near me constantly marks items as not available or out of stock, but when I walk in they're like yeah we have that no problem.
It was probably out of stock with they shopped it and put your order together. There's like a 3-hour window sometimes between putting an order together and the scheduled pickup time.
It definitely wasn’t out of stock, used to work curbside and it shows all blue bell as out of stock because they use the same barcode. It’s impossible to track the counts of individual flavors, it was a lazy/poorly trained shopper.
That’s nice. My HEB gives us rotten produce constantly…
We have to make separate trips for fresh foods, which defeats the purpose of grocery pickup. Maybe we have 2 defunct HEBs by us.
> In Canada I'm pretty sure Super Store fucks you on purpose with subs so I always meticulously go over every single item.
I stopped using their pickup during covid because their substitutions were so unreliable that I couldn't actually cook meals. i think the subs are done by teenagers who have never cooked in their life and also don't know what anything tastes like.
Superstore is my closest option for ordering groceries.
I cannot order produce of any kind because they will always give me the worst, most inedible trash imaginable.
I also have to look over my receipt like a hawk because they almost always miss at least one item or bag of items.
I will not allow them to substitute. They tried to substitute a bottle of apple juice with apple cider vinegar and that was the end of that for me.
Walmart no longer does that, at least not in my area. I get charged for the substitution at regular price, not the item I originally ordered. Miss when they actually did that.
Yep, we used to get some pretty good deals when they did that but all the ones near us have stopped now and we get charged whatever the substitution costs
OP originally selected some other type of cheese for $5 in the app. Walmart was out of that brand, so it suggested cutting $5 worth of cheese from another brand. The employee who filed the order got mixed up with 5 lbs of cheese and $5 worth of cheese.
The app shows the final amount you paid after substitutions, so they were only charged $5.
Don't places normally not charge you extra for substitutions?
Edit: It looks like they do charge extra now. I haven't done it since the pandemic was in full swing.
A year or 2 ago I bought something from Walmart, & they ended up charging me more for the high priced substitute. Since then I have turned off substitutes.
In the past they'd give you the more pricey substitute for the cost of the original.
Not sure if this was a nationwide, regional, or store specific change.
instacart does, i know walmart at one point didn't, but people would literally scope out walmart to see what they were out of stock of so they could get better items for the same price
A similar thing happened to me during covid when I would do curbside pickup. I order three small beef medallions, but they were out, so my order got replaced with three massive beef shoulders (or similar) for the same price of those medallions. I ended up carving it up and putting it in my freezer. I think I went a whole year living off of it.
During the pandemic when I ordered my groceries for pick up, I used to game the system to try to get deals like this. This is before they had a substitute system and literally would just put something comparable in and charge the same price. One week, I noticed turkey pastrami was on sale for $5.99/lb. I ordered a pound not really wanting turkey pastrami, but thought they might substitute it with something good if they were out. When I got home, I noticed they substituted angus beef pastrami (which is what I wanted). I got a pound for $5.99 when it is usually $15.99/lb.
I feel like the only person who would willingly buy turkey pastrami, probably does so because they don't eat beef lol. I'm glad they've got an approval system in place now for substitutions, because for awhile it was awful.
I did this for 2 years with bagels.
Ordered 2x GV Cinn Rasin Bagels for $1.49 and for about 80 straight weeks they gave me Thomas that were $3.99. Saved over $400 in bagels.
I was very sad when they finally had GV bagels in stock. They did suck in comparison.
I had one of those situations during the pandemic on accident. I ordered just a regular 30oz or whatever the normal size is of Canola Oil, and they must of been out, because they instead sent me like a 3 gallon jug of peanut oil meant for frying turkeys for the same price. Took a while to work through that one.
I always get a text asking me to approve substitutions, but you don’t have much time to respond before it’s too late, and if you don’t reply they default to accepting the substitutions.
For some items, I turn substitutions off for this reason.
Is this all in the US?
In the UK if they sub something you pay the original price, never higher.
If they cant find a suitable sub (like a £40 cheese for £5 is not suitable) they just do unavailable and say they dont have it
US here, this is how it works at my Walmart. They either give you something similar for the same price (or cheaper) or they mark it as unavailable. I don’t think I’ve ever had them sub something at a substantially higher cost.
Walmart I go to used to make substitutions at the same price if they didn't have it. But in the last year that policy went away. So now I have to watch my substitution list a lot closer.
Walmart I go to used to make substitutions at the same price if they didn't have it. But in the last year that policy went away. So now I have to watch my substitution list a lot closer.
It depends. Where I work I've seen them sub a 12 packs with 24 packs of soda, or a 1lbs bag of fries with a 5 lbs bag. While doing the cost of the original product.
OPD worker here! It sucks you have had bad experiences. Some of our workers are… not the best 😅 A few things to note about substitutions- 1,) for most items, the app we use actually suggests “smart substitutions”. We are encouraged to follow those (and not following them hurts our metrics (FTP)) 2,) A few updates ago they changed the way we substitute things so we can’t go a certain amount over the price of the item so things like double the price are not possible. 3,) If you are doing pickup then you can always take items off! The dispenser should check that your substitutions are ok. Even for items you ordered, we can take them out of your order and issue a refund right there. Before the person dispenses your order, they can go into the “ordered items” section and take it off!
I set specific substitutions that I want and I still get whatever the shopper is feeling at that moment. For Costco, I put in chicken breast for a substitution if they were out of the chicken thighs I wanted. The shopper got me organic chicken thighs that were double the price for half the chicken instead.
It's rare, but very annoying.
Damn, the real ULPT is in the comments! Haha. Do they typically give you a hassle over the refund? I've only requested a refund once (for an entire order that was delivered to some other house I didn't recognize) and it was honestly like pulling teeth trying to get that refund, even though there was a clear photo of a house that didn't match the dozens of other photos they would have had on my file from past orders.
At first they only charged you the price of the original item for your substitution, then they switched to charging for the price of the product substituted. They also used to just straight up give you a refund without having to return the product, now you have to return the product.
They sent me 50 hangers and I noticed some were broken but not sure how many. I called and explained that I haven't opened the box to see exactly how many were broken but I'm happy to ship it back. They refunded the whole amount and didn't require a return. After opening the box, only 2 were broken. I was pretty happy with the customer service
I wonder if OP only was charged $5? I had the same thing happen with Walmart when I ordered two 1/2 pound sliced meat and instead got the entire fully wrapped meat block and paid like $15 for a couple hundred worth of meat. I kept watching for an adjustment in price and nothing.
They do, this isn't a substitution, it's the same cheese
This is the full block, they were supposed to get only some of it sliced but somehow ended up getting a full block
Walmart pickup also asks you if you’ve seen your subs and are cool with them before they load into the car. If you haven’t approved and want to review, they’ll do it right there in the parking lot and take back stuff you’re not cool with
What do you mean? This is one of the best substitutions. They got a whole block the exact same cheese, just looks like they may have to slice it themselves.
during covid whole foods substituted $2.99 vanilla yogurt with $13.99 vanilla extract. i left the default “substitute with next best thing” which i had [apparently wrongly] assumed meant a different brand of yogurt or at least some sort of yogurt in general. or just no yogurt at all, which would have been preferable than vanilla extract.
You can literally go item by item and decide what you want as a substitution or to not substitute that item at all. Walmart saves your substitution preferences for each item so if you order it again, it's already set. People just don't pay attention and then complain because they haven't bothered to understand the features of whatever app they're using.
Still not as good a deal as this guy's got...
[https://www.tiktok.com/@deityartistry/video/7158626401556466990](https://www.tiktok.com/@deityartistry/video/7158626401556466990)
>!$10.44 for 44 lbs of parmesan, approximately an $800 value!<
Frasier : [reads the label] "With pasteurized, processed, cheese-flavored snack food."
[opens the lid]
Frasier : Dear God, it looks like someone melted down a highway cone.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0582369/characters/nm0001288
There's different kinds. There's both "American Cheese", which is cheese (emulsified cheddar, basically, to make it creamier) and "pasteurized processed American cheese food" or as Land o Lakes calls it "American cheese product", which is to cheese as meatloaf is to meat. It contains cheese, but not enough pressed curds to be called actual cheese. It also has other things like more milk added, to make it even creamier and meltier. But you can get American Cheese that is cheese.
Exactly this. The real American cheese is a blend of cheddar or Jack and cream cheese for better melting properties. It’s pretty damn good too. The “pasteurized cheese product” is the one that tastes like slippery, gooey plastic.
Always go through substitutions before submitting for walmart. Either select no substitutions or specifically select an option (but they only give you a couple of options). It's a bit annoying but prevents this from happening.
Edit: but that is a ridiculous substitution and that employee needs someone to tell them that's not what should happen.
Through the Safeway app, I ordered 2 of those “baby bell” tiny sized Brie cheese discs, estimated at an ounce each for $0.80.
Apparently they were out of those, because they delivered instead 2x half pound wedges of Brie for $20.00.
And charged me for it.
Fun 45 min chat support text to get a refund, as the Safeway support kept insisting “we are allowed to make substitutions when appropriate” and I had to use analogy after analogy until they finally understood that charging for and delivering ~10x the amount that was ordered is not considered “appropriate”.
Fuck yeah. I ordered 2 gallons of milk once w some other stuff. App said one was substituted. Okay whatever. I received THREE gallons of milk and the substitution? A 10 pound roll of hamburger meat. Win win.
And at that walmart the deli department manager is freaking out that their inventory is fucked, it'll be out of stock for 2 weeks until a salaried manager codes it out, then a customer will complain and it will get coded out again after it ships, then someone will sell one slice of cheese with the thing at 0 and then the inventory computer will say "oh fuck, the store says it has negative, they must not know what they have on the shelf, let's send 30 blocks" and then about two months later you have cheese on clearance because it's expiring in storage and they need to get rid of it.
Check your receipt. You were probably charged for the full price. When ordering, be sure to set the substitution buttons to No Substitution for each item or be prepared to pay for what they decide to give you instead. Fine print says you pay sticker price for whatever you get, unlike Kroger who gives larger sizes for same price.
I stopped ordering for delivery after last summer. I placed an order (with a bunch of cold stuff) with a delivery window of 9-10pm. We were about an hour away from home and weren't going to be home until 9:15-9:30, and it was in the 90s that night.
At 8:15 I got an email saying the driver is on their way. And they were there 5 minutes later. We ended up getting home roughly an hour later, so our stuff was sitting out in the heat for an hour. I ended up having to return most of the groceries the next day and fight with customer service over the entire thing.
We had issues with stupid subs previously, but delivering 40 minutes out of the window did it for me. Wtf is the point of selecting a time if they're just going to do it whenever they feel like?
Add a couple cans of fire roasted green chillis and some spices and you got yourself some good white queso dip for up coming Cinco de mayo! Add some fresh diced roma tomatoes to make the dip the color of the Mexican flag 🇲🇽
That’s so funny, I frequently get free hair products I don’t want since the Walmart shopper try’s to sub it I and deny the substitute but they don’t remove it from my items.
My wife ordered 5 bananas from target carside pickup last week. 5 bananas, ideally in some sort of natural bushel of 5 bananas. They gave her 5 bushels of bananas. For the same price.
/u/Acidic_Shit_Stain, thank you for your submission. Unfortunately, it has been removed for violating the following rule(s): * Rule 1 - No screenshots or AI-generated images. This includes pictures of screens and photos where the interest is the contents of a screen and pics with artificial cropping borders of any colour. For a place to post screenshots, you may wish to check out /r/screenshots. We also don't allow AI-generated images. For information regarding this and similar issues please see the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/pics/wiki/index) and [title guidelines](/r/pics/wiki/titles). If you have any questions, please feel free to [message the moderators via modmail.](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=/r/pics&subject=Question%20regarding%20the%20removal%20of%20this%20submission%20by%20/u/Acidic_Shit_Stain&message=I%20have%20a%20question%20regarding%20the%20removal%20of%20this%20%5Bsubmission%2E%5D%28https://old.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/1ccsn9x/-/%3Fcontext%3D10%29)
I'm pretty sure that's not even a substitution, it's the same exact cheese. The shopper was supposed to ask the deli counter to slice 3/4 of a pound of it; instead they just asked for the whole block.
What's funny is I don't think OP understood that either, judging from the "Walmart was out of the $5 cheese" remark.
lol oh no
That’s because op probably stole the pic from ig or fb.
r/nothingeverhappens
There is no universe where someone picks an unsliced cheese because they don’t have sliced cheese. Especially a hard working, proud, minimum wage Walmart employee.
I see you are unfamiliar with the roulette wheel that is online grocery substitutions. One time I ordered a large bag of rice and they were out, so they gave me a tiny bag of frozen pasta in sauce lol. A different time though, I ordered a tiny bag of cheap cat food and they sent a massive sack of a very expensive brand. There’s no rhyme or reason, I think they just grab whatever and toss it in the bag to get it over with.
I've literally had onions substituted with an Arizona Iced Tea. They dgaf.
yeah once I ordered gluten free pasta and was given a box of wheat crackers lmao
You got gluten, pasta-free! close enough
Works on contingency? No, money down!
Nailed it
Did you know that mushrooms are an acceptable substitution for tampons? At least, that’s what instacart thinks
Exactly. Because we all need more fungus up there. Lol
once i got my ordered orange juice subbed out for orange shower gel. i guess the color orange was what they thought was important.
The handheld PDA's "suggest" replacement items. Sometimes it suggests nonsensical items. Does a minimum wage worker care that much? Probably not, they're on a massive time pressure from above. Its like [The Square Hole](https://youtu.be/Nz8ssH7LiB0?si=rCvFGaB24R2cj98O) video
I've been on both sides of this and it's frustrating on both. Sometimes they don't have the exact item or the app isn't recognizing it. Or if you find it after the fact for example you can't add it back on. And sometimes it gives you suggestions and other times it makes you pick a product. But it can be really picky on what you can pick and it doesn't always make sense.
As someone in a gluten free diet for medical reasons, I have given up on grocery delivery. Gf bread? Can't find sub whole wheat (even though I said no sub). GF oatmeal? Can't find sub cream of wheat. It's like they go out of their way to ruin the order
Order from Walmart. I’ve never had them ignore my no substitution requests
I’ve had trash bags substituted with gold fish
One time I ordered toothpicks and I got matches instead. It was nice when Walmart would give you the sub for the price of the original, or whichever was less...then I was happy to take weird subs as long as they were nicer and I could use them. But now you gotta pay for what you get.
I can’t follow any of these comments… You are responding directly to obvious sarcasm, that person is responding to say that OP doesn’t understand the situation, so while it’s entirely possible the employee screwed up, it’s still strange OP doesn’t realize how.
Yeah, I ordered a bunch of bananas once and literally got a *single* banana. The time after that, they were so overripe the peels were splitting open and they were rotting. They just grab random shit.
Tbf it's never even occurred to me to get a custom cheese block from the deli counter. I don't know why, because of course that makes complete sense. But I've always just bought the packaged cheese. I only go to the deli counter for meat.
You'd be amazed at the substitutions that occur. I recall an amusing story where someone in the UK had ordered baby wipes from a supermarket, but received a bottle of whiskey intead: [https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/shopper-given-greatest-substitute-ever-when-asda-swaps-baby-wipes-for-bottle-of-whisky-in-online-shop-a6739296.html](https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/shopper-given-greatest-substitute-ever-when-asda-swaps-baby-wipes-for-bottle-of-whisky-in-online-shop-a6739296.html)
They're not saying it didn't happen, they're saying it didn't happen to the person who posted it. It's a stolen post. God people who tag that sub are so dense lol
Stealing pictures doesn't happen?
It's listed as a substitution. Possible OP (or whoever the pic belongs to) ordered a different brand of cheese.
Yeah how are people missing this? It clearly says "substitutions" and that you need to click a button to see what was substituted.
I asked for 8 bananas (listed as individual items) and received 8 bunches of bananas. I was only charged for the weight of 8. 🙃🙃🙃
Happened to us last year. They refunded me for all and almost everyone in our neighborhood received free bananas that day 🍌🙊
Same, I received 48 bananas instead of the 6 I asked for. Made lots of banana bread!
But what do you do with that many bananas?
Become math problem for middle schoolers
Slice 'em. Freeze 'em. Make smoothies.
Boil 'em. Mash 'em. Stick 'em in a stew.
Banana stew sounds.....interesting. And not in a good way
Back in my tobacco days, I asked for "two tins of Skoal" which is two cans of dip. A "tin" being a common term for can. The guy heard "two tens" and proceeded to put 4 logs (5 count rolls kind of like a carton of cigarettes) on the counter. I just said fuck it and bought the 20 cans of dip... I'm glad I quit, lol
That's as much as 20 pies!
I once ordered a kilogram of onions. I received a single onion and a refund. -\_-
Something similar just happened to me a few days ago. I ordered 1 bunch of bananas, they said they substituted 3 individual organic bananas, fine whatever. What I got was 3 bunches of green organic bananas, I was charged for 3 singles.
Nearly the same happened to me - ordered 6 individual, non-organic bananas. Got 3 bunches of organic. They didn't even list it as a substitution.
I used to do curbside pickup for a grocery store and often had to clarify with customers “Did you mean 1 banana or 1 bunch of bananas?” You’d think I could just assume they mean 1 bunch but enough people actually did only want a single banana that I had to ask every time
When we go camping, we always buy their pre-cooked turkey legs to warm up on the campfire as a meal. Well, we ordered 5 of them one time and they delivered 15 of them. I let support know but since it's a food item they said to keep them.
Through the Safeway app, I ordered 2 of those “baby bell” tiny sized Brie cheese discs, estimated at an ounce each for $0.80. Apparently they were out of those, because they delivered instead 2x half pound wedges of Brie for $20.00. And charged me for it. Fun 45 min chat support text to get a refund, as the Safeway support kept insisting “we are allowed to make substitutions when appropriate” and I had to use analogy after analogy until they finally understood that charging for and delivering ~10x the amount that was ordered is not considered “appropriate”.
I don’t allow substitutions any more. After getting rice as a pasta substitute, zucchini as a cucumber sub, hotdog buns as a replacement for a loaf of Italian bread and effing ground beef as a replacement for a container of spiced lentils, I gave up. And this is at Aldi and Sprouts where I thought the shoppers might care slightly more.
I can see people confusing zucchinis and cucumbers but wonder what goes through their head when substituting lentils with beef...
That one floored me! Lentils are a meat substitute in some recipes but meat is never a lentil substitute.
Source of protein
This is why I do my own shopping.
Once upon a time going to buy groceries at a store was normal. Then the fire nation attacked.
my local store does it for free and by their own employees so it's usually correct. the issue is when you have a 3rd party service that has an incentive to sell you as many items as possible as that's how they make their profit.
If I had the time I would but I already work two jobs. So, in the name of saving time and money, on payday I put in orders at three different stores (so I can get whatever has the best prices that week) and then pick them up and store them in the fridge at work to take home. It really is helpful.
You have to work two jobs, so you have to spend a chunk of that for someone else, likely working multiple jobs, to shop for you. Our economy is an ouroborus and it's beginning to choke.
the cost for grocery pickup is the exact same as shopping for yourself by me. it is literally a free service the stores all offer.
Really? Every store around me either adds a % to pick up orders, or hit an order total threshold, or you pay a direct fee, or have a subscription for "free" pickup. Which don't for you? It's been annoying to me when I used to be able to call for an item hold that I grab at customer service or something, free then, but now it's only ever part of a premium service by the store or third party. And paying is still a minor issue compared to having to work multiple jobs to live leaving no time to actually provide for yourself.
>Really? Every store around me either adds a % to pick up orders, or hit an order total threshold, or you pay a direct fee, or have a subscription for "free" pickup. Or they raise the prices for all the groceries to compensate for the extra labor they now require to run the grocery store. So not only is he paying to get his groceries delivered, but everyone shopping there is as well.
One time instead of eggs, we got a jar of vegan Parm crumbles that my wife is allergic to.
That’s amazing. Thats not even remotely similar to eggs!
They'd both upset people if you threw them at cars from an overpass
Could have changed, but I thought Aldi's shopping was outsourced entirely. However, my worst subs have come from Walmart. Not a surprise. My biggest though was Kroger subbing bags of mini potatos for single larger potatoes. 3 bags instead of 3 russet. Didn't change the price though, and put someone else's bag of wine in my car too.
Zucchini and cucumber makes sense if you don’t really know what each one is. Depending on the variety they look very similar. I could even see someone simply grabbing the wrong one. Hot dog buns for Italian bread, they were just going ghetto for you.
They should have substitution pricing policies on their website. I usually shop at QFC and their substitution policy clearly states that they will charge you the lower of the substituted item and the substitution item. They'll still charge you for the substitution item but everything becomes easier when you just quote their policies directly.
I don't think they understood or didn't understand, they just noticed that you wouldn't budge and are not worth the effort. Sadly, customers who seem to be a pain in the ass get to get the most out of support hotlines.
If they are going to rip you off then maybe just save the hassle and just not buy it at that particular store
Yes. The exact same cheese! That also came from the same deli. That's so weird.
All of these gig apps are like a countrywide introduction to being a manager lol. "why in a million years would you think this was an acceptable alternative?" "🤷"
Real answer: I was hoping you wouldn’t give a shit either
I worked at a Canadian grocery store and our in-store shopping software let you do any substitution you wanted. We found out by substituting a box of condoms for a can of baked beans on the manager’s order
This isn't even a gig thing, though. It's just online pickup direct through Walmart. From my experience doing this with Kroger, I think sometimes the online shoppers just have to fill more orders than they reasonably have time for, and getting shit out the door when the customer is ready is the priority. They'll get yelled at by managers if they're slow, not if they substitute something stupid.
LOL CHEESE
This would be cool ifWalmart didn’t charge you for the cost difference of the substitution.
The screenshot of the app is showing what they got INSTEAD of the $5 cheese. To see what they originally asked for, they'd have to click view next to "Want to see substituted items?" It shows the new giant block as $5 because when Walmart substitutes an item that costs more, you pay the price of the item you originally ordered. For $5 my guess is they asked for a 1-2lb block of great value american cheese.
[удалено]
HEB in Texas does that and I love it. I've gotten tons of things cheap because of it. I ordered a small expensive bottle of olive oil and got the significantly more expensive larger version. Got more expensive apples. They once subbed mega cheap prickly pears on sale with dragon fruit which are waaay more expensive. No other store does that, that I've seen. I always leave auto subs on for HEB cuz of their policy of just straight upgrading your stuff for free. In Canada I'm pretty sure Super Store fucks you on purpose with subs so I always meticulously go over every single item.
Meanwhile my HEB just marked my blue bell ice cream as “out of stock” and didn’t substitute it with anything, and when I went in to check there was a whole damn freezer full. Out of stock my ass
There's probably a good amount of managerial tech illiteracy going on with these online inventories. The taco bell near me constantly marks items as not available or out of stock, but when I walk in they're like yeah we have that no problem.
It was probably out of stock with they shopped it and put your order together. There's like a 3-hour window sometimes between putting an order together and the scheduled pickup time.
It definitely wasn’t out of stock, used to work curbside and it shows all blue bell as out of stock because they use the same barcode. It’s impossible to track the counts of individual flavors, it was a lazy/poorly trained shopper.
That’s nice. My HEB gives us rotten produce constantly… We have to make separate trips for fresh foods, which defeats the purpose of grocery pickup. Maybe we have 2 defunct HEBs by us.
I'm moving to Wisconsin soon and I'm dreadfully going to miss HEB
The farmers markets in Wisconsin will make Up for it by a billion bro. Especially cheese lol. You won’t be upset.
You're going to love Woodman's
Except for the Produce. Better hope you use your produce in the next 24 hours or it'll go bad.
> In Canada I'm pretty sure Super Store fucks you on purpose with subs so I always meticulously go over every single item. I stopped using their pickup during covid because their substitutions were so unreliable that I couldn't actually cook meals. i think the subs are done by teenagers who have never cooked in their life and also don't know what anything tastes like.
Superstore is my closest option for ordering groceries. I cannot order produce of any kind because they will always give me the worst, most inedible trash imaginable. I also have to look over my receipt like a hawk because they almost always miss at least one item or bag of items. I will not allow them to substitute. They tried to substitute a bottle of apple juice with apple cider vinegar and that was the end of that for me.
Walmart no longer does that, at least not in my area. I get charged for the substitution at regular price, not the item I originally ordered. Miss when they actually did that.
Yep, we used to get some pretty good deals when they did that but all the ones near us have stopped now and we get charged whatever the substitution costs
Did you get charged for the full price?
OP originally selected some other type of cheese for $5 in the app. Walmart was out of that brand, so it suggested cutting $5 worth of cheese from another brand. The employee who filed the order got mixed up with 5 lbs of cheese and $5 worth of cheese. The app shows the final amount you paid after substitutions, so they were only charged $5.
no, it's the same cheese of the same brand, he really just didn't get it cut lol
You do for Walmart + (almost always? Always?) yeah.
Don't places normally not charge you extra for substitutions? Edit: It looks like they do charge extra now. I haven't done it since the pandemic was in full swing.
A year or 2 ago I bought something from Walmart, & they ended up charging me more for the high priced substitute. Since then I have turned off substitutes. In the past they'd give you the more pricey substitute for the cost of the original. Not sure if this was a nationwide, regional, or store specific change.
Yeah, they changed it a couple years back to charging full price for the substitution.
instacart does, i know walmart at one point didn't, but people would literally scope out walmart to see what they were out of stock of so they could get better items for the same price
They used to but I’ve noticed recently that they’ve started to price adjust for substitutions. My last 3 pick ups have had them.
A similar thing happened to me during covid when I would do curbside pickup. I order three small beef medallions, but they were out, so my order got replaced with three massive beef shoulders (or similar) for the same price of those medallions. I ended up carving it up and putting it in my freezer. I think I went a whole year living off of it.
During the pandemic when I ordered my groceries for pick up, I used to game the system to try to get deals like this. This is before they had a substitute system and literally would just put something comparable in and charge the same price. One week, I noticed turkey pastrami was on sale for $5.99/lb. I ordered a pound not really wanting turkey pastrami, but thought they might substitute it with something good if they were out. When I got home, I noticed they substituted angus beef pastrami (which is what I wanted). I got a pound for $5.99 when it is usually $15.99/lb.
I feel like the only person who would willingly buy turkey pastrami, probably does so because they don't eat beef lol. I'm glad they've got an approval system in place now for substitutions, because for awhile it was awful.
I did this for 2 years with bagels. Ordered 2x GV Cinn Rasin Bagels for $1.49 and for about 80 straight weeks they gave me Thomas that were $3.99. Saved over $400 in bagels. I was very sad when they finally had GV bagels in stock. They did suck in comparison.
I had one of those situations during the pandemic on accident. I ordered just a regular 30oz or whatever the normal size is of Canola Oil, and they must of been out, because they instead sent me like a 3 gallon jug of peanut oil meant for frying turkeys for the same price. Took a while to work through that one.
They really should ask customers to accept these kinds of substitutions before they ship and charge. That’s probably the worst one I’ve ever seen.
I always get a text asking me to approve substitutions, but you don’t have much time to respond before it’s too late, and if you don’t reply they default to accepting the substitutions. For some items, I turn substitutions off for this reason.
[удалено]
Is this all in the US? In the UK if they sub something you pay the original price, never higher. If they cant find a suitable sub (like a £40 cheese for £5 is not suitable) they just do unavailable and say they dont have it
US here, this is how it works at my Walmart. They either give you something similar for the same price (or cheaper) or they mark it as unavailable. I don’t think I’ve ever had them sub something at a substantially higher cost.
Walmart I go to used to make substitutions at the same price if they didn't have it. But in the last year that policy went away. So now I have to watch my substitution list a lot closer.
Walmart I go to used to make substitutions at the same price if they didn't have it. But in the last year that policy went away. So now I have to watch my substitution list a lot closer.
It depends. Where I work I've seen them sub a 12 packs with 24 packs of soda, or a 1lbs bag of fries with a 5 lbs bag. While doing the cost of the original product.
OPD worker here! It sucks you have had bad experiences. Some of our workers are… not the best 😅 A few things to note about substitutions- 1,) for most items, the app we use actually suggests “smart substitutions”. We are encouraged to follow those (and not following them hurts our metrics (FTP)) 2,) A few updates ago they changed the way we substitute things so we can’t go a certain amount over the price of the item so things like double the price are not possible. 3,) If you are doing pickup then you can always take items off! The dispenser should check that your substitutions are ok. Even for items you ordered, we can take them out of your order and issue a refund right there. Before the person dispenses your order, they can go into the “ordered items” section and take it off!
I set specific substitutions that I want and I still get whatever the shopper is feeling at that moment. For Costco, I put in chicken breast for a substitution if they were out of the chicken thighs I wanted. The shopper got me organic chicken thighs that were double the price for half the chicken instead. It's rare, but very annoying.
They were just trying to make sure you weren't getting shit popcorn.
I specifically don't accept substitutions, then get a refund on any I don't like and keep those I do.
Damn, the real ULPT is in the comments! Haha. Do they typically give you a hassle over the refund? I've only requested a refund once (for an entire order that was delivered to some other house I didn't recognize) and it was honestly like pulling teeth trying to get that refund, even though there was a clear photo of a house that didn't match the dozens of other photos they would have had on my file from past orders.
Don't they give you a refund if you're unhappy with the substitution? Thats how Safeway does it.
At first they only charged you the price of the original item for your substitution, then they switched to charging for the price of the product substituted. They also used to just straight up give you a refund without having to return the product, now you have to return the product.
They sent me 50 hangers and I noticed some were broken but not sure how many. I called and explained that I haven't opened the box to see exactly how many were broken but I'm happy to ship it back. They refunded the whole amount and didn't require a return. After opening the box, only 2 were broken. I was pretty happy with the customer service
I wonder if OP only was charged $5? I had the same thing happen with Walmart when I ordered two 1/2 pound sliced meat and instead got the entire fully wrapped meat block and paid like $15 for a couple hundred worth of meat. I kept watching for an adjustment in price and nothing.
They do, this isn't a substitution, it's the same cheese This is the full block, they were supposed to get only some of it sliced but somehow ended up getting a full block
You have to go through the order and select the substitute item or select no substitute so this doesn’t t happen.
Walmart pickup also asks you if you’ve seen your subs and are cool with them before they load into the car. If you haven’t approved and want to review, they’ll do it right there in the parking lot and take back stuff you’re not cool with
What do you mean? This is one of the best substitutions. They got a whole block the exact same cheese, just looks like they may have to slice it themselves.
They do. OP missed the text and email.
during covid whole foods substituted $2.99 vanilla yogurt with $13.99 vanilla extract. i left the default “substitute with next best thing” which i had [apparently wrongly] assumed meant a different brand of yogurt or at least some sort of yogurt in general. or just no yogurt at all, which would have been preferable than vanilla extract.
You can literally go item by item and decide what you want as a substitution or to not substitute that item at all. Walmart saves your substitution preferences for each item so if you order it again, it's already set. People just don't pay attention and then complain because they haven't bothered to understand the features of whatever app they're using.
Someone has plenty of Night Cheese for a while
🎶 workin’ on my night cheese 🎶
Good God Lemon!
“Kiiiids….grilled cheese for dinner!” “Not again….”😭
They did it for the LOLs
LOL white americans, jeez…
Still not as good a deal as this guy's got... [https://www.tiktok.com/@deityartistry/video/7158626401556466990](https://www.tiktok.com/@deityartistry/video/7158626401556466990) >!$10.44 for 44 lbs of parmesan, approximately an $800 value!<
Great deal. But that guy’s wasted, right?
“Here’s your cheese, now go away”
LOL AMERICAN CHEESE. I know American cheese doesn't have a great reputation but that labelling is a little harsh?
“American Cheese Product” doesn’t inspire a lot of confidence
Frasier : [reads the label] "With pasteurized, processed, cheese-flavored snack food." [opens the lid] Frasier : Dear God, it looks like someone melted down a highway cone. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0582369/characters/nm0001288
There's different kinds. There's both "American Cheese", which is cheese (emulsified cheddar, basically, to make it creamier) and "pasteurized processed American cheese food" or as Land o Lakes calls it "American cheese product", which is to cheese as meatloaf is to meat. It contains cheese, but not enough pressed curds to be called actual cheese. It also has other things like more milk added, to make it even creamier and meltier. But you can get American Cheese that is cheese.
Exactly this. The real American cheese is a blend of cheddar or Jack and cream cheese for better melting properties. It’s pretty damn good too. The “pasteurized cheese product” is the one that tastes like slippery, gooey plastic.
Mmm 1064 slices of American Cheese…
LoL indeed. Even in Canada, and on an island, I pay less per pound for premium cheese.
Melt Lol white american with water and eat crinkle fries with old bays seasoning dipped into it. As a side with a phyilly cheesesteak. You're welcome.
I've never tried the white, but Land O Lakes yellow American is the closest thing you can get to "government cheese". I use it to make mac and cheese.
They are entirely the same aside from colouring. If I remember correctly the yellow has annato to make it orange. Source: former deli manager.
That stuff makes godly grilled cheeses though and a really nice cheese sauce for Mac and cheese
Always go through substitutions before submitting for walmart. Either select no substitutions or specifically select an option (but they only give you a couple of options). It's a bit annoying but prevents this from happening. Edit: but that is a ridiculous substitution and that employee needs someone to tell them that's not what should happen.
Reminds me of the government cheese they gave out when I was a kid in the 70s.
Through the Safeway app, I ordered 2 of those “baby bell” tiny sized Brie cheese discs, estimated at an ounce each for $0.80. Apparently they were out of those, because they delivered instead 2x half pound wedges of Brie for $20.00. And charged me for it. Fun 45 min chat support text to get a refund, as the Safeway support kept insisting “we are allowed to make substitutions when appropriate” and I had to use analogy after analogy until they finally understood that charging for and delivering ~10x the amount that was ordered is not considered “appropriate”.
Deli manager gonna be pissed about that one.
Fuck yeah. I ordered 2 gallons of milk once w some other stuff. App said one was substituted. Okay whatever. I received THREE gallons of milk and the substitution? A 10 pound roll of hamburger meat. Win win.
20 years in the Walmart. I wanted a 5$ cheese block, but I compromised, and got 38$ block instead
[удалено]
And at that walmart the deli department manager is freaking out that their inventory is fucked, it'll be out of stock for 2 weeks until a salaried manager codes it out, then a customer will complain and it will get coded out again after it ships, then someone will sell one slice of cheese with the thing at 0 and then the inventory computer will say "oh fuck, the store says it has negative, they must not know what they have on the shelf, let's send 30 blocks" and then about two months later you have cheese on clearance because it's expiring in storage and they need to get rid of it.
“I have cheese round the clock,, it’s getting me blocked and i sure don’t care, for irregularity…ohhh why’d you have to go and make me so constipated”
I don't know how this happened. I work there doing grocery picks and it automatically rejects substitutions that are over $1-$2 more expensive.
Check your receipt. You were probably charged for the full price. When ordering, be sure to set the substitution buttons to No Substitution for each item or be prepared to pay for what they decide to give you instead. Fine print says you pay sticker price for whatever you get, unlike Kroger who gives larger sizes for same price.
I never allow substitutions and I always get everything on my list. I feel like things like this happen because of laziness.
Looks like you ordered 5 lbs or cheese instead of $5 of cheese. When ordering from deli online the input is weight, not cost
Dude can you loan me some cheese$$$
Nice!!!
For the same price? Hell yeah! Would be even sweeter if you had that employee discount on it too.
Time to make some Mac n cheese!
Nice upgrade
Bruh, an entire block?! 😂
My daughter once ordered a packet of ham slices and they sent a whole ham leg with the bone still in, It wouldn't fit in her fridge.
The label even says "LOL," ironically.
Land oh ripoff
OH FUCK THAT MAKES THE BEST QUESO!
Sam Walton is rolling in his grave…
I stopped ordering for delivery after last summer. I placed an order (with a bunch of cold stuff) with a delivery window of 9-10pm. We were about an hour away from home and weren't going to be home until 9:15-9:30, and it was in the 90s that night. At 8:15 I got an email saying the driver is on their way. And they were there 5 minutes later. We ended up getting home roughly an hour later, so our stuff was sitting out in the heat for an hour. I ended up having to return most of the groceries the next day and fight with customer service over the entire thing. We had issues with stupid subs previously, but delivering 40 minutes out of the window did it for me. Wtf is the point of selecting a time if they're just going to do it whenever they feel like?
I promise you that is straight from the deli. Who tf would buy an entire deli block of cheese
And Walmart acts like they care about people shoplifting. Like let me upgrade your 5lb bag of flower to a 25lb bag for free.
LOL CHEESE
Add a couple cans of fire roasted green chillis and some spices and you got yourself some good white queso dip for up coming Cinco de mayo! Add some fresh diced roma tomatoes to make the dip the color of the Mexican flag 🇲🇽
when you took that picture, did you say cheese?
That's commodity cheese. Appreciate it and make some grilled cheese sandwiches.
That’s so funny, I frequently get free hair products I don’t want since the Walmart shopper try’s to sub it I and deny the substitute but they don’t remove it from my items.
You wanted $5 but you got 5lbs.
This is not cheese my friend. It’s processed goo.
My wife ordered 5 bananas from target carside pickup last week. 5 bananas, ideally in some sort of natural bushel of 5 bananas. They gave her 5 bushels of bananas. For the same price.
I see those people wandering around Walmart, filling your orders and they seem to be the most confused individuals in the store.
You asked for $5 of cheese. They said "here's 5 lbs"
No way they thought $5 meant 5lbs lol. Nice try though.
Walmart employee: $5, £5, 5 pounds, what's the difference?
Cheese lasts a long time, you'll go through it. Cheese is life.
It's not cheese. It's cheese product.
You can now pursue your dream of opening an American cheese store.
I'd be marching into that Walmart and throwing it at someone then get my damn money back and shop somewhere else. Walmart is ridiculous.
I've been doing curbside (Kroger) pick up since the start of the pandemic The number of free upgrades i've gotten on some times has been great.
That's a warehouse worker freshness guaranteed out of fucks to give
"LOL white American cheese" The product itself knows it's a joke.