There are plenty of tales from Instacart customers where they’ve castigated shoppers for either blatantly disregarding their order instructions or making substitutions that could be defined as bizarre at best.
And while St. Louis-based TikToker Linda Jones (@brazy_redd) ultimately did get the item she asked for on a recent order she placed, she did have a problem with the specific selection the Instacart shopper made nonetheless.
If you’re trying to get animal protein on a budget, then you may have heard of the late-night shopping “hack” where stores slap meats with a significant discount to move products that are nearing their “best by” date.
Some customers caution against getting meat that’s possibly nearing its expiration date, as food poisoning is never fun. It seems that Jones subscribes to this mode of thinking, as she was left questioning why her Instacart driver decided to get her discounted ground beef that was sporting a “reduced for quick sale” sticker.
@brazy_redd Count your days Instacart 😐 I need my car back ASAP😭#instacart#stolenfood#spoiled#spoiledfood#countyourdays#oldmeat#expired#expiredmeat#sick#stl#poundtown #groceries #groceryhaul #grocer #poundtown2#bad #badmeat #sickmeat #quicksale #quickrecipes #recipes #blackfoodie #blackchef #cheftok ♬ Pound Town 2 (feat. Nicki Minaj & Tay Keith) – Sexyy Red & Nicki Minaj & Tay Keith
“This is why I don’t do Instacart because why would you give me some meat that gotta be sold by today? Out of all the meat that they had why would you give me this? People are just so f*cking ignorant, it just don’t make no sense,” she says in the clip.
One commenter said they, too, swore off the platform for good after seeing the substitution a shopper made for an ice cream request.
“I stopped using [Instacart] when instead of ice cream the guy bought me a tub of greek yogurt, a big tub of plain oats, and blueberries. Bye,” the user wrote.
However, someone else didn’t think that the package of marked-down meat was such a big deal, writing, “Use it or freeze it what’s the issue?”
Others couldn’t understand why the Instacart driver wouldn’t ensure they were getting the absolute best quality products on their list of requests.
“They wrong asl cuz when I did ts w my mom we always made sure to get the best product for the ppl we were shopping 4,” a user wrote.
Another joked, “If I was the instacart person I’d get the most expensive.”
Someone else speculated as to why an Instacart driver might go out of their way to get older products.
“So they can keep the change for a bigger tip,” they wrote. “I don’t mess with Instacart.”
It seems this isn’t the first time someone has taken to a social media application to complain about their Instacart purchases leaving them with expired goods. Redditor @wantaknow68 said that despite specifically asking shoppers not to put items that are close to being expired in their cart, they still ended up with soon-to-be-perished products.
The Daily Dot has reached out to Instacart via email and Jones via TikTok comment.
