Here at the Daily Dot, male Instacart shoppers have become a genre in and of themselves. From bizarre substitutions to moldy bell peppers, many customers feel like male Instacart shoppers just can’t get things right.
Tyler (@citygirltyler) joined the countless customers who have taken to TikTok to share their frustrations with male Instacart shoppers. And in her TikTok, which has amassed 107,800 views, she really wasn’t happy.
Showing viewers a giant green pepper, Tyler says, “This is exactly why if you ever get a man as your Instacart shopper, cancel the [expletive] order.”
She then explains how she ordered two jalapeños, only for the shopper to make a bizarre substitution. “Everybody knows what a [expletive] jalapeño looks like,” she adds.
Everyone except, apparently, this Instacart shopper.
Based on the comments section, Tyler was not alone with these frustrating hauls.
One TikTok user described how her tampons were substituted with diapers. Another shared how, instead of two onions like they asked, the shopper ended up with 3 pounds of them.
Other examples mentioned include a cabbage instead of lettuce, pre-cut watermelon instead of grapes, and a dog bowl instead of cat litter.
“Before they accept an order there should be a captcha with some of the items on there to verify if they’re qualified,” a further commenter suggested.
Tyler didn’t immediately respond to the Daily Dot’s request for comment via TikTok comment and email/
@citygirltyler when i catch you rickyyyyy
♬ original sound – TP
Why do male Instacart shoppers have a bad reputation?
Data by Capital One claims that 78.2% of women claim to be their household’s primary shopper. Similarly, in households where a partner and children are present, 80% of women report doing most of the grocery shopping. And it isn’t just households with children, either.
Just 23% of married and partnered men with no children report being their household’s primary shopper. Furthermore, just 23% of men and women equally share grocery shopping responsibility—and this shrinks down to 11% if children are in the mix as well.
This is relevant because it suggests that grocery shopping is a gendered issue, and that men are unable and/or unwilling to do it. It’s unclear what drives this grocery shopping gender gap, but it probably has something to do with the fact that grocery shopping is associated with domestic chores, which, as we know, are usually associated with women.
Tangentially related to the whole gender thing is the concept of weaponized incompetence. This refers to people deliberately doing a task they don’t want to do poorly so that they’re not asked to do the task again. While anyone can do this, it’s usually associated with men in relationships being confronted with chores like laundry and, yes, grocery shopping.
The long-short of it is that “male Instacart shopper” has become shorthand for weaponized incompetence because of all these men universally sucking at grocery shopping. And based on Tyler’s TikTok, we can kind of see why.
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