It’s the stuff of modern-day memes and ’80s stand-up comedy routines everywhere: men can’t stand shopping mostly because they either don’t have the patience or wherewithal to go through aisles to find the items on their shopping lists.
This phenomenon is something that TikToker Gillian Dittmer (@gilliannryan) noted in a viral clip where she questioned her male Instacart delivery driver’s inability to locate bread in a supermarket.
@gilliannryan interesting choices, steve! 👍 #fyp #instacart #instacartshopper #nyc ♬ original sound – moxie<3
She writes in a text overlay, “Staring at the message from my male Instacart shopper that he replaced my soy sauce with ranch and refunded me for the item: ‘bread’ because he could not find it”
The Daily Dot has reached out to Gillian and Instacart via email for further comment.
It appears that there may be some scientific research. In a Herald-Mail article, author Alicia Notarianni wrote about her own experiences having to consistently find things for her husband and cites some findings from National Geographic that support the idea that women are genetically predisposed to locating items much better than men are.
“According to the National Geographic website, the male inability to see things that are plain as day supports the hunter-gatherer hypothesis, which suggests that the sexes evolved distinct psychological abilities to fit prehistoric roles,” she writes.
Notarianni adds that these roles may date back to the early days of our species, where males typically hunted game and were on high alert for moving objects. Women, on the other hand, thrived in identifying stationary things. “Research indicates that men show greater sensitivity for fine detail and for rapidly-moving stimuli. This would have allowed hunters to detect predators or prey from far away and to identify and categorize objects,” she states. “Females, though, would have been gatherers, better adapted to recognize nearby static objects, such as wild berries, or later, perhaps, backpacks, cleats, and ketchup.”
In the comments of Gillian’s post, several viewers agreed with her assessment.
“Every time I get a male Instacart shopper, I die a little inside,” one commenter wrote.
“Bread. The hardest and most uncommon item to find,” another added.
Others poked fun at her complaint that the shopper replaced soy sauce with ranch. “HOW DARE THE PEASANT NOT FETCH ME THE SOY SAUCE,” a top comment read.
Some brought tipping into the conversation.
“Instacart has the audacity to ask for tips before shopping but I’m like bruh I’m either overtipping mediocrity or undertipping excellence,” one commenter claimed.
In response, Gillian argued, “I consider the tip their incentive to get me nice items.”
However, following that logic, Gillian’s incentive may not always be effective when paired with a male Instacart shopper.
