Customer Says We Should Be Allowed To Request Women For Grocery Orders After Male Shopper Gets 4 Out Of 5 Of Her Items Wrong
The real problem here is weaponized incompetence.
PeopleImages.com - Yuri A | Shutterstock Ask any wife, girlfriend, daughter, sister, or aunt — literally any woman — what happens when a man they know needs to find something. We can wait... Actually, we don't need to wait. You know why? Because most men lack what women have affectionately named the "find it" gene. For some reason, when tasked with either finding something misplaced or finding something on a store shelf, men have a much harder time than women.
A man's inability to see things that are right in front of his face is exactly why a woman named Sammi thinks grocery apps like Doordash and Instacart should offer customers the option to request female shoppers specifically. She is sick of messed up orders that are solely the fault of men who don't know how to find anything in a grocery store.
A woman explained why companies like Instacart should allow customers to request women shoppers for grocery orders.
"I am begging you to make an update on your app where I can request a female shopper," Sammi began in her video. I'm gonna need that to happen." She went on to explain her frustration.
"I put in an order for five items. One of these items is what I ordered." Sammi continued. "I ordered a 1/2 gallon of store-brand milk — I got a 1/4 gallon of Tuscan, and you can't tell me they didn't have store-brand milk. I ordered a chopped Caesar salad kit — I got the ultimate Caesar salad kit, and I'm not gonna lie, I was expecting this because you have to look slightly harder for the chopped kit." Maybe not the worst mistakes, but mistakes all the same. She continued through her shopping list, "I ordered mozzarella pearls — I got a mozzarella log. Again, because you have to look slightly harder for the pearls, so why would he ever?"
Rounding out her list of five items, Sammi forged ahead. "I ordered garlic and herb Land O' Lakes Spread — I got butter with canola oil. Awesome. Now I have a third container of butter in my fridge. "And," she added, "I actually messaged him. 'Could you not substitute that one and refund me if you can't find the garlic and herb?'" Oops! And finally, "The one thing I actually ordered specifically was the store brand Italian seasoning." Feels like some sort of celebration is in order for the one correct item!
"Normally I never go through and complain on the DoorDash app because when I was a dasher it always fell on the driver and not the restaurant or whatever, but this was the driver's fault, this was the shopper's fault so I got a full refund," she said.
Other women wholeheartedly agreed with this customer, sharing their bizarre experiences with male shoppers and the items they received.
"I ordered tampons and was substituted white mushrooms," the top liked comment read. "I have been telling this story for like 4 years because I am still not over it."
"A man substituted my ground beef for a watermelon and I'm still confused about it," another commenter said.
It's clear from the comment section that Sammi's complaints were not a one-off. The inefficiency of male shoppers for online grocery orders is actually a thing. Meanwhile, women shoppers not only did their jobs and did them well but, in some cases, went above and beyond.
"I had a lady dasher who once asked if I wanted parmesan because it was on sale and she thought it would go well with what else I had ordered," recalled another commenter. Another even said they received a get-well card from their female dasher because she noticed the items being ordered indicated sickness — tons of medicine and chicken noodle soup.
The inefficiency of male shoppers could be weaponized incompetence, or they could just shop very differently than women.
According to Psychology Today, weaponized incompetence is when a person knowingly or unknowingly shows an inability to perform certain tasks, which creates more work for others. More often than not, it is men who wield their weaponized incompetence whenever they get the chance, and women who become responsible for the labor men manage to get themselves out of.
Seems plausible, but according to Mandy Putnam, vice president at consulting firm TNS Retail Forward, who conducted research on men and their difficulties with grocery shopping, it might not be as cut and dry as that. She told Reuters that, more often than not, men are simply inefficient shoppers mostly because they aren't used to the task, and they are unlikely to ask for help.
Putnam went on to say, "They were great at picking out the stuff that they bought before. It's the new stuff, or something new and different that a manufacturer is trying to promote, that they have trouble with," said Putnam, who walked with men as they shopped as part of her study.
In Sammi's case, did it seem like her shopper took the easy way out? For things like milk and butter, almost certainly, yes. And still, Sammi got pushback on her argument even among all the commenters who agreed, saying if she didn't like what she got, she should have shopped herself.
In a follow-up video, she fired back, stressing that when you pay for a service, it should be completed the way you asked. And let's be real: She's right. If you want a particular type of salad or cheese, you should be able to get that.
So, what's the solution? Maybe it's as simple as being able to request a female or male shopper. Or maybe, just maybe, shoppers should be incentivized by the company they work for to meet their customers' needs more efficiently. Shoppers with fewer refunds and replacement items get better pay. That would change things very, very quickly.
Sahlah Syeda is a writer for YourTango who covers entertainment, news, and human interest topics.