Digital shopping literally has never been easier or more expansive. Need school supplies or a basic household tool? Easy as can be. Need a car? Appliances? Fashionable clothing? Just add those items—even expensive, hedonic, personalized purchases—to your cart too. But even as the range and type of products available for one-click ordering and delivery have continued to expand, one sector remains a frustrating exception, seemingly unable to achieve the kind of convenience and accuracy that makes digital ordering so appealing.

Even though they represent a regular, daily, common, kind of boring purchase, groceries are incredibly hard to procure through digital channels. Some of the challenge reflects the persistent problem of achieving last-mile delivery services in an efficient way. But a potentially even bigger problem comes well before the last mile: It occurs in the store, when the shoppers assigned to pick the digital order are making selections among the product available on shelves.

According to one recent survey, almost one-third of shoppers receive their orders to find a substituted item among their other groceries. Another report claims the number is even higher, and half of all orders include at least one substitution. Some substitutions might be frustrating; a person who prefers Breakstone’s sour cream might be annoyed to discover that, faced with an in-store stockout, the shopper replaced it with Fage sour cream. Another buyer might not have the space to store a 24-pack of paper towels, provided instead of the 6-pack they had ordered.

Those changes are relatively minor inconveniences. The substitutions that are really gaining attention, and headlines, are the ones that seem totally absurd. Reports from the United Kingdom recount a Sainsbury’s customer who received a delivery of beef dog treats, rather than the steaks they ordered. A Morrisons buyer fared no better, opening their bags to find feminine hygiene products instead of tortillas. A Tesco shopper received cat food instead of ham; Iceland Groceries dispatched pasta instead of Pepsi. Although the Ocado grocery chain offers better accuracy in general, such that it earned praise for achieving the lowest rate of substitutions (at around 20 percent), it cannot claim to be perfect: A recent order contained mushrooms instead of tampons. (Perhaps this Ocado consumer and the aforementioned Morrisons shopper can get together to work out a trade?)

As funny as some of these situations may seem, they cannot mask the real problem and risks that mistakes can entail for consumers. A careless replacement that fails to account for a shopper’s dietary preferences or food allergies could constitute a real threat to that consumer. People with peanut allergies, for example, cannot just accept any packaged food product and still protect their health and wellness. Furthermore, many grocery items represent daily necessities, including not just food but also diapers and cleaning supplies. For shoppers on tight budgets, replacements of items on sale or less expensive budget versions with more alternatives items could leave them short of money for meeting the rest of their expenses.

As potential solutions to the problem, some shopping and delivery services connect the shoppers with the buyers and allow workers in the store to check with customers before making a substitution. Others give consumers the right to check their orders when they arrive and decline any unwelcome substitutions at the door. But these resolutions mean more work for the consumer, who must be available at the very moment the shopping is taking place or getting delivered. That demand on their time conflicts with the convenience benefits promised by online shopping service providers. If a consumer has a demanding job and cannot leave to get to the grocery store, they also probably cannot take a break to confirm whether substituting chicken thighs for chicken breasts is acceptable.

Discussion Questions

1. Why is the practice of substitutions such an issue specifically in the grocery delivery services market?
2. Given current rates of substitutions, what would a fair return policy be? How should it be designed to balance the needs of both consumers and businesses?

Sources: Mabel Banfield-Nwachi, “Strangest Supermarket Substitutions Include Dog Treats Instead of Steak, Poll Shows,” The Guardian, March 1, 2025; Andy Gregory, “Weirdest Supermarket Substitutions Include Mushrooms Swapped for Tampons,” The Independent, March 17, 2024; Sean Poulter, “Sausage Rolls for Toilet Rolls and Sponge Scourers for Victoria Sponge Cake: The Worst Online Grocery Shopping Swaps Are Revealed,” The Daily Mail, February 18, 2022