There's no better way I like to spend my free time than scrolling through the drama-filled r/instacart subreddit. Once again, I've been thoroughly entertained by yet another customer-shopper interaction that many folks are referring to as "Crab Cake Gate," which has generated dozens of memes and thousands of comments across the subreddit. It's become impossible to scroll over the past week without the mention of crab cakes.
In case you're unfamiliar with how Instacart works, a shopper is assigned to you once you place a grocery order. If they notice something you ordered is out of stock, they'll typically use the chat function on the app to reach out about a potential replacement.
This particular shopper-customer drama all started when redditor u/Dominanttallqueen posted a text exchange with their Instacart shopper. The shopper informs them that the store is out of the "lobster cakes" the customer initially ordered and sends a photo of a potential crab cake replacement from the same brand. The customer instead asks for their original order to be replaced with "crab cakes from the seafood department" and to refund the order if they're unavailable.
Confused, the shopper reiterates that the replacement they found was from the seafood department and doesn't understand why the customer wants a refund. The customer then clarifies that they want the crab cakes "from behind the counter [...] where the man has to get them for you."
The conversation escalates when the shopper notes that there are no crab cakes behind the counter. "This is ridiculous," they write. The customer instructs them to refund them. "I feel like you're being a little bit rude," they write back.
After having their order canceled by the shopper, u/Dominanttallqueen turned to the r/instacart subreddit to ask who was in the wrong. Over eight thousand people weighed in, and commenters agreed that there was definitely some miscommunication going on, mainly on the customer's end.
"You're telling him you said it five times, but you didn't say 'behind the counter' until the fifth time," u/Infumuz wrote, "Then he understood and told you that they didn't have any behind the counter. The first four times, you just kept saying 'from the seafood department,' and he was telling you that the ones in the pic he sent you were from the seafood department. This, sir, makes you the dickhead. Good day."
"He was being weird, but I feel like you were being a little intentionally obtuse," u/To_The_Library agreed.
A few comments pointed out that the shopper probably could have worded their initial message differently but noted a potential language barrier. "His comments about 'understand' and how he 'does this for a living' are pretty condescending (but I'm now wondering if English is his second language?)," u/thejexorcist commented.
"Your response about the 'seafood department' was clearly pretty confusing to him since you actually meant 'the seafood counter.' I originally thought this might be a 'no one is really to blame' situation, but your follow-up responses to other redditors make me think you might not always communicate as well as you hope," they continued.
Some people were also confused by the substitution of pre-made lobster cakes for fresh crab cakes. "Out of curiosity, it appears you wanted the four-count lobster cakes of the brand pictured, so he offered that same brand's crab cake," wrote u/RoseFromStOlaf. "You were good with pre-made lobster ones, but wanted fresh crab cakes instead? Any particular reason the same brand of crab cake wasn't suitable?? As for the interaction, he was a bit rude, but it was confusing overall."
Oh, but it doesn't stop there. Over the past few days, the subreddit has been flooded with crab cake memes. It's become inescapable.
This is a personal favorite of mine.
"I work at a grocery store; someone doing Instacart just asked for the crab cakes. This is all I have," u/mobmiked100 wrote, sharing a photo of the infamous crab cakes.
"Look what I found at the seafood counter," u/queenchubkins shared in another photo.
