The silliest supermarket substitutions revealed

Dog food instead of cat food, chicken crisps instead of chicken wings, and pork steaks instead of vegan food. 

That's just some of the strangest supermarket substitutions that grocery shoppers have revealed to Which?.

Of course, it can be better to receive a small number of sensible substitutions instead of going without, but shoppers reported plenty of bizarre swaps in our annual supermarket survey. 

Read on to find out which supermarkets are most likely to substitute items in your order and which sent the oddest replacements.

The supermarkets most likely to send substitutions

Substitutions are one of the top frustrations when grocery shopping online. 

One in five online grocery shoppers told us they had received a substitution on their most recent shop, but we found big differences across supermarkets. 

Sainsbury’s had the highest substitution rate, with a whopping 28% of online Sainsbury’s shoppers saying they got at least one substitution on their most recent shop. It was rated three out of five stars for its choice of substitutions in general.  

At the other end of the scale, 14% of Iceland shoppers told us the same. 

Morrisons and Asda shoppers in our survey also gave just two stars for the choice and number of their substitutions. Waitrose got the best star rating of all the supermarkets, with four stars.

The table shows the breakdown for each supermarket, plus star ratings for their choice of substitutions in general. 

• Find out more: The best and worst supermarkets for online and in-store shopping

The strangest substitutions

Shoppers also told us anonymously about the strangest substitutions they had received in the past 12 months. 

One surprised Amazon Fresh shopper told us they got pork shoulder instead of minced beef, while an Asda customer said they received spring onions instead of cucumber. 

An Iceland customer said they received frozen onions instead of mangoes, a Morrisons customer remembered getting fish in place of chicken, and an Ocado shopper told us they received a bar of chocolate rather than drinking chocolate.

One disappointed Sainsbury's customer told us they received dog food instead of cat food, and another was surprised to find pork steaks instead of vegan food. 

Meanwhile, at Tesco, one shopper got chicken crisps instead of chicken wings, and another said they received lemon toilet cleaner instead of Jif lemon juice for their pancakes.

At Waitrose, a customer was left baffled after getting toilet roll instead of kitchen towel.

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Supermarket substitution policies compared

Of course, substitutions aren’t all bad news; if they are sensible, they can be much better than receiving nothing. But do check your supermarket’s policy, as they vary significantly – some charge you extra if a substitution costs more, while at others you only pay the price of what you originally ordered. You can also either opt out of substitutions ahead of time or reject them on the doorstep. 

The table shows how supermarket substitution policies differ, including which ones allow you to opt out.

All the supermarkets in our table allow customers to hand back unwanted substitutions to the delivery driver, or when they pick up a click-and-collect order, in return for a refund.

• Find out more: How to spend less at the supermarket

What shoppers really think of self-service checkouts

Love them or loathe them, there’s nothing quite like a self-service checkout for sparking a debate. 

We’ve asked shoppers which they prefer, and the result is (perhaps surprisingly) that self-service checkouts are preferred by 50% of shoppers. 

This could be purely down to speed, though, with many people saying self-service checkouts are quicker and have shorter queues. 

Meanwhile, of the 34% of shoppers who prefer staffed checkouts, one said: 'I like to give people real jobs.' Another added: 'Invariably the self-service goes wrong or the alcohol has to be checked.' Several people added that they liked chatting to staff, and another said: 'I prefer humans to machines.' 

The remaining 16% of people, meanwhile, didn’t have a preference or didn’t know.

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Other supermarket frustrations

It's not just self-service checkouts that frustrate supermarket shoppers. We found plenty of bugbears – from long queues to short shelf lives.

Here are the top in-store and online frustrations*:

Instore frustrations

Not enough staffed checkouts (26% overall) – highest: Iceland (40%), lowest: Waitrose (12%)

Long queues at the checkout (22% overall) – highest: Lidl (40%), lowest: Iceland (4%)

Store was too crowded (15% overal–) - highest: M&S (26%), lowest: Iceland (11%)

Online frustrations

Out of stock items (24% overall) – highest: Tesco (30%), lowest: Morrisons (15%)

Receiving substitutions (20% overall) – highest: Sainsbury’s (28%), lowest: Iceland (14%)

Receiving perishable items with a short shelf life left (16% overall) – highest: Iceland (23%), lowest: Asda (11%)

*Based on respondents who experienced frustrations during their most recent shop. Highest/lowest: where each frustration was mentioned the most/least (59% of in-store shoppers and 58% of online shoppers didn’t report any frustrations.) We couldn't include Ocado as we didn't receive enough responses.

What the supermarkets said

We asked the supermarkets about the bizarre substitutions shoppers told us about.

An Asda spokesperson said: 'We always let our customers know when their order contains a substitution and they can opt out of receiving them altogether. Our colleagues will always do their best to make sure customers receive the closest suitable alternative if an item is unavailable. We never charge more for a substitute even if the replacement item is of higher value and if it costs less, we will refund the difference. If customers have any questions about their order, they can also contact our Customer Services team who will be happy to help.'

Morrisons did not provide a comment for publication, but Which? understands that just 0.3% of its poultry products were substituted for fish.  

A Sainsbury’s spokesperson said: 'More customers are choosing to shop with us online thanks to the value and availability we’re delivering. If an item isn’t available, we’ll work to offer an alternative and where this isn't suitable, customers can decline any substitute they don’t want. We really appreciate it when customers flag these rare cases so we can follow up with additional coaching for our colleagues to reduce instances of this happening.'

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