‘Oh no, what have I done?:’ Woman ends up with bunch of bananas in online shopping mix-up

Former Saskatoon resident Jade Jamison and her husband have strictly shopped online since the COVID-19 pandemic began in March.

Using pickup and no-contact delivery, the couple hasn’t had too many issues. When the online shopping app Instacart gained Costco as a retailer, though, there was a slight mixup for the family.

“We’ve gotten really good. We know what we need in a week,” Jamison said Wednesday. “Our two-year-old is crazy about bananas, so we need about 18 bananas to get through the week.

“We decided we’d put in an order … our usual order of 18 bananas along with everything else. When it arrived, we were quite surprised to realize instead of 18 individual bananas, we’d received 18 bags of bananas.”

Jamison said the bags held more than 125 bananas in total.

She was bathing her son when the order arrived, so her husband was the one to open the door to see the heap of fruit.

“I could just hear him from the front door, and he was like, ‘Oh no, what have I done? Oh no,’ and it was just this moment of amusement, but also mild panic,” Jamison said with a laugh.

“One box was completely domed over, filled with bananas … Our two-year-old was elated. (He) was pumped.”

So, what does one do with 125 bananas? The couple had just moved to the area and decided to list the bananas on the community group Facebook page to give them away to their new neighbours.

“There was no way I could make that much banana bread, and they were all ripe now. There wasn’t any putting away for later,” she explains.

The total cost of the bundle was only $42, Jamison said.

She did have a tip for those just starting out with online shopping, or those who are new to the contactless process.

“Keep in mind what you’re ordering (and) double-check before you press OK,” she said.

Jamison added her shopper for Instacart didn’t ask any questions, coming through with the order of bananas without any fuss.

EDITOR’S NOTE: This is an amended version of this story, correcting that Jamison has moved away from Saskatoon.