DoorDash Opens 'CringeMart' for Life's Most Awkward Buys

DoorDash wants you to know it will buy the hemorrhoid cream, the UTI test, and the emergency plunger so you never have to explain any of it to a cashier.

"CringeMart," a new in-app storefront and campaign from DoorDash and creative partner Loop, is dedicated to life's most awkward, intimate purchases.

Customers can search "CringeMart" directly in the app and shop curated categories, such as "Go Piss Girl" for UTI tests and "Daily Dump" for laxatives and digestive relief.

"Creators have an incredible ability to take a simple, relatable truth and turn it into something the internet can't stop talking about," DoorDash Head of Social Zaria Parvez said in a statement.

"With CringeMart, we wanted to lean all the way into that energy."

To front the launch, DoorDash teamed up with internet personality Tana Mongeau, whose brand of unfiltered oversharing made her an obvious fit.

Together, they've made a content series to poke fun at "cringe" shopping.

While the goal is to make shoppers feel at ease, the partnership also builds brand awareness for DoorDash outside its usual food-delivery lane.

Cameras Roll on Shoppers

The centerpiece is "CringeMaxxing," a three-episode hidden-camera series shot inside a New York City grocery store.

It was inspired by the prank-show format of "Impractical Jokers."

Mongeau puts unsuspecting shoppers through staged interactions, over-the-top intercom announcements, and uncomfortable checkout run-ins.

Hired actors fill the aisles to raise the temperature, at one point chanting "UTI! UTI!" at a shopper.

The episodes roll out across TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube.

Creative studio Loop shot the series to hold attention on its own merits, which is the standard that CEO Nick Gallo set in his own pitch.

"The most powerful thing a brand can do right now is be entertaining," he added.

"Easier said than done, but CringeMart takes a simple DoorDash truth and turns it into a series people would watch on purpose."

DoorDash backed the launch with its own numbers:

• Over 4 million customers ordered awkward essentials through the app between April 2025 and April 2026.
• A condom sells every 37 seconds, and two laxatives sell every minute.
• One customer placed over 659 cringe-worthy orders in a single year.

To make matters more interesting, DoorDash has also disclosed popular "cringe" combos.

These include Imodium paired with Flamin' Hot Cheetos, extra-sensitive condoms paired with candles, and laxatives paired with mac and cheese.

Lastly, DoorDash will be installing billboards in New York and Los Angeles as part of the launch, with a live counter tracking condom sales in real time.

Cringe Has a Business Case

Academic research backs up why DoorDash is chasing this territory.

A UBC Sauder School of Business study found that shoppers buying embarrassing products avoid conversation, favoring self-checkout or the most robotic cashier.

DoorDash's execution shows it took this discomfort seriously and treated it as a real purchase barrier.

Three takeaways for brands working in the same territory:

• Name the discomfort directly. Plain category labels make an awkward purchase read as routine, while soft wellness euphemisms signal the brand is embarrassed too.
• Cast for the format. A creator's existing reputation does half the setup work in a comedy premise, so pick for reputation before you pick for reach.
• Put your data somewhere public. A live counter, a billboard, or a running tally gives an internal sales metric a reason to travel outside the dashboard.

All of these moves come down to treating an uncomfortable category as a product design problem worth solving.
U.S. online food delivery was valued at roughly $432 billion in 2025 and is projected to reach $600 billion by 2030.

This growth gives DoorDash more room to test category-specific plays like CringeMart and not just compete on delivery speed alone.

Delivery apps that claim an uncomfortable category early get to write their brand strategy before anyone else shows up.

Our Take: Is DoorDash Laughing With Buyers or at Them?

DoorDash sells CringeMart on a promise of privacy, then filmed strangers at the exact second that they lost theirs.

We think that the brand is still laughing with its customers.

DoorDash names the shame and sells the fix in the same breath, which is why the joke has somewhere to go.

The risk is here repetition.

Hidden-camera content ages fast, and a second season of the same premise makes the customer the recurring punchline.

This is what keeps CringeMart from feeling exploitative. The joke comes with a fix already built in.

But DoorDash's own data gives it a way out.

Four million people bought awkward essentials in 12 months, which is a big enough audience to make the next campaign about the relief.

Brands pursuing ambitious creative need partners who are all in on their ideas. 

Take a look at these top creative agencies in our directory.