Hello IKEA,
There are two types of expat Swedes: those that live near an IKEA and those that don’t. For us that live close, IKEA helps us stay Swedish—but that will soon change. Many of us grew up with Billy bookshelves or the Poäng armchair and we go shopping for furniture and clever things for our homes. However, the main attraction is the little food store after the checkout and that one brings us back often. Our IKEA trips get scheduled when our freezer is out of meatballs, when we need Ahlgren’s bilar (yummy gummy cars) for Saturday candy, when the kids request Ballerina cookies for their birthday parties or when the cravings for Marabou chocolate bars overwhelm us. I have lost count of all the times I’ve given away a box of Paradis chocolate as an inexpensive but special thank-you gift.
It’s not just that Ballerina, Singoalla, Marabou, Abba’s herring, etc. taste good. Moving overseas is a BIG change in one’s life and eating food that taste exactly like the food we grew up with is very comforting and brings back memories. I’d also like that to be part of my kids’ memories. Every time I eat Brago cookies, I think of my mom’s story how she and her sister shared a roll on Saturdays while they were college students. That was in the late 50’s and because the cookies still taste the same, they bring stories and memories. We can buy food anywhere in America, but foods that carry a greeting from “the old country” and our families is harder to find.
There are rumors about a decision within IKEA-US to replace all classic Swedish food with IKEA’s own brand. I hope that you realize that that you will loose quite a bit of your Swedishness! Seriously!!! Your meatballs, and gravy are great (after we moved here and served our American friends your meatballs, IKEA meatballs have become a staple in their freezer as well. And they have picked up some pieces of furniture while they were in your store anyway…) !
However, when it comes to chocolate, I prefer Marabou, Lindt or Ritter Sport (I’ve lived in Germany and Switzerland too) and the latter two I can easily get at Target, so I’ll go there instead. I haven’t yet figured out what I will do without the Ballerina and Singoalla cookies. Whatever you come up with to replace them, no matter how good they taste, they won’t carry any greetings from my childhood.
I know you can’t make your stores go around on Swedish expats only, but we do bring you repeat business and new customers, so please don’t let us down! Please reconsider your decision—and if you change your mind, add Brago cookies to the must-haves!
Elisabeth
11 thoughts on “Where Are My Cookies?”
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I was at IKEA the other day to get a 4-pack of Läkerol for my throat and a few things for the house. The house came out all right but there were no Läkerol to be found.
There are many Swedes in Chicago that are now expressing their disappointment over these IKEA news left and right.
We all love to make our trips to IKEA to stock up on some of the food items we miss from home. However, when IKEA makes their own food products and put them in packaging that we do not recognize, it unfortunately makes most of these products completely un-interesting to us. Some of the new products may have a similar taste to the original, but it certainly isn’t the same and we all know it. Nothing wrong of course, with complementing IKEA’s food assortment with IKEA foods, however to remove all original Swedish produced foods seems as if a bit of Sweden is removed from IKEA!
And I know….IKEA is not just for Swedes. However, as a Swedish company, myself and many others simply wish that the decision makers at IKEA will do their best to find a way to continue to carry some of the favorites that they so generously have spoiled us with carrying previously.
We are all very proud Swedish ambassadors living abroad and there are certainly a lot of us. We often brag about IKEA and the tasty food products we can find there. I really hope IKEA will not disappoint us by removing one of our biggest joys of going to IKEA. Most of us simply go, on a regular basis, for the pleasure of the authentic Swedish Food that they offer!
Tina
I totally agree that we will miss all the Swedish goodies at IKEA. I have already written a letter to IKEA to one of the guys responsible at the US headquarters about it. However, their corporate policy is hard to change! I just hope that they will make some exceptions and leave some decision power with the individual stores where there are plenty of expatriates. IKEA has been serving that population for decades all over the world. There are plenty of us!
IKEA has such savvy marketers it would be incomprehensible to see them throw out the original food brands when adding their own labelled versions. Instead, let’s have ALL the products live on the shelves side by side, at least for some time, and make people want to try the IKEA brands through differential pricing. If the new products are as good as the old, no one will miss the original brands and no one will be angry to see them go!
I live further away from IKEA and now feel like I have to schedule a trip asap. I can’t go this weekend so it will have to wait another week but when I get there I want my Marabou, Lackerol would be great (although my throat might be better by then), Ahlgrens etc.
I AM DISAPPOINTED! I am not Swedish (African) and I loooooove the ballerina cookies, the juices and the mini marzipan tarts which they no longer have. What did we do to deserve this?!
There will absolutely not be as many trips to Ikea any more if they take away all the good food! That is half the reason many of us go there!
Many of us Swedes living abroad were elated when IKEA opened up close to us – now a few years back. We have regularly visited the stores and loaded up on the goodies in the IKEA Bistros (not to mention buying new kitchens, kitchenware, beddings etc.) We have sent our American friends and neighbors to IKEA. We have helped out at special occasions such as Midsommar, Kräftskiva, Påsk, dressed in our native costumes just to help IKEA present a true Swedish atmosphere to their customers. These events have proved to be very successful and have drawn new customers to the IKEA Bistros to buy Swedish food items, especially new things they had been afraid to try previously.
To think that IKEA now are substituting Sweden´s delicious products with their own brands, is outrageous! These items are nothing to be proud of and we the customers might as well go to the nearest supermarket and buy our cheeses and candies.
IKEA, what have you done? Taking a winner and turned it into a looser in one mege flop. If you would do with your furniture and home products what you have done to your food store you would be out of business in no time. People are simply not willing to buy garbage. So, you keep your junk food and I keep my money. Is that a fair deal?
I’ve been an IKEA customer since the 70s and then an avid food buyer ever since IKEA came to Chicago about 10 years ago. That was a very happy day when I could find alll the brand names I grew up with like Abba herring, Kalles kaviar, Ahlgrens bilar, all good cheeses like Västerbotten and of course Marabou chocolate. You big deciders at IKEA probably have no idea how important this is to lots of us Swedes living abroad. We have also boasted about how great IKEA is to all our new friends all over the world and they are now also coming to IKEA in droves.
But now that will be history if you don’t give us back the brand names that we crave. I will stop promoting IKEA and I will certainly not go there myself any more. Please, give us back the Swedish brand name foods that you used to carry!
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