Bring Home a Piece of Sweden from Ikea. Really?

IKEA's Selfish Decision About Food, and What It Means to an Ex-Pat Swedish Anthropologist (Helena Ottoson, Pacific Ethnography, Port of Los Angeles)

In October of  2011 I went to IKEA to purchase my usual Swedish goodies.  I ended up leaving in disbelief when none of the products I expected to find were there anymore. As an ex-pat Swede I was angry and disappointed that I could no longer purchase my Delicato pastries, my Marabou chocolate, or my Kalle’s Kaviar. 

However, I soon realized that I was not the only disgruntled customer. The Swedish ex patriots around the world were in uproar! Facebook pages such as “IKEA, please keep selling the brands we love” (as of February 7, 1,133 likes), “Only IKEA brand food? No, thank you!” (as of February 7, 1,661 likes) were started by angry IKEA shoppers. Articles in the blogosphere discussing the topic ended up with pages of angry comments.

At this point, the anthropologist in me took over. I became very curious about the strategic decision made by IKEA and the reaction of the Swedish ex-pats.  Here's some of what I found, after the jump.