Ikea Singapore to temporarily stop selling chicken wings after complaints from customers

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There was a long dinner queue at the Alexandra Road Ikea. Earlier today, the Swedish furniture retailer announced that it will stop selling its popular chicken wings from May 23 in its stores here.
Customers ordering food at the Ikea restaurant. ST PHOTO: DESMOND WEE
Ikea will stop selling its popular chicken wings from May 23. ST PHOTO: DESMOND WEE
Ikea will stop selling its popular chicken wings from May 23. ST PHOTO: DESMOND WEE
Fried Chicken Wings from the Ikea Restaurant. PHOTO: IKEA
The restaurant at Ikea Tampines. PHOTO: ST FILE

SINGAPORE - Ikea Singapore will stop selling chicken wings, a popular snack among shoppers at the furniture stores, from next Tuesday (May 23) for a period of time.

The Swedish chain said in a Facebook post on Friday afternoon that it will improve on the wings before bringing them back.

"We are aware that our chicken wings have not been meeting our customers' satisfaction recently, so we have decided to stop selling them temporarily from 23 May so we can improve on them," said the post that was put up at about 3pm.

A plate of Ikea's popular chicken wings. ST PHOTO: DESMOND WEE

"Together with our supplier, we are committed to providing quality food products for everyone. We apologise for any inconvenience caused and thank you for your continued support."

Ikea told The Straits Times that it will introduce new chicken tenders at $1 each, and a dish of four-piece chicken tenders and garlic fries for $5 from May 24. Its spokesman said that the suspension of the chicken wings sale was not a publicity stunt for the launch of the new products.

Mr Mike King, retail director of Ikea South-east Asia, said: "Contrary to what people may think, this isn't a publicity stunt by Ikea. We believe in providing quality food products at fantastic prices. When we received feedback recently on the taste and texture of our chicken wings, we decided to stop sales temporarily while we worked with our supplier to find a solution."

The furniture giant said it does not know how long it will take to improve the quality of the wings, but said: "We hope to find a solution as soon as possible."

The post was met with numerous comments from Facebook users, some of whom gave their opinion of the chicken wings served at the store's cafes.

"Ya the chicken wings were cold hard and looked like they have been fried more than once. Look forward to having the nice juicy wings again!" said Sue Ng.

"I used to love your chicken wings but after (I visited) last month I'm disheartened," said Oh Leng Kiong.

Some said the slip in food standards was not a recent phenomenon.

"I stopped liking the chicken wings some two years ago. They don't taste the same anymore.," wrote Jophrey Lim. "But I'm glad Ikea listened and decided to do something about it."

There are cafes at both of Ikea's Singapore stores in Alexandra Road and in Tampines.

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