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Hamilton Spectator

Hej, Ikea! Where's the rest of my kitchen? Widow gets half a kitchen due to discontinued items

Debra Selkirk had long dreamed of updating her 1960s-era kitchen and strategically waited for a sale at Ikea. The cupboard doors would be soft grey with raised panels; pretty and practical. She wanted something that wouldn't show every finger smudge or bit of dirt. The Hamilton widow landed on the Bodbyn line, which Ikea says 'bring a traditional character with a warm and welcoming feel to your kitchen.' What the company didn't say, until two months after she paid nearly $3,000 to order the majority of the pieces an in-store Ikea kitchen designer determined she would need for the project, was that the line would soon be discontinued. Since April 9, Selkirk has been four doors, one drawer, seven cover panels and a couple of toe kicks away from completing her dream kitchen. Ingka Group, Ikea's parent company, operates 16 stores across Canada, which made $2.6 billion in sales last year (a slight dip from 2023). Space-planning software helps Ikea's in-house designers produce a 'shopping list' for customers buying kitchens. It's a summary that includes each product's unique article number, its weight, price and 'picking place,' although that field is not populated on the printout. Only items in stock can be ordered and paid for. On April 2, when Selkirk drove to the Burlington store for help planning and ordering her kitchen, only a third of the items she needed were in stock. 'The girl said to me, 'It's really a busy because we're having a sale and everybody orders the kitchens … if you come back in a week or so, everything else should be in. So going on that, I ordered the first chunk of stuff.' A week later, Selkirk returned to the store and ordered a second chunk of items. But 15 pieces remained outstanding. Over the next two months, Selkirk would cross the Skyway 10 more s in search of the rest of her kitchen, which her son was going to put together before his daughter's competitive soccer season started. Selkirk had begun packing up her cupboards and her son dismantled most of the original cabinetry in the hope that the Ikea pieces she needed would soon be available. Debra Selkirk had packed up her cupboards and her son had dismantled most of the original Sixties cabinetry in the hopes that the Ikea pieces she paid for would soon be available. 'The last I went, I said, 'You know, been two, almost three months. And she goes, 'Well, to be honest with you, we're not getting that in anymore.'' Selkirk says she was told to head downstairs to the customer service counter to file a complaint. 'So I go downstairs and I tell them my story and they type it all up and then they call upstairs and they go, 'Can you guys please stop selling that kitchen? She's the second customer I've had today.'' Selkirk says the customer service agent told her the company would pull the missing pieces together from other stores and ship them to her. When no one reached out, Selkirk called Ikea. 'As soon as she pulled up my complaint, she immediately said, 'Oh yes, I am really sorry but your cabinet doors are discontinued and we're not getting any more in.'' Selkirk said the company's 'only olive branch' was that it would pick up all of the kitchen components she had already ordered and refund her ... 'as long as I pay the cost to deliver it back to them.' Understandably, Selkirk did not take the olive branch. She went back online and started searching inventory at every Ikea store across the country. Surely the company hasn't entirely sold out the line, she thought. She found three doors in Calgary, a fourth in Quebec City. The toe kicks (the trim piece between the lower cabinets and the floor) were in Burlington. The cover panels (the sides of cabinets), were in Richmond, B.C. Ikea, Selkirk says, told her it won't do store-to-store transfers and if she wanted those pieces she would have to pay to have the components shipped to Ontario. Also, she'd have to pay full price on each item. The company told her it wouldn't honour the 15 per cent discount it gave her on the original order in April. 'So technically they can finish my order,' she says. 'This is the most ridiculous situation.' Alicia Carroll, a public relations leader at Ikea Canada, responded to my call for action. In my first message to Carroll, I laid out Selkirk's dilemma. The company's most recent annual report and much of its advertising emphasizes its commitment to making people's 'life-at-home dreams a reality.' I noted that Ikea staff sold Selkirk a dream that it should have known it couldn't fulfil. Carroll got back to me with a plan. At Ikea, she wrote, 'we aim to provide a seamless and positive experience for all our customers. In this instance, we recognize that we fell short of that goal.' The CTA says the airline hasn't provided them with information for their investigation — despite I wanted to know whether Ikea's kitchen planning software alerts staff to shortages. It does not, Carroll says. Carroll noted that customers can sign up for online notifications to be prompted when an out-of-stock item becomes available. Selkirk says the system didn't work. 'We have internal processes designed to help ensure customers are informed when planning with discontinued items, but it appears this information was not clearly communicated in Debra's case,' Carroll wrote. 'We acknowledge this gap and are committed to improving how we support customers in similar situations.' The Bodbyn kitchen door style in gray, specifically, is discontinuing and has an end date of October 2025, Carroll clarified. 'Our co-workers are trained to inform customers if a product is going to be discontinued six months in advance of the end date.' Ikea confirmed it is 'working to source' all 15 missing kitchen components for Selkirk. If an item is no longer available, Carroll said Ikea will 'collaborate' with Selkirk 'to find an alternative solution that maintains the look and feel of her kitchen — such as offering glass door options in the same colour.' Selkirk says she's not a fan of glass doors. 'Who wants to look at a mess of glasses and plates?' What about the discount? I asked Carroll. And the shipping? 'We'll also provide free delivery of the remaining items and honour the original 15 per cent discount from her purchase,' Carroll confirmed. 'While it's not standard practice to extend promotional pricing after the fact, we believe this is the right approach in this case.' Selkirk told me Ikea has since contacted her by phone to get things moving. 'Twice they told me, 'You know, if they get damaged you can't replace them, are you sure you want them?'' Selkirk didn't hesitate. 'Oh yes, I'm sure!'