Ikea’s apology falls short

Retail giant Ikea, which has announced it will set up in New Zealand, has apologised for leaving the country off of a map sold in its stores.

After being caught out by a Reddit poster in the United States, Ikea issued an apology through the BBC.

The original Reddit thread was titled ‘‘Ikea’s map game is not on point,’’ and was posted in a forum on the topic of New Zealand being frequently left off world maps.

The Bjo¨rksta map – pictured – is widely available, and sold in Australia for A$59.

The timing is perhaps ironic for many Kiwis, as Ikea recently revealed it will be opening stores in New Zealand in the nearfuture – an announcement that has been long anticipated by fans of the Swedish homestore.

A commenter on the Reddit post questioned: ‘‘Wonder if they’re going to sell these maps in the new Auckland store?’’

This is unlikely, however, since the company is phasing out this product and its flagship New Zealand store in Auckland is reportedly going to take some time to build. In the meantime, Ikea plans to open a pop-up shop in central Auckland.

The statement Ikea provided to the BBC apologised for the omission but did not directly apologise to New Zealand.

The company said: ‘‘Ikea is responsible for securing correct and compliant motifs on all our products. We can see that the process has failed regarding the Bjo¨rksta world map – we regret this mistake and apologise. We will take the necessary actions and the product is now being phased out from our stores.’’