Despite their popularity among Oxford residents and Miami University students, McDonald’s Corporation recently announced the removal of the Chicken Selects Strips from its nationwide menu.

Rachel West, manager of the Oxford McDonald’s, 601 S. Locust St., said the corporation’s headquarters ordered all McDonald’s franchises to stop selling Chicken Selects at the end of January. “We were shocked because we sell them a lot,” West said.

McDonald’s headquarters is urging independent McDonald’s stores to promote their newest products, Fish McBites and the McWrap, which will be available soon, according to Avery Kien, manager of the Hamilton McDonald’s on Millville Avenue.

“McDonald’s wants to offer a larger variety of healthy, seasonal food options for our customers,” Kien said.

However, McDonald’s has also removed the Fruit and Walnut Salad from its menu, which was one of the healthiest, low-calorie options sold, according to nutrition fact sheets provided by McDonald’s.

While some McDonald’s franchises, such as the Hamilton location, still have Fruit and Walnut Salads available for customers, West said they have difficulty selling the product before it expires.

“Just yesterday I had to throw almost a whole case away because we just don’t sell them,” West said.

Both West and Kien said in recent months there has been a noticeable issue with the quality of the Fruit and Walnut Salads and Chicken Selects that they receive from McDonald’s distributors, which may be why corporate decided to stop offering these items.

“The Chicken Selects pieces are supposed to be 3 to 4 inches long, but we were getting pieces that looked like Chicken McNuggets,” Kien said. “But we still had to charge [customers] regular price for the smaller pieces.”

The inconsistent quality of the Chicken Selects, which are used in other McDonald’s products like the Snack Wrap, is an issue that some customers have also noticed.

Junior Andrew Copp said the Snack Wraps are suffering from questionable ingredients. “I don’t know what they are serving now in the Snack Wraps, but it definitely isn’t as good,” Copp said.

The issue of inconsistency may be partly responsible for the company’s first financial downturn in almost a decade last fall, West said, adding that a struggling economy is also to blame.

McDonald’s officials hope that clearing some items from the menu will allow the introduction of new products that will compete with other fast food chains also launching new additions to the menu.

As for the popular Chicken Select Strips, Kien said if there ends up being an overwhelming outcry by McDonald’s customers to bring them back, the company would probably take that into consideration.

However, since running out of the product in January, West said she has received only one complaint about not serving Chicken Selects.

“It was an elderly gentleman, so we ended up cutting up crispy chicken and charged him for the Chicken Selects,” West said.