Ugly behaviour in Shanghai's IKEA?

BanguIzai

13 Nov 13, 16:49

Swedish furniture giant IKEA is famous for its cheap furniture, its Swedish meatballs, and for letting its customers try out its products in the shop - and not necessarily in that order.

However, in its Shanghai branch in Xuhui, it has become popular with locals for something else.

Internet reports reveal that for the past two years, locals would swamp their local IKEA branch every Tuesday and Thursday afternoon to take advantage of the free coffee served there as a perk for their Ikea Family members.

The crowd has been known to swell to up to 700 people.

Wall Street Journal reports that those between the ages of 45 and 65 have another mission: To find new love while drinking their free cups of joe.

It says the store was forced to cordon off a special area for them inside the cafeteria to accommodate the large crowd while still allowing space for regular customers.

Apart from the hordes of loveseekers, some netizens have also complained of locals who are treating the Shanghai branch as their 'home'. They say some people stay very late in the store, spending their time sitting to chat, relax & use their laptop or mobile phones as they would at home.

Ikea has two branches in Shanghai, and nine in China.

Yin Lifang, public relations manager at the store, told China Real Time: "Every Tuesday, our restaurant business goes down by about 20% and we are consuming 6 boxes of coffee cream and sugar compared to 2 boxes during peak hours on weekends and holidays."

According to the participants, the so-called "match-making corner" has existed for at least two years.

Free coffee drinkers have their own reason to love the IKEA canteen because the city has few affordable places for middle-aged people to date and make friends, said China Daily.