Everyone loves Ikea. It’s not just a store, it’s an experience! Offering all the homeware, decorations, furniture, and more you could ever hope for, at pretty good prices too, the Swedish store chain has become a global phenomenon. But have you ever wondered how much fun it would be to play a game of hide-and-seek in there?
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Think about it: the average Ikea store is around 300,000 square feet in size, and the world’s biggest is more than double that, at 700,000 square feet!
There are so many good hiding places. You could wrap yourself up in a rug, hide under one of the beds, disguise yourself among the pots and plants, or even head down to the huge warehouse and smuggle yourself behind the stacks of boxes on the shelves.
Well, it turns out that a lot of people feel the same way. In fact, 3,000 of them agreed to a huge game of hide-and-seek in the Glasgow, Scotland branch of Ikea.
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The whole thing was organized through Facebook and would probably have been quite a fun event, if it wasn’t in total violation of the store rules.
Police were called, working together with the Ikea security team to remove anyone from the store who seemed to be there for the big game.
It seems that word got out about the plan and five officers had to be sent out to the branch, keeping an eye on customers and looking out for any suspicious behavior. The officers stuck around until closing time, and no incidents were reported.
Weirdly enough, this isn’t the first time this idea has been suggested.
Hide-and-seek games in Ikea have been quite a big thing in Europe over the last few years, with the trend seeming to start in Belgium back in 2014 and then spreading around the continent and even overseas, with some cases of games occurring in US stores too. Interestingly, Ikea actually allowed the games to begin with, but had to ban them eventually as they started getting out of hand.
YouTube is filled with videos, often with very high view counts, of hide-and-seek games in Ikea, but they typically feature just small groups of friends playing together.
The proposed plan in Glasgow might have been the biggest game ever, if it hadn’t been stopped by the cops.
The store manager of Ikea Glasgow, Rob Cooper, released a statement in the wake of the event.
The safety of our customers and co-workers is always our highest priority. We were aware of an unofficial Hide and Seek Facebook event being organized to take place at our store today and have been working with the local police for support. While we appreciate playing games in one of our stores may be appealing to some, we do not allow this kind of activity to take place to ensure we are offering a safe environment and relaxed shopping experience for our customers.
