Voice Of Post

Ikea hide and seek, Ikea has a message for people wanting to converge on its stores for giant games of hide and seek: Go play someplace else.

The phenomenon has taken off in the Netherlands where a whopping 19,000 people signed up to a Facebook group promoting a game at Ikea's Amsterdam branch next month. Another 13,000 signed up online for a game in the Ikea store in the city of Utrecht.

But the Swedish retail giant has bad news for folks wanting to hide among its room-like furniture displays: The numbers signing up are getting out of hand and the events have been blocked.

Ikea spokeswoman Martina Smedberg in Sweden said Tuesday, "we have contacted these pages on social media and humbly asked them to have their hide and seek games somewhere else."

Ikea hide and seek, Adults having too much fun at Ikea have been told to knock it off. The Swedish furniture retailer wants shoppers to stop playing hide-and-seek in its stores as the game attracts a growing following on social media.
"We are very happy that people are playful but safety must prevail," said spokesperson for the Ikea Group Martina Smedberg. "Please don't play hide-and-seek in Ikea stores."

It all started in Belgium last year when a woman put playing hide-and-seek in a Ikea store on her pre-30th birthday bucket list. Smedberg said she turned up with some of her friends and everyone had a great time. The game has also been played in Sweden.

But now things are getting out of control. The practice looks set to ramp up from a few friends to something much bigger. Word is spreading on Facebook and similar events are planned in Europe and Canada. 19,000 people have signed up to an event at an Amsterdam store next month.

That's prompted the furniture retailer, which has 315 stores in 27 countries, to call time on the games.

The company has contacted the various Facebook (FB, Tech30) pages and "kindly asked them to do the hide-and-seek outside the Ikea stores." Smedberg said most of the organizers have understood and agreed to pull the events.
Shoppers bury themselves in baskets and throughout the various nooks and corners of the sprawling stores.