No sleeping, says Ikea store in China

No sleeping, says Ikea store in China

BEIJING - An ikea store in Beijing has rolled out a new rule banning shoppers from sleeping on its furniture displays, but many ignore it, taking naps without making any purchase.

When reporters from Beijing Youth Daily visited the Swedish furniture giant in Xihongmen on Saturday, they found more than half of the beds and sofas occupied by sleeping customers, many of them under blankets and with their shoes removed.

A middle-aged woman who had just woken up from a nap in the store said that she and her friends often visited it to sleep on the comfortable beds, the paper reported on Monday.

One Ikea staff member said that it was difficult to enforce the new rule, as many of those sleeping were elderly people or young children.

Another employee said that some customers would not listen when he asked them to stop sleeping, while new customers replaced those who had woken up and left.

While Ikea is well known for allowing customers to try out its furniture, staff at the Beijing store said that sleeping customers were a nuisance, giving the store a bad image and preventing genuine customers from testing the products.

myp@sph.com.sg


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