According to Morgunblaðið around one thousand people plan to meet up in the IKEA store in Garðabær on Saturday to play hide-and-seek. Similar events have taken place in both Belgium and the Netherlands, prompting several of IKEA’s Dutch stores banning the events due to safety reasons. “It’s hard to control,” Ikea Group spokeswoman Martina Smedberg told Bloomberg. “We need to make sure people are safe in our stores and that’s hard to do if we don’t even know where they are.”
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The event in Iceland was organised over Facebook with 1,200 signing up for the fun. Unlike his Dutch counterparts, the Icelandic managing director, Þórarinn Ævarsson, has no plans to ban the event. “Our stance is to work with people, not against them.” Adding that the Icelandic event is much smaller than the one in the Netherlands where 19 thousand people had planned to partake in the game.
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Þórarinn hopes gamers will show caution while playing and not make a mess of the store. “Certain parts of the store will be off limits, such as emergency exits. We also plan to increase security on Saturday.”
For those who wish to join in on the fun, further information is available here.
According to Morgunblaðið around one thousand people plan to meet up in the IKEA store in Garðabær on Saturday to play hide-and-seek. Similar events have taken place in both Belgium and the Netherlands, prompting several of IKEA’s Dutch stores banning the events due to safety reasons. “It’s hard to control,” Ikea Group spokeswoman Martina Smedberg told Bloomberg. “We need to make sure people are safe in our stores and that’s hard to do if we don’t even know where they are.”
Read more: Costco arriving to Iceland in 2015
The event in Iceland was organised over Facebook with 1,200 signing up for the fun. Unlike his Dutch counterparts, the Icelandic managing director, Þórarinn Ævarsson, has no plans to ban the event. “Our stance is to work with people, not against them.” Adding that the Icelandic event is much smaller than the one in the Netherlands where 19 thousand people had planned to partake in the game.
Read more: The Road Administration plans to move an elf church which sits in the path of new road
Þórarinn hopes gamers will show caution while playing and not make a mess of the store. “Certain parts of the store will be off limits, such as emergency exits. We also plan to increase security on Saturday.”
For those who wish to join in on the fun, further information is available here.
