Shanghai’s dating hot spot: IKEA?
It might not be the most romantic spot in town, but IKEA is becoming the go-to spot for seniors looking for love in Shanghai’s Xuhui district.
NPR calls it “an informal lonely hearts club.”
Twice a week, the furniture store’s cafeteria fills with coffee-sipping singles aged 45 to 65, seeking conversation and companionship — and maybe more.
"Shanghai has become an aging society with many single senior citizens," Shao, a 70-year-old IKEA frequenter, tells NPR. “They need to make friends, they feel lonely at home. So what IKEA does is laudable, and we wish IKEA’s business will prosper. I am thankful for IKEA's tolerance toward us."
One problem: IKEA isn’t exactly thrilled about the matchmaking that goes on within its walls. The mingling seniors are drinking free coffee — which the store offers on Tuesdays and Thursdays to holders of its IKEA Family membership card— but they aren’t staying to shop. In fact, business often goes down by 20 per cent on Tuesdays, the store's public relations manager Yin Lifang told Chine Real Time.
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"We welcome our members to come enjoy a cup of coffee and the privileges that come with being part of the club, but we can't have people taking advantage of the situation," Yin said. "We’re in the business of home décor, not matchmaking.”
The crowd has, at times, been as large as 700 people.
To accommodate the sometimes-distracting singles, IKEA has cordoned off a section for the “lonely hearts” within its cafeteria.
"I don't think it's appropriate, because this is a money-making business," another IKEA singleton named Ge admitted to NPR. "The best thing would be if we had places like this in our own community, even if there is no coffee or tea, we can bring our own."
Other IKEAs in the area are also seeing the romance-seeking trend spread to their cafeterias.
Would you ever go on a date in a furniture store?
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