Ikea has banned customers from playing hide-and-seek in its stores in the Netherlands.
The retail giant put an end to the shenanigans after thousands took up the activity in Belgium last summer, over fears for their safety.
Ikea spokeswoman Martina Smedberg told Bloomberg: "It's hard to control. 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."
The ban comes after tens of thousands of people claimed to playing the games at stores in Eindhoven, Amsterdam and Utrecht.
The company gave permission for only one game of hide-and-seek at a store in Wilrijk, Belgium, back in July.
Elise De Rijck, who organised the event, told Bloomberg people were hiding in fridges, under stuffed toys, under blue Ikea shopping bags and in the storage space beneath beds.
"Sometimes it's fun just to do some childish things. Ikea is like an extremely large living room. We played hide-and-seek the whole day. It was really exhausting, but so much fun."
WENN.com / 3 News
source: newshub archive
