Hostel Ikea

Would you sleep over at Ikea? 150 people (out of 1,200 who applied) spent the night at an Ikea near Oslo last week including a family on vacation and newlyweds on their honeymoon.

One of the draws to visiting Ikea is seeing the products displayed in room-like settings and being able to test drive products by sitting on each and every couch and chair and opening dresser drawers a few times. But the lure of free Swedish meatballs for dinner and scrambled eggs for breakfast probably isn't enough to convince us to sleep over no matter how much we'd like to try out the Sultan Furudal mattress - especially since the overhead lights are left on and employees start moving pallets around as early as 4 am.

What about you - if your local Ikea offered it, would the novelty of sleeping in Hostel Ikea appeal to your family? Any other stores you'd like to sleep in?

Comments (6)

Not sure I get it. Why are they sleeping at Ikea, and why is Ikea offering them this "opportunity"? Is it a giveaway, a promotion, a chance to see how good the mattrresses are, or are Norwegians just odd?

Shawn - I'm not sure I get it exactly either. Here's a link to a news story if you're interested: http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070713/bs_afp/norwayikearetail

It seems to just be a promotional marketing idea and as far as I can tell only this Oslo store has done it.

Carrie
Editor, AT Nursery

I think most children would JUMP at the chance to sleep in an Ikea warehouse, showroom, or whatever.

It sounds like an inconvenience--like camping! But like camping, you just have to do it once, don't you?

How odd!

So what percentage of these people do you think did it so they could blog about it?