We are all familiar with the childcare
services Ikea offers: drop off your children in Smaland, where they can play
with their peers in a giant ball pit under the watchful eye of paid staffers as
you shop. Just make sure you keep that Smaland buzzer on you at all times so
you know when to pick them up.
Now, picture that scenario,
only replace that kid-friendly jungle gym with foosball tables, free hot
dogs, flatscreen TVs playing nonstop sports, and video games. A Sydney,
Australia location of the Swedish furniture chain is testing out their notion
that men would be happier in a special room rather than cruising Ikea’s
notoriously twisty aisles picking out matching drapes.
The company calls this sanctum — what
else? — “Manland.”
Women are given a buzzer that goes off
after thirty minutes to remind them to pick up their partners in Manland —
“or else, you know, we may have to call the authorities,” a sales
associate joked to a local Australian newscaster. That newscaster called the
concept, “basically a creche [the Australian term for a daycare] for
husbands and boyfriends with short retail attention spans, a place to hang
out while their wives and girlfriends run the aisles of Ikea.”
Unfortunately for the men out there
thrilled by this development, the installation is not permanent — it was
created for Father’s Day in Australia (down under, it’s the first Sunday of
September) — but will men the world over join Kris Matheson in his proposed
petition to make Manland a staple at Ikea locations worldwide?
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