Every Tuesday and Thursday, the IKEA Canteen located at their Shanghai branch has been a common meeting place for the city's senior citizens. Upon presenting IKEA's a loyalty card, they get a cup of coffee.
However, the elderly has then transformed the canteen to a meeting place to get to know new people, and if possible, find a date.
It has not been an issue with the management of Shanghai IKEA, but numerous complaints from other customers arose. They couldn't find a seat and some elderly refused to give a seat.
A new policy was then issued by the management and is in its trial stages. Customers are told to buy food prior to taking a table.
"Today is the first test of the new measure and we are still reviewing the results," an IKEA spokeswoman named Tang Qiang said.
"Before we did this, they occupied almost 80% of the seats, causing other customers to complain they couldn't find a place to sit," said Yin. "Every Tuesday, our restaurant business goes down by about 20 percent and we are consuming 6 boxes of coffee cream and sugar compared to 2 boxes during peak hours on weekends and holidays."
One of the frequent diners, Zhang Xiaofang, 63, said that some elderly people argue with the staff or other diners because people refused to give their seats.
He said, "But some are cooperative, and many people prefer to come after lunchtime to avoid the conflicts."
As much as 700 people gather at the canteen after 2:30 in the afternoon and it has been hard to keep the elderly behind the designated section of the canteen.
Li Ya, a young security guard, said, "Guarding the zone is a tough job. They are my parents' or even grandparents' age. It's hard for me to be strict with them. "