Ikea restaurant becomes home away from home for Shanghai’s elderly
Shanghai store’s decision to clamp down on pensioners meeting in its restaurant highlights unmet social needs of city’s greying population
For almost a decade, hundreds of senior citizens flocked every Tuesday and Thursday to the Xuhui district outlet in Shanghai of Swedish furniture giant Ikea.
They gathered in the store’s restaurant to chat, taking up seats throughout the day but rarely buying anything from the menu.
They brought their own food and made the most of the bottomless cups of coffee. They took seats from genuine restaurant patrons and reportedly brawled.
But last month the company clamped down, announcing that the restaurant would only admit people who had bought food there.
The decision made international headlines and prompted a public debate about whether the social needs of the city’s rapidly ageing population were being addressed.
The greying of Shanghai’s population became noticeable in the late 1970s when at least 10 per cent of the residents were aged 60 or above.
