--- title: Ikea Shuts Down 32,000-Person, In-Store Hide-and-Seek Game description: 32,000 people signed up to play an in-store game canonical: https://time.com/3746278/ikea-32000-people-hide-and-seek-game/ author: Laura Stampler article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-03-16T18:23:51.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:48:34.114Z og:title: IKEA: Please Stop Playing Hide-and-Seek in Our Stores og:description: We thought you were cool, Ikea og:url: https://time.com/3746278/ikea-32000-people-hide-and-seek-game/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt49e33a576f45647e/698783c255a8598a3fa8651d/164899551.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3800 og:image:height: 2138 og:image:alt: An Ikea store in Montpellier, southern France on March 27, 2013. og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: IKEA: Please Stop Playing Hide-and-Seek in Our Stores twitter:description: We thought you were cool, Ikea twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt49e33a576f45647e/698783c255a8598a3fa8651d/164899551.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # IKEA: Please Stop Playing Hide-and-Seek in Our Stores > Sponsored content. 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Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-brief-2026q3/newsletters?i=003743c2-47b9-47a9-9a90-9873dcb9a67e&cr=time-nl-brief-2026q3-v1) ## Video: IKEA: The Psychology Behind Why We Overshop [Watch (HLS stream): IKEA: The Psychology Behind Why We Overshop](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/0fFiBuse.m3u8) (2:31)  _Published 2015-03-11. Here's how IKEA gets us to buy more than we need, explained by TIME writer Josh Sanburn_ by [Laura Stampler](https://time.com/author/laura-stampler/) ## Laura Stampler Mar 16, 2015 6:23 PM UTC  An Ikea store in Montpellier, southern France on March 27, 2013. An Ikea store in Montpellier, southern France on March 27, 2013. Pascal Guyot—AFP/Getty Images by [Laura Stampler](https://time.com/author/laura-stampler/) ## Laura Stampler Mar 16, 2015 6:23 PM UTC IKEA is a pretty fun place. But the Swedish furniture store — known for meatballs, ball pits and unpronounceable dressers — has taken a stand against irreverence by banning massive games of hide-and-seek in its Dutch stores, [_Bloomberg_](http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-03-16/ikea-stamps-out-hide-and-seek-games-in-dutch-furniture-stores)reports. And by massive, we mean 32,ooo people signed up for a Facebook event in Eindhoven; 19,000 in Amsterdam; and 12,000 in Utrecht. “It’s hard to control,” IKEA Group spokeswoman Martina Smedberg told Bloomberg. “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.” Last summer, hundreds played the game in Belgian IKEA locations. And just look at how much fun they were having: > [](https://twitter.com/TheStalwart/status/577445845848756224) \[[_Bloomberg_](http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-03-16/ikea-stamps-out-hide-and-seek-games-in-dutch-furniture-stores)\] _Read next:_ [_Ground Zero in the Clutter Wars: My House_](http://time.com/3500104/clutter-war-purger-hoarder/?iid=time%5Freadnext) [_Listen to the most important stories of the day._](http://time.com/newsletter/the-brief/?sl%5Fautoplay=true&xid=spl-fullbrief-article) ## Transcript IKEA. Many of us have shopped here. But more importantly, many of us have over- shopped here. Its layout may seem benign, just a meandering path past living room sets, storage units and so much else. But it's actually a conscious effort to get us to not only buy but to buy things we didn't have on our list when we walked in. [ MUSIC ] Here's some of the psychology behind how IKEA's maze works. We're about to walk through the first part of IKEA's store which should be familiar to anybody who's been to IKEA, and that's the showroom. IKEA is very unique. And very different from, from other stores. You start going through this maze, through what's essentially a virtual catalog. Most of the time you can't actually pick up things and put them in your cart. That can actually prime customers, says Alan Penn, a University of College- funded professor who studies Ikea. It creates a sort of anticipation for when we get to a section where we can actually toss things in our cart. We essentially have to walk through the entire store, past all its products. Unless we take advantage of all its short cuts. He believes it's also psychologically disruptive because we've essentially handed over our shopping experience to Ikea, we're at the store's mercy. And then once we get to a place where we can pick up items, we're worried about having to go back and find them again if we don't grab them, so we might as well throw them in our cart. [ MUSIC ] Over the last decade, the cost of consumer goods has plummeted, thanks in part to their manufacture overseas. But then we bring it all home. And oftentimes all the stuff that we thought would make us happier just sits there. It turns out we didn't need a lot of it after all. And to deal with the anxiety that our over- stuffed homes can often bring us, well, we go shopping. After all, that Ikea bookcase to help us organize everything we just bought is too cheap to pass up. [ MUSIC ] There are ways that you can gain the system. First of all, make a list of what you need and do your best to stick to it. Don't shop if you are feeling depressed or anxious, those emotions can often lead to over shopping. Bring cash and don't use credit or debit cards, which can often lead to over spending, because they make us feel disconnected from money [ INAUDIBLE ] And remember to use IKEA shortcuts when necessary. That way you can avoid parts of IKEA maze all together and hopefully end up on the other side with exactly what you need. 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