No more peek-a-boo: Ikea tells its customers to stop playing hide-and-seek in stores

Ikea's maze-like store in Netherlands was the perfect place for people to play a game of hide and seek. Or at least the 35,000 people who signed a memo on Facebook about it certainly seemed to think so.[caption id="attachment_1027635" align="alignleft" width="380"] Image from Reuters.[/caption]The entire idea came up when a couple of spirited people played the game at a Belgian outlet last summer. Since then many other patrons across continents wanted to follow suit.But Ikea's had enough and has now closed its doors to such games. Citing security reasons, this Swedish retail giant has said no one can play hide and seek in their stores."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,” Ikea Group spokeswoman Martina Smedberg said in a Bloomberg report. “Ikea granted permission for one game of hide-and-seek in its store in Wilrijk, Belgium in July after 29-year-old Elise De Rijck put it on her list of 30 things to do before her 30th birthday.