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Comment by zoom6628 | Hacker News Reader

I like the meme but my experience in their stores is the meandering aisles with no long clear line of sight makes me think they are a fire trap. Honestly the IKEA stores in Asia i have been in are scary, and that is even at the non-crowded times of the week. I refuse to go in now except one store in which I feel safe at off-peak times. The rest feel like fire traps, designed to 'engage' the buyer with as many products for as long as possible in hope you buy a shit load of stuff you have no intention of using.

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You are aware that there are shortcuts ? In our local stores (NL), they are clearly marked, so one can more easily get to the sections one is interested in, and skip those that aren't.

As a teenager going into a US IKEA store for the first time, I felt completely lost. As an adult going into the same store for a second time 15 years later, it's not that bad.

I feel like if there was a fire, a lot of children would die due to being lost inside the store. They are easily seperated from their parents inside the store, especially when it is busy.

I too would not take children there unless it is the least-busy time with the fewest number of customers. (As an adult, I would probably be okay, but I might delay my egress to help others which could ultimately get me killed.)

There are safety regulations that those stores must comply with in order to operate. They include fire alarms, emergency exits, fire sprinkler systems, and a long etc.

I'm aware. I was even aware of that as a teenager when I felt like it was extremely easy to get lost in the store. I'm also aware I have a better chance of winning the lottery than getting caught in an IKEA fire.

Hopefully there will never be an IKEA fire during a busy time, and we'll never know if those regulations magically made it easier to exit the extremely-confusing (especially to a child that is seperated from parents during confusion) layout.

Are you a trained firefighter? I was. Children will hide in the darnest places during a fire instead of escaping. IKEA is full of places for children to hide. Almost makes me wish I could have played hide-and-seek there as a child.

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