Customers turn IKEA into ultimate sleepover locale after severe snowstorm

Michelle Butterfield GlobalNews.ca

December 2, 2021 5:43 pm

Customers turn IKEA into ultimate sleepover locale after severe snowstorm — A file photo of shoppers making their way through an IKEA.
Uriel Sinai / Getty Images

Talk about the ultimate sleepover locale.

A couple dozen employees and customers had no shortage of sleeping surfaces to choose from, when a severe snowstorm stranded them inside the showroom of a northern Denmark IKEA this week.

Close to 30 people were trapped inside the Aalborg, Denmark store Wednesday, after about 30 cm of snow fell and made roads too treacherous to leave.

“We slept in the furniture exhibitions and our showroom on the first floor, where we have beds, mattresses and sofa beds,” store manager Peter Elmose told the Associated Press.

An added bonus? People could “pick the exact bed they always have wanted to try,” Elmose continued.

The store’s guests snacked on chips and cinnamon rolls from the in-store cafeteria and watched T.V.

Erik Bangsgaard, 75, and his wife, Hanne, were two of the people stranded in the store. They selected a comfy pull-out sofa bed for their sleeping arrangement.

A snowstorm causes chaos on the roads around Aalborg, Denmark, Wednesday Dec. 1, 2021.
Henning Bagger / AP

“I have probably never tried that before, but we have slept well in the hours when we could sleep,” he told TV2 Nord Thursday morning.

The news organization shared a photo of the Bangsgaards to Twitter, with the caption: “Couples had to spend the night in Ikea: – There was a completely free choice between all the beds.”

Ægtepar måtte overnatte i Ikea: – Der var helt frit valg mellem alle sengene https://t.co/MuSDOo3nrb pic.twitter.com/gRAYtDO3Q1

— TV2 Nord (@TV2Nord) December 2, 2021

The only downside to their stay was the lighting, Erik said. Employees could not figure out how to dim the overhead fluorescent lights, and they burned all night long.

“They could not dampen it, so we just had to try to sleep anyway. It turned out to be a couple of hours of sleep,” he told the news outlet. The visitors were awoken quite early the next morning by store staff, who had to re-make the beds before shoppers arrived.

Much like the British pubgoers who got stranded inside a pub late last week and spend almost four days without rescue, it sounds like these Europeans also know how to make the most of their situation.