From Starbucks to IKEA, the boundaries of “consumption and seating” are once again reiterated

The Paper reporter Zou Jiawen Peng Youqi

First it was Starbucks, then IKEA.

On October 22, Starbucks implemented “consumer seating” in stores across the country and promised to provide priority assistance to special groups such as pregnant women and people with limited mobility. On October 27, The Paper reporter saw at the entrance of the IKEA restaurant in Xuhui, Shanghai, that a sign had been erected, saying “Please do not make loud noises or occupy seats for a long time”, “Do not eat your own food”, “Do not gather in groups to play cards”, etc. On that day, some elderly people who had not consumed food were stopped by security guards from the door.

On October 27, 2026, a sign was put up at the door of the Xuhui IKEA restaurant. The Paper reporter Pu Jiangtu

“Starbucks took the lead and learned from the rest.” On the day of the interview, a customer told the reporter, “It should be like this, otherwise people eating will not have seats, and they will sit (occupied seats) for hours.” On October 29, after The Paper published a video of an on-site visit to the IKEA restaurant, many netizens expressed support: “People are open for business, and they should not enter unless they are consuming.”

Behind the seats in the restaurant are the costs of rent and labor. It makes sense to prioritize resources for diners. However, some netizens expressed another concern: “When all warmth is commercialized, the connection between people becomes only a cold transaction.”

The two voices seem to be opposite, but in fact they point to the same question: Where is the publicity of commercial space, and where is the boundary?

Starbucks has been in China for nearly 30 years, and indeed many people have a common memory: people who are not consuming can sit for a while, and people who are in a hurry can come in and rest – but this is a brand concept, not a service contract.

But for businesses, brand concepts will not overshadow business logic. Everyone wants a comfortable environment. The maintenance of a comfortable environment has a cost. It cannot be separated from the joint maintenance of everyone, and it also needs to be sustainably supported. Starbucks is like this, and IKEA is like this.

In his 2013 paper “Social Interactions of Middle-aged and Elderly People under Weak Tie Networks – A Field Study on Wanda Square Dance and IKEA Party”, Liu Chenghuan, a master’s degree in sociology from Fudan University, traced the origins of IKEA’s Elderly Dating Corner: Around 2007, the merchant launched a marketing strategy that “from Monday to Friday, consumers can exchange coffee for free with their membership cards.” After that, some middle-aged and elderly people began to gather at IKEA to drink coffee and chat to kill time. At the beginning, the number of people was not large, and most of them were chat gatherings. But by 2010 and 2011, the number of middle-aged and elderly people has become relatively large, with up to 600 people at most, and dating for the purpose of blind date began to appear.

In early October 2016, Xuhui IKEA issued a “Notice to Customers.” The Paper News Data Map

Therefore, if you look at it longer, IKEA’s problem has actually gone through at least three rounds. In 2011, a customer notice was posted, and a free coffee area was specially set up for this group to use; in October 2016, another “customer notice” was set up, stating that “a blind date group appeared in the IKEA restaurant, and this group occupied the comfortable dining environment of the IKEA restaurant… The restaurant began to implement a business model of purchasing meals first, and seating later.” Ten years later, the rules were blurred, and the elderly came to sit with melon and fruit snacks for half a day, so IKEA once again reiterated the need to consume and sit down.

It is bold to speculate that Starbucks’ approach “supported” IKEA ten years later. This time, public opinion seems to have softened its attitude towards IKEA, but in the real environment, how long can the rules last?

By extension, a piece of regulation cannot stop demand, it can only change the direction of demand flow. Just like what an old man said at IKEA: “I feel lonely at home alone.”

Statistical data from the Shanghai Civil Affairs Bureau and other departments show that as of the end of 2025, among the city’s registered population, there were 5.8438 million elderly people aged 60 and above, accounting for 37.6% of the total population; 1.8992 million elderly people in “pure elderly families” and 368,300 elderly people living alone. This means that the elderly who need companionship and social places are not a group that can be “dispelled”, but are an expanding daily presence in the city.

Maybe it’s time to provide a new “IKEA” for the elderly. In fact, as of the end of 2025, Shanghai has 557 comprehensive community service centers for the elderly, 914 day care institutions, 2,498 meal service places, and 6,568 standardized elderly activity rooms. The supply is actually growing, but it is still far from the actual requirements of the elderly such as “a stylish environment, convenient transportation, sitting down without paying too much, and being able to talk to each other.”

Businesses have the right to draw clear boundaries, and the elderly also have a need to relieve loneliness. What Starbucks and IKEA have successively taken back is the publicity that has been borrowed for free for a long time in the commercial space; and this publicity ultimately requires government departments to take on the responsibility of considering the elderly, take it over, and find a place to properly place it again.