Ikea Wins Hearts in China

What modern institution in China provides food, housing, love and babysitting, all under one roof? The Communist party may have dashed the Maoist “iron rice bowl” to the ground, but Ikea is stepping in to take up the slack.

The world’s largest furniture retailer not only invites Chinese consumers to nap on its beds and snack on its dinnerware; it lets pensioners hold matchmaking sessions over free coffee in its canteens, and even provides day care for the only grandchild, to make the whole Eat Drink Man Woman thing go that much more smoothly.

Ikea has come to China, and the Chinese are really into it. I’m also pitting the matchmaking-Ikea of China vs. Liz Lemon’s couple-destroying-Ikea in the U.S. against each other in my mind.

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