Vicky Xu / Shanghai Daily news

Customers' complaints to Ikea has been mounting recently, blaming it for wasting too much of their time finding the exit, the Morning Post reported yesterday.
The Scandinavian modern style furniture retailer says in all its outlets world-wide, it seperates all its display sections, and designs a wandering long route to force the customers to look through all their sections before they reach the exit so that people may buy much more than they had planned.
However, here in Shanghai, customers say it's a waste of time. It takes about 20 minutes to travel from the entrance to the exit, although the exit is actually only a couple of minutes away. Even when the customer follows the "short-cut" direction, a 15-minute walk is a must.
Reacting timely to the complaints, Ikea service center made an announcement saying they would make improvements in September, for example, to create more "short-cut" routes.
Creating shortcuts in Ikea actually means breaking some seperation walls or creating doors between some seperated sections. It may be of help.
Anyway, "travelling" in Ikea may not necessarily be tiresome. Customers are allowd to rest on sofa, stools and beds on display. Refreshments at the second floor buffet can also be an alternative.