Customers chill in various parts of IKEA in Beijing, sometimes for the whole day. This is a common site in Chinese IKEA stores, but less common outside of China, making it an interesting phenomenon that many talk about. Photos: Yin Lu/GT

On a display bed at the IKEA Beijing store, a couple with a child is sleeping peacefully. Other customers walk around and check out the furniture, ignoring the resting family.

Welcome to IKEA in Beijing, a place that people are just as likely to visit in order to chill as they are to actually go to in order to purchase furniture.

"Quite a lot of people come here with no intention to buy something," said Cao Yang, a shop assistant at IKEA Beijing. Who exactly are these people?

A fun day out

Those with kids definitely rank first. Most of the people sleeping on beds have babies. You can see baby strollers filled with diapers, milk bottles and baby snacks almost everywhere in the store, with babies asleep in the beds and cots, and some people even changing diapers in the open.

Senior citizens love resting in IKEA too. Wang Dejiu, a 71-year-old retiree from Chaoyang district, got up at 7 am on August 31 and headed to IKEA by bus with his wife after breakfast. They arrived around noon and planned to spend the afternoon chilling in IKEA until dinner.

"We like spending the day here," said Wang. "My wife and I like to come here when we are tired of just staying at home or going to parks. We are not here to buy stuff." He added, "Our children live abroad. Sometimes we feel lonely. We can rest, talk, enjoy the cool air here and find out what's new."

Many people come here accompanied by family and friends, loaded with food and drink, and sometimes even with newspapers and iPads. It looks more like they are planning to spend the day at a park rather than a shop.

Cao told Metro Beijing that she has to regularly decide whether to allow this sort of behavior or not. "Actually I just woke up a young man who fell asleep on a display bed. Most people don't feel offended when woken up and some even apologize for their behavior," Cao said.

"We don't wake up the babies though," Cao explained. "We will not wake up children, the elderly or pregnant women either. After all, it's a big store and these people get tired easily."

While a person enjoying the furniture is a great advert for the store, helping to sell the IKEA lifestyle, all the furniture on display is later sold, so shop assistants have an interest in not letting people linger. "All the furniture on display will be on sale later on the second floor," explained Cao.

Mad about meatballs

Besides getting free air-conditioning on a hot summer's day and having various choices of comfortable beds to rest on, the cafeteria is the other huge draw card at IKEA.

"I think many come here for the food and drink. It only costs 6 yuan ($0.95) for a hotdog with a drink. For lunch my wife ate some snacks she packed and I had a hotdog," said Wang.

IKEA's cafeteria serves both Chinese-style items, like stewed beef for 19.50 yuan, and European-style dishes, such as their famous Swedish meatballs, which cost 15.50 yuan. During meal times, the cafeteria is heaving and getting a table can often be difficult.

It is this combination of places to chill and places to eat that has turned IKEA into a community center for many. It attracts all different ages and backgrounds, and even young couples running out of places to go on a date.

Unlike other malls or shops, in IKEA shop assistants do not make people feel uncomfortable by following customers around or recommending products that they may or may not want. Instead they just stay at their workstations and show up from time to time to redo the beds. And that brings us on to another reason why people choose to visit IKEA without a shopping list.

"I totally understand why they come here just to window shop," a customer surnamed Zheng told Metro Beijing. "I think it is so that they can get inspiration on how to arrange their own furniture."

But not all customers like this habit. "It's completely inappropriate," said a visitor surnamed Xu. "Some of the sleepers don't even bother to take off their shoes, and some just put their bare feet on the beds. It's not a decent thing to do. I don't think people do such things in other countries. People in Beijing never miss a chance to take advantage."

Is Xu correct? Is this sort of behavior unique to China?

Experiencing IKEA

"In the New York store, there are some people lying on the beds, but I haven't seen anybody who actually fell asleep," said Wang Yan, who currently lives in New York, and has visited IKEA a few times recently to buy furniture.

Hilary Yang from the Netherlands told Metro Beijing that it was the same case in her country, where people test the furniture purely from a buyer's perspective.

Ma A'nuo, PR Manager of IKEA in Beijing, told Metro Beijing that IKEA's marketing idea is all about "experiencing".

To deliver a superior customer experience, shops and other service suppliers try to make customers feel satisfied and respected. In the case of IKEA in Beijing, it is done by allowing customers to turn the shop into their own home.

This is something that chimes well with the population, who are not strangers to using the toilets in McDonald's, the air conditioning in book stores and the wireless Internet at Starbucks, even without buying stuff.

"However, we would like the customers to be more aware of public manners and to make sure they do not get in the way of other people being able to experience the store," Ma added.

It seems people are not getting off those beds anytime soon.