2019.09.26
週四 Thursday
coordinate
[kəʊ'ɔ:dɪneɪt]
v. 協調，使調和；整合
圖片來源：視覺中國
宜家多次請求人們不要在店裡玩捉迷藏，然而人們依然在宜家組織大型的千人遊戲。
Ikea has repeatedly asked people not to play hide-and-seek in its stores. And yet people keep organizing massive, thousand-person games at Ikea.
這一趨勢最早可追溯至2014年，當時一位比利時博主伊利斯·德里克為了慶祝她30歲的生日，在當地的宜家維爾裡克店組織了一場捉迷藏聚會。
The first evidence of this trend dates back to 2014, when a Belgian blogger named Elise De Rijck coordinated a hide-and-seek meet-up at her local Wilrijk store to celebrate her 30th birthday.
她在臉書上建立了一個群組，並邀請了她的朋友，但很快上千人加入了這個群組。
She created a Facebook group and invited her friends—but soon, thousands of people had joined the group.
宜家比利時分公司聽說了這個計劃，但並沒有制止這一活動，還提供了全力支援，安排了額外的工作人員和安保人員來舉行這一活動。
Ikea Belgium got wind of the plan and instead of squashing it, offered Ikea’s full support, including extra staff and security to host the event.
從網上流傳的照片來看，這場活動簡直一團亂，人們躲在門店各處的垃圾箱或床下。
From the photos that still circulate online, the event was a riot, replete with people hiding under bins and beds all over the store.
但對於宜家而言，這樣的活動只有一次。該公司很快就聯絡了組織類似遊戲的臉書小組，並以安全風險為由要求他們解散。理由也很充分：宜家裡到處都是重型傢俱和叉車。
But for Ikea, it was a one-time thing. The company soon reached out to similar Facebook groups organizing games and asked them to disband, citing safety risks. And for good reason: Ikea is full of heavy furniture and forklifts.
就在這周，格拉斯哥當局否決了在這座蘇格蘭城市的宜家門店中舉行3000人遊戲的新計劃。
Just this week, authorities in Glasgow foiled a new plan for a 3,000-person game in the Scottish city’s Ikea store.
宜家當地的員工在臉書上看到了這一計劃並報了警，而警方拒絕了這些想賭博的人。宜家的一位發言人告訴《蘇格蘭人報》，“我們需要確保人們是安全的，但如果我們不知道他們在哪兒，這就很難做到。’”
Employees at the local Ikea spotted the plan on Facebook and called the police, who turned away the would-be gamesters. An Ikea spokesperson told The Scotsman, “We need to make sure people are safe, and that’s hard if we don’t know where they are.’”
宜家對捉迷藏的壓制是合理的。但與此同時，很難不把這種現象視為該公司的一個潛在機遇，而宜家一直在拼命地重塑自身，重新考慮門店設計，在市區開設小型門店，而這種門店真的只是一個數字訂單的展示廳。
Ikea’s crackdown on hide-and-seek makes sense. But at the same time, it’s hard not to see the phenomenon as a potential opportunity for the company, which has been working desperately to reinvent itself, rethinking its store designs and opening smaller urban stores that are really just a showroom for digital orders.
不過在一家出售重型傢俱的店裡玩遊擊類遊戲確實不安全。
No, it probably truly isn’t safe to play guerilla-style games at a store that sells heavy furniture.
但再想想，上千人興奮地開車前往宜家郊區的大門店，而這些店也是宜家希望人們光顧的。這難道不是一個潛在的機遇嗎？反而是一個難題？
Then again, Ikea has thousands of people excited about driving to the very suburban box stores it wants people to visit. Isn’t that a potential opportunity, rather than a problem?
完
參考資料：
https://www.fastcompany.com/90399077/ikea-politely-asks-that-you-stop-playing-giant-games-of-hide-and-seek-in-its-stores
翻譯：李然