Der Spiegel reports on Germans who use IKEA's restaurant (which serves subsidized food to encourage customer loyalty) as a soup-kitchen, and drop off their kids at the store's supervised day-care while they run errands around town, bringing home stacks of the free diapers provided in the baby-changing areas:
More than food-scroungers, though, IKEA workers fear lazy parents. Around 150 three- to 10-year-olds are deposited daily at the Hamburg-Schnelsen store's play area — a complimentary offer to allow mom and dad to wander in peace through the showrooms. But many people misuse the service as a free babysitting service. Sometimes moms just set their loved ones down among the colorful balls, with the nursery girl watching — and hurries to the hairstylist or the tennis court. The desperate store announcements asking the mother to please pick up her screeching child then go unheeded.
(Thanks, Chris!)