Women all over the globe can testify: shopping is a lot less fun when you have to drag a whining toddler behind you. Having to drag a recalcitrant man behind you can be even worse... luckily, Ikea has found a solution that works well for both.

Mänland gives women 30 minutes of shopping freedom 

The ball pool has been a success story to keep children busy for decades; now an Australian Ikea store has developed a similar idea for men. The new Egg of Columbus is called Mänland and features Xbox consoles, table football tables, pinball machines, free hot dogs and sports games on TV.

Much like for their children left in Småland, women receive a buzzer to remind them to collect their husbands when they're done shopping. Quite surprisingly, this buzzer already sounds after 30 minutes, both defeating its purpose to let women shop in freedom and (probably) annoying men who can only watch 30 minutes of football. 

Real trial or stunt for Fathers' Day?

Mänland has been “on trial” for four days during Fathers' Day weekend, which is celebrated on the first Sunday of September in Australia. It is not certain if the initiative will be prolonged: it might well be a huge (and successful) marketing stunt. 

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The UN High Commissioner for Refugees has announced today that the IKEA Foundation is donating 43 million euro to spend on emergency aid in the world's largest refugee camp, Dadaab in Kenya. The gift is said to be the largest private donation ever made to the UNHCR.

The Dadaab camp opened in 1990 to accommodate people who fled Somalia because of the war and droughts in the East-African country. The camp was meant to be used by 90,000 people, but it is currently home to 440,000 – over 150,000 have Somalia in the last few months.

While Ikea's help can 'only' aid 120,000 people, this huge donation comes “at a critical time”, according to UN High Commissioner António Guterres. The Ikea foundation, founded to promote architecture and interior design, expanded its scope to children's rights and education when parent company Ikea was attacked for using child labour in its supply chain. In 2009, the Foundation widened its attention further to the general improvement of living conditions in the third world.

750 jobs at British furniture chain Habitat are at risk, as the bankrupt company will be split up and (some of) the pieces sold separately. Competitor Home Retail Group will take over a small part of Habitat UK, and for the continental activities too, an interested buyer would have been found.

Private equity fail

Even though Habitat had been generating losses for years, private equity firm Hilco paid 15 million euro to the Kamprad-family (best known for Ikea-founder Ingvar Kamprad) to take over the chain. The private equity firm had hoped to make Habitat a healthy company again, but failed in the process and is now forced to sell the chain after starting the procedure to go in administration. 

Home Retail Group picks best, leaves rest

Home Retail Group, owner of the number two in British DIY Homebase, will pay Hilco 24.5 million pounds (27.5 million euro) for the best British bits and pieces: the intellectual property, the exclusive rights to use the name Habitat, the web shop and three London flagship stores. For 150 of the 900 employees, the future seems secured. For the 30 other British stores, the owners appear to be hoping for buyers for the property at best, not leaving much hope for the 750 other employees. 

European stores are safe(r)

As Habitat's continental stores had been generating profits, countrary to their British counterparts, their future looks a lot better. Hilco confirms ongoing negotiations with a company - rumoured to be French Conforama - to buy the 27 French, 6 Spanish, 5 German and 3 Belgo-Luxemburgian stores. 

Ikea will deploy extra security at all European stores, following the explosions in four European countries. The Swedish furniture chain claims to expect no more attacks, but wants to leave nothing to chance.

So far, it is unknown who is behind the explosions in Lille (France), Ghent (Belgium), Eindhoven (Netherlands) and Dresden (Germany). The German police has received several e-mails claiming responsibility for the last assault, but has made no statements on the matter. The Dutch police have already released a picture of a man, thought to be involved in the Dutch explosion.

Three IKEA stores in Belgium, the Netherlands and France had to be closed after several explosions had occurred on Monday. After a long security check, all stores have been cleared to open again the next morning.

Three stores hit in three different countries (but close to each other)

The first store where the packages exploded was in North-French Lille. Two separate explosions in the kitchen department were too small to hurt anyone. Not even an hour away (by car) lies the IKEA store of Ghent (Belgium), where two more small bombs exploded. While not bigger than the French explosions, in the Ghent explosions two staff members were hurt because a customer had heard clocks ticking and warned security.

90 minutes later, another package exploded in a garbage can on the parking lot of Eindhoven's IKEA and again, nobody was hurt. One remarkable fact is that, while perfectly on the line Lille – Ghent – Eindhoven (E17/E34-roads), the IKEA of Antwerp was left unharmed.

Police have searched for more such packages in the three stores (and a few others), but found no other explosives. All IKEA shops therefore opened just like normal on Tuesday morning, but the Belgian trade unions did ask for another security audit.

Earlier bomb threats on Dutch IKEA stores

It is not the first time that (Dutch) IKEA stores had to deal with alleged bombs. In 2002, two Poles put several bombs in the stores of Sliedrecht and Amsterdam. They asked for 250,000 euro, but got eleven years of imprisonment instead. Seven years later, a woman called the police claiming that there was a bomb in IKEA's Amsterdam South East store – there was none.

As the modus operandi is the same in all the stores, police are guessing there is a connection between the events. Each of the small bombs, hidden in a milk can, consisted of a small quantity of gunpowder, a detonator and an alarm clock. One website noted that it was “quite appropriate that the bombs in the stores famous for self-assembly devices were home made”.

So far, nothing about motive or culprits is known. It does not keep the press from guessing: some point a finger to angry farmers because of the recent arguments about give-away steaks, while others think of Eastern-European amateurs.

 Swedish furniture giants Ikea will receive the Cannes Lion 2011 for Best Advertisers. A special one for the group, as this will be their 50th Lion (in 58 years of Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity). Last year, Ikea won the Titanium Lion for its use of Facebook.

Philip Thomas, Cannes Lions CEO, praises Ikea: “Ikea’s approach to its marketing and communications, with its decentralised structure and strong relationships with many different kinds of agencies, has been hugely successful over many years. The company’s superb track record at Cannes reveals a clarity of vision and an enviable willingness to allow its agencies to truly flex their creative muscles. We congratulate both Ikea and its many agencies across many countries on this well-deserved honour.”

Belgian Noel Wijsmans, vice-president of IKEA Group and Global Retail Manager, will accept the award in Cannes on 25 June. He states that it is “a great recognition of Ikea advertising that speaks to all of us who want to have a functional and beautiful home. We want to inspire people to fulfil needs and dreams in their everyday life at home. And we want to do that with a smile.”