{"id":889584,"date":"2026-04-12T18:49:17","date_gmt":"2026-04-12T18:49:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/889584\/"},"modified":"2026-04-12T18:49:17","modified_gmt":"2026-04-12T18:49:17","slug":"ikea-forced-to-close-popular-section-of-busy-scots-stores","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/889584\/","title":{"rendered":"Ikea forced to close popular section of busy Scots stores"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img fetchpriority=\"high\" loading=\"eager\" decoding=\"async\" data-no-modal=\"true\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/ikea-sign-outside-ikea-toulon-826522333.jpg\" alt=\"IKEA sign in yellow letters on a blue corrugated building under a cloudy sky.\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-16059067\" width=\"5184\" height=\"3456\"  \/>Credit: Getty<\/p>\n<p>A POPULAR part of busy Ikea stores in Scotland has been forced to shut.<\/p>\n<p>The Swedish furniture giant has confirmed its supervised creche, known as Sm\u00e5land, is no longer operating at its <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thescottishsun.co.uk\/topic\/edinburgh\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Edinburgh<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thescottishsun.co.uk\/topic\/glasgow\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Glasgow<\/a> branches.<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSign up for Scottish Sun newsletter\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\tThank you!\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-modal-image=\"14352474\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/www-ikea-com-gb-en-971999958_bd9376.jpg\" alt=\"Two children playing in a ball pit.\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-14352474\" width=\"900\" height=\"601\"  \/>Sm\u00e5land has closed in both the Edinburgh and Glasgow Ikea storesCredit: Supplied<\/p>\n<p>Sm\u00e5land is a free play area usually found near the entrance of many <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thescottishsun.co.uk\/topic\/ikea\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Ikea<\/a> stores. <\/p>\n<p>It allowed <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thescottishsun.co.uk\/topic\/families\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">families<\/a> to drop off <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thescottishsun.co.uk\/topic\/children\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">children<\/a> aged three to 10 for up to an hour while they hit the showroom.<\/p>\n<p>But the much-loved service has now disappeared from both of the retailer\u2019s central <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thescottishsun.co.uk\/topic\/scotland\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Scotland<\/a> stores.<\/p>\n<p>It is understood Ikea\u2019s A<a href=\"https:\/\/www.thescottishsun.co.uk\/topic\/aberdeen\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">berdeen<\/a> branch did not have a Sm\u00e5land facility.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-readmore__headline\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tREAD MORE ON THE SCOTTISH SUN\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a class=\"article-readmore__text-anchor-wrap\" href=\"https:\/\/www.thescottishsun.co.uk\/news\/16146208\/four-men-arrested-murder-scots-businessman-kenya\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" height=\"240\" width=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/tp-Campbell-Scott-2402_COMP.jpg\"\/>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-readmore__text-kicker\">MURDER PROBE<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-readmore__text-headline\">Four arrested over &#8216;murder&#8217; of Scot whose body was found dumped in sack<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a class=\"article-readmore__text-anchor-wrap\" href=\"https:\/\/www.thescottishsun.co.uk\/news\/16145762\/steven-lyons-snared-kinahan-banker-arrest\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" height=\"240\" width=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/SC_SCOT-KINAHAN-ARRESTS-120426_COMP.jpg\"\/>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-readmore__text-kicker\">PROBE LINK<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-readmore__text-headline\">Scots gang boss Steven Lyons snared after arrest of Kinahan cartel&#8217;s &#8216;banker&#8217;<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n<p>It is not yet clear what the now-closed areas in the Glasgow and Edinburgh stores will be turned into.<\/p>\n<p>A statement on Ikea\u2019s website for both branches says: \u201cSm\u00e5land has now closed and is no longer operational in Glasgow \/ Edinburgh. We apologise for any inconvenience.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>A notice at the former Edinburgh creche tells customers: \u201cPlaytime doesn\u2019t end here. Sm\u00e5land has been a place for laughter, imagination and many happy moments.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSadly, our play area in this store has now closed. Watch this space as we build on what comes next.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thescottishsun.co.uk\/topic\/parents\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Parents<\/a> have been left devastated by the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thescottishsun.co.uk\/topic\/closure\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">closure<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>One <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thescottishsun.co.uk\/topic\/mum\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">mum<\/a> wrote on Facebook: \u201cMy <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thescottishsun.co.uk\/topic\/child\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">child<\/a> loves the creche in Edinburgh Ikea. Such a shame when it was so well used.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Another said: \u201cGutted as our little boy loved it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Ikea has been contacted for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Credit: Getty A POPULAR part of busy Ikea stores in Scotland has been forced to shut. The Swedish&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":889585,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[8816],"tags":[748,1102,4884,668,712,898,16,15],"class_list":["post-889584","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-edinburgh","tag-britain","tag-edinburgh","tag-great-britain","tag-ikea","tag-scotland","tag-store-closings","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116393239260163371","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/889584","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=889584"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/889584\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/889585"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=889584"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=889584"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=889584"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}