My family had dinner tonight at IKEA (we're all suckers for the Swedish Meatballs) and I couldn't help but notice this sign as I entered the eating area:

Why should I clear my own table? At Ikea, clearing your own table at the end of your meal is one of the reasons you paid less at the start! By taking your tray to a tray station we can continue to keep our prices low. It also means our staff have more time to serve you and cook. It's a piece of cake!

I often hear people talk about how customers have unrealistic expectations and want to be catered to at every step. IKEA obviously can't afford to staff more people to clean up everyone's table (who knows, they probably can, but this way, they don't have to), but they find a way to phrase it in a way that gets me excited to clean my own table.

What an amazing job of proactively turning a negative experience into a positive one

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