IKEA wants to pay real people to work in its new store inside Roblox game
By Issy Ronald, CNN
London (CNN) — IKEA has put a new spin on remote working, seeking 10 real-life staff to work in its Roblox virtual store that opens on June 24 and becoming the first brand to offer paid work on the gaming platform.
“This is not the typical IKEA job,” the Swedish flatpack giant said in the listing for jobs in its Roblox outlet, called “The Co-Worker Game.”
In a statement, IKEA described its move onto the Roblox platform as its “first foray into mainstream gaming,” saying “The Co-Worker Game” will give people “a chance to immerse themselves in the working world” of the store.
According to the job posting, prospective applicants must consider how they would feel about being turned into pixels and what they would do if the store ran out of pixelated hotdogs. The posting also asks: “If you were a (piece of) pixelated IKEA furniture, which one would you be and why?”
If successful, candidates, who must be aged 18 and over and live in the United Kingdom or Ireland to apply, will work in different sections of the online store, helping people choose their furniture and serving digital meatballs.
They will be paid £13.15 ($16.82) an hour for the fully remote job, the same rate as a typical real-life IKEA employee in London, a similar salary to that of IKEA workers in the United States and more than double the US federal minimum wage.
They will work alongside unpaid Roblox players, who will get the chance to serve customers, visit various showrooms, get promoted and use IKEA products to organize their virtual space.
US-based gaming giant Roblox (RBLX) allows users to play user-created games and create their own and also blends elements of a social media network so people can make friends and talk to developers as they explore virtual worlds. It has grown in popularity in recent years and is now used monthly by about half of US youth, aged 12 to 17.
IKEA is not the first brand to enter the virtual world, following in the footsteps of Walmart (WMT), among others, which created a virtual Roblox store allowing users to buy physical items and receive them in the mail.
It wasn’t immediately clear whether customers will be able to buy real IKEA products through its game. CNN has reached out to IKEA for clarification.
The company’s unusual job listing went viral on social media, with users on X posting memes to express their disappointment at not getting an interview and American TikTok users sharing videos of themselves preparing, just in case IKEA advertises the job in the United States as well.
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CNN’s Samantha Murphy Kelly contributed reporting.
