Chinese shopping centre installs 'husband hatches'
Bored partners can play retro video games in glass pods

A free daily digest of the biggest news stories of the day - and the best features from our website
Thank you for signing up to TheWeek. You will receive a verification email shortly.
There was a problem. Please refresh the page and try again.
Shanghai's largest mall has become the first shopping centre to install "husband rest hatches" where female shoppers can leave their bored partners.
The Global Habour complex now boasts four see-through glass gaming pods aimed at men waiting for their other halves to finish shopping.
Each contains "a seat as plush as any found on a business-class train, along with a big TV screen and games console," says the South China Morning Post.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
The gaming pods offer a step up from usual bored husband refuges like the trying-on benches in the shoe department and are already proving popular with customers, says the BBC, which picked up the story from Chinese website The Paper.
One enthusiastic user told the Paper that the hatches were "really great", adding: "I've just played Tekken 3 and felt like I was back at school!".
Not everyone was convinced, however - not least female shoppers who fear the tables have now been turned.
"Now I may have to wait for him when I finish shopping but he’s still playing games," one woman told the Paper.
As the story spread to international newspapers, one commenter on The Times' article about the "rest hatches" had a suggestion to make things fairer if the concept makes it to the UK.
"They should install the booths in B&Q to keep my wife happy while I like to spend a happy hour or two checking out and handling all the various tools, fixings, nuts and bolts," the reader wrote.
The hatches will remain at the shopping centre for a one-month trial. If their popularity continues, the mall says it will introduce a small charge for the service, which is currently free.
Continue reading for free
We hope you're enjoying The Week's refreshingly open-minded journalism.
Subscribed to The Week? Register your account with the same email as your subscription.
Sign up to our 10 Things You Need to Know Today newsletter
A free daily digest of the biggest news stories of the day - and the best features from our website
-
Drug could allow you to 'grow new teeth'
Tall Tales And other stories from the stranger side of life
By Chas Newkey-Burden Published
-
Woman reunited with egg she signed in 1951
It Wasn't All Bad Good news stories from the past seven days
By The Week Staff Published
-
10 things you need to know today: September 16, 2023
Daily Briefing Ripple effects seen throughout auto industry as UAW strikes, Lee expected to bring flooding and storm winds to New England, and more
By Justin Klawans Published
-
American rescued after 12 days in Turkish cave
It wasn't all bad Good news stories from the past seven days
By The Week Staff Published
-
What Mexico’s first female president might mean for the ‘femicide nation’
feature The Latin American country is grappling with misogynist crime amid a backdrop of progress for women in politics
By Rebekah Evans Published
-
Ukrainian military has ‘shown how the Russian army can be beaten’
Talking Point Recent Ukrainian frontline advances may offer hope for its counter-offensive
By The Week Staff Published
-
More than 2,000 dead following massive earthquake in Morocco
Speed Read
By Justin Klawans Published
-
Protests in Syria: could they bring down the Assad regime?
Talking Point Threat to power grows amid poverty, inflation and ‘botched’ response to earthquake
By The Week Staff Published