Retail business without public restroom

[Anonymous]

I worked retail in high school and college. The bathroom was in the stockroom and we weren't allowed to let customers go back there for any reason. We were told it was for liability reasons (I guess if a customer had a trip and fall or whatever and sued the company, insurance wouldn't cover it because it didn't happen somewhere customers were allowed to be) and I'm sure shoplifting was also a concern. There were bathrooms for shoppers elsewhere in the mall.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If a place of business can't provide a rest room for it's customers I can't be a customer of that place. Principle alone.

Ok. Go buy your plants elsewhere. No one cares.

If I have a cart full of plants ready to check out and find out the store doesn’t have a restroom for customers (and I have an urgency to pee), then I leave the cart in front of the register and never go back.
Don’t they realize they lose good customers and sales?

Most adults don’t throw tantrums and abandon their carts when they aren’t provided a public bathroom to buy plants, so don’t you worry. Their bottom line (yes, I see what I did there) is safe.

I didn’t throw a tantrum. Instead, I send a clear message without saying a word.

If you don't say a word, how do they know you're leaving because you need to use the bathroom? Not such a clear message if you ask me.

I had kindly asked an employee where the restroom was. She saw my cart full of plants and said there was no restroom. I then asked “Not even for customers?” As she said no and suggested a DonJohn across the street where was a construction site, I left everything there in shock.

You are easily shocked. Probably because you are such a “good” customer. Much better than those others who don’t spend as much money and certainly better than the staff.

[Anonymous]

I absolutely hate the lack of available public bathrooms. As someone that has managed quick-service restaurants in the city, I FULLY understand why. The general public has definitely ruined this for everyone. What is involved in maintaining these bathrooms has already been pointed out, but if you have one, you become the beacon for any and everyone off the street that needs to use it, most of them not being customers. It sucks because there is no easy answer to this, but I do wish there was a budget in city services to provide a completely public restroom instead of forcing the issue on the local businesses.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The employee telling you there isn't a bathroom or the employee having to clean up after your accident because there isn't a bathroom probably had zero to do with whether there was a bathroom available to you. Abandoning carts of merchandise or leaving these service employees actual feces to clean up is a really shit thing to do. Some of you have obviously never worked retail.

I did work in a garden center where there were two restrooms for customers and employees.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If a place of business can't provide a rest room for it's customers I can't be a customer of that place. Principle alone.

Ok. Go buy your plants elsewhere. No one cares.

If I have a cart full of plants ready to check out and find out the store doesn’t have a restroom for customers (and I have an urgency to pee), then I leave the cart in front of the register and never go back.
Don’t they realize they lose good customers and sales?

They’d rather have customers that can control themselves.

At some point in your life you’re going to sh!t yourself because you can’t have access to a bathroom for whatever reason.

And when that happens, I want you to remember making this post and you feel the warm diarrhea making it’s way down your thighs.

It’s going to be awesome. So appreciate it when it happens.

Save your breath. It already happened to me. I took a shit in a parking lot in Italy last summer. But that's because I didn't plan properly. I didn't run to the internet, whining "is this legal!!1!!1" It's the breathtaking entitlement and feeling that I Have Been Wronged that is so disgusting. If you have regular GI issues, I feel for you, but isn't this what adult diapers are for, essentially?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In some downtown areas of cities, there are basically no public bathrooms in businesses, and where there are, you must show that you bought something AND request a key or passcode for the bathroom door.

I asked an employee where the restroom was and she told me they had no public restroom, not even for customers spending hundreds on plants. Not even a restroom with passcode.
This was in Alexandria, VA.

Was this Greenstreet Gardens? They do have a restroom. It's in the little gift shop house with the greenhouse on the side.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I hear you. I have family members with IBS and have been part of many family dramas when people who needed bathrooms urgently couldn't get them in a timely manner while running errands.

Also, state of Maryland, people driving on rural roads to your Civil War battlefields might need bathrooms if theyre little kids, elderly, or have IBS!!! Thanks for nothing for an especially traumatic road trip years ago when we discovered MD gas stations don't usually keep bathrooms public and have absolutely no mercy.

IBS and explosive poop is exactly the type of thing that all business owners and employees want to keep out of their bathrooms.

+1
I hate to pile on but nobody should have to clean this and it's harder and harder to keep and attract service staff. People leaving messes ruin it for everyone.

Well customers should also have the right to access a bathroom in a store and not poop all over the plants/floor.

[Anonymous]

If public access they'd have to be handicap accessible then people would want diaper changing tables.

I think a garden center would be perfect for a porta potty. No one expects much from one but it is there for someone desperate.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If a place of business can't provide a rest room for it's customers I can't be a customer of that place. Principle alone.

Ok. Go buy your plants elsewhere. No one cares.

If I have a cart full of plants ready to check out and find out the store doesn’t have a restroom for customers (and I have an urgency to pee), then I leave the cart in front of the register and never go back.
Don’t they realize they lose good customers and sales?

They’d rather have customers that can control themselves.

At some point in your life you’re going to sh!t yourself because you can’t have access to a bathroom for whatever reason.

And when that happens, I want you to remember making this post and you feel the warm diarrhea making it’s way down your thighs.

It’s going to be awesome. So appreciate it when it happens.

Save your breath. It already happened to me. I took a shit in a parking lot in Italy last summer. But that's because I didn't plan properly. I didn't run to the internet, whining "is this legal!!1!!1" It's the breathtaking entitlement and feeling that I Have Been Wronged that is so disgusting. If you have regular GI issues, I feel for you, but isn't this what adult diapers are for, essentially?

And that's the better alternative? You defecated in public spaces- did you use a bag or clean up? Im so confused by this.

[Anonymous]

On this business’ website, these geniuses state
“The DMV community is #1 for us”
“We are helpful people”
“Inspire yourself”

People browsing get too inspired, relaxed, and the GI tract makes the call. It’s stupid not to allow customers to use the restroom and to complete the pleasant experience.
These geniuses are the same to complain about the economy when sales drop during the peak season. People don’t return to a store where the #1 need is ignored.
There are other garden centers in NoVA where you can have a pleasant experience. Avoid this store in Southern Alexandria.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:On this business’ website, these geniuses state
“The DMV community is #1 for us”
“We are helpful people”
“Inspire yourself”

People browsing get too inspired, relaxed, and the GI tract makes the call. It’s stupid not to allow customers to use the restroom and to complete the pleasant experience.
These geniuses are the same to complain about the economy when sales drop during the peak season. People don’t return to a store where the #1 need is ignored.
There are other garden centers in NoVA where you can have a pleasant experience. Avoid this store in Southern Alexandria.

I will definitely avoid the unnamed store. Unnamed stores are the worst.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:On this business’ website, these geniuses state
“The DMV community is #1 for us”
“We are helpful people”
“Inspire yourself”

People browsing get too inspired, relaxed, and the GI tract makes the call. It’s stupid not to allow customers to use the restroom and to complete the pleasant experience.
These geniuses are the same to complain about the economy when sales drop during the peak season. People don’t return to a store where the #1 need is ignored.
There are other garden centers in NoVA where you can have a pleasant experience. Avoid this store in Southern Alexandria.

I will definitely avoid the unnamed store. Unnamed stores are the worst.

NP. I just googled helpful people, inspire yourself, and plants Alexandria. Came right up.

[Anonymous]

I work in a pretty fancy office building. There are frequently visitors in the building. Anyways, we had this one male employee who kept bombing the bathroom twice a day. I mean literal liquid poop splashed up and down the stall bathrooms. The complaints were out of control from employees and visitors. We have a full time cleaning staff but they only clean bathrooms once a day (and it had never been a problem previously- our bathrooms were pristine). He loved to use the single unisex bathroom and then women complained even louder. Facilities put up signs asking people to clean up after themselves. Nope, nothing worked. They started having to close bathrooms so they could make sure that the bathrooms that were open were cleaned multiple times a day. The other guys started stalking the bathrooms to figure out who it was. Tons of emails to employees about it. The solution was that we had a visitors only bathroom with a key that only visitors could get since they couldn't ensure employee bathrooms wouldn't be hazmat scenes.

I'm sure this guy did have a medical problem, but how the hell does poop get splattered everywhere?! emptying a colostomy bag? Instead of sitting was he just aiming at the walls?

Anyways, I can imagine the issue for small retail businesses who don't have cleaning staff. Plus, if it's not cleaned correctly infectious disease does spread from diarrhea and vomit. How do you know if someone has IBS or norovirus?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:On this business’ website, these geniuses state
“The DMV community is #1 for us”
“We are helpful people”
“Inspire yourself”

People browsing get too inspired, relaxed, and the GI tract makes the call. It’s stupid not to allow customers to use the restroom and to complete the pleasant experience.
These geniuses are the same to complain about the economy when sales drop during the peak season. People don’t return to a store where the #1 need is ignored.
There are other garden centers in NoVA where you can have a pleasant experience. Avoid this store in Southern Alexandria.

I will definitely avoid the unnamed store. Unnamed stores are the worst.

NP. I just googled helpful people, inspire yourself, and plants Alexandria. Came right up.

That's a small, employee-owned nursery. So go ahead, send your business to the big box store, and wonder where small businesses went.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:On this business’ website, these geniuses state
“The DMV community is #1 for us”
“We are helpful people”
“Inspire yourself”

People browsing get too inspired, relaxed, and the GI tract makes the call. It’s stupid not to allow customers to use the restroom and to complete the pleasant experience.
These geniuses are the same to complain about the economy when sales drop during the peak season. People don’t return to a store where the #1 need is ignored.
There are other garden centers in NoVA where you can have a pleasant experience. Avoid this store in Southern Alexandria.

Sounds like it was your #2 need that was ignored.