Retail business without public restroom

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The grocery store nearest to us recently started locking their restroom so you have to find an employee to unlock it for you. I’ll be shopping at the other grocery store a little further away a lot more now because of this.

Really? How often do you have to use the bathroom in the middle of grocery shopping?

Not to white knight the PP here, but, me! I typically grab an iced coffee before I drive to the store, and my shopping trips aren’t short (unfortunately, big family and major meal planning list) so typically by the time I’m almost done the coffee has gone right thorough me.

Uh, why is the grocery store responsible for providing you with a bathroom in that case? I understand the people talking about having little kids or medical issues, but you just purposefully drink coffee on a schedule that will require you to use a public restroom. That's dumb. Get an iced coffee on the way home, if you must.

Where did I say they were responsible? I’m just answering your question. I’ve never been to a local grocer who doesn’t have ample public restrooms.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think it’s legal, and stupid. I was at a niche type store making a similarly large purchase when my then-4yo said he had to go #2 NOW! I asked and they said they couldn’t accommodate. It all happened so fast and before we could get out the door to the car he let it all out all over the carpet. I had a boy covered in excrement and they still wouldn’t let me use the restroom. So not only did they lose out on the sale, they had a crappy mess to clean on the carpet.

It sounds like your son was sick. If he had so little control over his bowels, it's very likely he would have crapped all over their bathroom, too. At least in this case, he had clothes on which likely captured most of it.

Be honest: if your son had crapped on the floor of the their bathroom, how much effort would you have put into cleaning it up? Or would you have thought, "eh, I'm sure they pay someone to clean this" and left?

It's an unfortunate anecdote but actually doesn't change the equation for most businesses at all. There is little to no benefit to providing a bathroom and there are huge downsides.

THIS THIS THIS. Would you have been happy if you'd been met leaving the bathroom with an employee handing you cleaning supplies and requesting you to clean up after your son? I bet not. But it isn't their job to clean up your kid's shit.

DP but part of owning a business is cleaning inevitable bodily accidents. It just is. I worked retail and in food service through high school and college and I can tell you, there will be puking and bloody noses and pee and yes, poop, and yes, it’s easier to just have someone grab the mop and bucket with appropriate solutions to clean it, because health standards dictate how certain “spills” are cleaned anyway. So while it’s nice you want to use 100 McDonalds napkins to clean your kid’s puke, I still have to come through with a mop and disinfect.

Different businesses have different expectations, though, and so do their employees. Restaurants are usually required to maintain restrooms for customers, plus food service is naturally going to result in more messes. Working at a toy store or children's bookstore, you will probably deal with more kid messes.

But if I owned or worked at a plant nursery, I would assume we aren't dealing with a ton of these kinds of messes. Same with a high end jewelry store or a furniture store. Any small retail store, I would not assume that I was going to be cleaning up feces on a regular basis, actually.

The PPs demanding that all businesses provide them with a bathroom are acting like every business in the world operates like a McDonald's. It doesn't. Many perfectly good explanations for why it is cost-prohibitive or otherwise impractical for especially small businesses to provide public bathrooms, but people don't care.

If you have a toddler, don't plan outings with them that include spending extended periods of time in a place unlikely to have a public bathroom, and/or check in with them regularly on the bathroom front and be sure to carry a portable toilet in your car. If you have IBS or another issue that might cause frequent bathroom visits, plan outings accordingly and know that not all businesses are able to accommodate you.

Most of the businesses people are complaining about are places where most people spend 10-20 minutes, tops. You should be a blessed to plan your bathroom visits around that, especially if it's a known issue like a recently potty trained child or a medical issue. Most restaurants, grocery stores, and a surprising number of retail stores (especially large big box stores) offer public restrooms. Plan accordingly.

+1

Plan better. You are the parent.

[Anonymous]

If they're not selling a bathroom experience, then there's no expectation of using their facilities

[Anonymous]

As a plumbing contractor, I fully support forcing all stores to have public bathrooms for the various genders.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The grocery store nearest to us recently started locking their restroom so you have to find an employee to unlock it for you. I’ll be shopping at the other grocery store a little further away a lot more now because of this.

Really? How often do you have to use the bathroom in the middle of grocery shopping?

Exactly. If you can’t hold it during a shopping trip see your Dr. I have used a bathroom in the grocery store maybe once or twice when my kids were potty training.

[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.

It’s not illegal. I used to visit a greenhouse that stated upfront that there was no public restroom and people could stop at a nearby fast food place.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The grocery store nearest to us recently started locking their restroom so you have to find an employee to unlock it for you. I’ll be shopping at the other grocery store a little further away a lot more now because of this.

Really? How often do you have to use the bathroom in the middle of grocery shopping?

NP. I typically combine grocery shopping with a bunch of errands so it’s not unusual for me to use the restroom.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The grocery store nearest to us recently started locking their restroom so you have to find an employee to unlock it for you. I’ll be shopping at the other grocery store a little further away a lot more now because of this.

Really? How often do you have to use the bathroom in the middle of grocery shopping?

Exactly. If you can’t hold it during a shopping trip see your Dr. I have used a bathroom in the grocery store maybe once or twice when my kids were potty training.

Sure are a lot of people using public restrooms for there to be no need.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The grocery store nearest to us recently started locking their restroom so you have to find an employee to unlock it for you. I’ll be shopping at the other grocery store a little further away a lot more now because of this.

Really? How often do you have to use the bathroom in the middle of grocery shopping?

NP. I typically combine grocery shopping with a bunch of errands so it’s not unusual for me to use the restroom.

Same. Sometimes I even have to wait in line for a women’s restroom.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The grocery store nearest to us recently started locking their restroom so you have to find an employee to unlock it for you. I’ll be shopping at the other grocery store a little further away a lot more now because of this.

Really? How often do you have to use the bathroom in the middle of grocery shopping?

NP. When I was super pregnant and needed to pee every half hour or so, I used the grocery store bathroom regularly. That being said, I *don't* think every single business everywhere needs to provide public restrooms. Food service should, but I don't expect it of anyone else. That being said, I have generally found that grocery stores, big box stores (Target, etc), libraries, museums, and hotels almost always have public bathrooms. In most other countries there are regularly available public restrooms you have to pay to use (yes, they're often disgusting but sometimes that's what you have to live with). I don't see why it's a big drama that the nursery doesn't have a public bathroom. The cost of the plants is irrelevant -- I would expect Walmart and McDonald's (the cheapest of the cheap) to have bathrooms before a high end jewellery store or one of the artsy clothing boutiques.

Frankly, I astonished by the number of people who have not mentally planned out of the house bathroom usage (for toddlers or as a tourist or whatever) consistently enough to know where you can and can't find public bathrooms.

[Anonymous]

In high school I worked at a higher end baby/toddler clothing store that had to close its restroom to the public because people are disgusting and retail associates don't get paid enough to deal with customers' bodily fluids.

We got a lot of complaints - and I get it, the clientele was mostly pregnant women and women with small kids, so exactly the kind of people who can't "just hold it" - but there was a public mall bathroom right down the breezeway. But don't blame the retail stores; blame your fellow customers who make messes and don't clean up after themselves or their children.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The grocery store nearest to us recently started locking their restroom so you have to find an employee to unlock it for you. I’ll be shopping at the other grocery store a little further away a lot more now because of this.

Really? How often do you have to use the bathroom in the middle of grocery shopping?

NP. When I was super pregnant and needed to pee every half hour or so, I used the grocery store bathroom regularly. That being said, I *don't* think every single business everywhere needs to provide public restrooms. Food service should, but I don't expect it of anyone else. That being said, I have generally found that grocery stores, big box stores (Target, etc), libraries, museums, and hotels almost always have public bathrooms. In most other countries there are regularly available public restrooms you have to pay to use (yes, they're often disgusting but sometimes that's what you have to live with). I don't see why it's a big drama that the nursery doesn't have a public bathroom. The cost of the plants is irrelevant -- I would expect Walmart and McDonald's (the cheapest of the cheap) to have bathrooms before a high end jewellery store or one of the artsy clothing boutiques.

Frankly, I astonished by the number of people who have not mentally planned out of the house bathroom usage (for toddlers or as a tourist or whatever) consistently enough to know where you can and can't find public bathrooms.

This. I've worked in both retail and food service and I've been pregnant and a parent, and I've had GI issues. I understand the need. But of course not EVERY SINGLE STORE can provide a bathroom. Many do, and when you are in a situation to need one regularly, you just figure out what those stores are and plan outings around them.

When my kids were really small, we almost exclusively used the big box chain bookstore near us instead of the cute little independent bookstore down the street, even though if I were going to bookstores on my own, I'd go to the indie one. But the big box one had a bathroom, and more space for the kids to run around. When I was pregnant, I only went to the nice Wegmans or Whole Foods in part because they have much nicer, cleaner bathrooms than the Harris Teeter near my house. When I have had GI problems, I've planned my whole schedule around access to a bathroom, including rescheduling a vacation because I didn't want to be in the situation of needing a bathroom and not knowing where to find one.

This is life.

[Anonymous]

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.

[Anonymous]

Pro tip: if you’re ever in Center City Philly & need to pee, go to the food court bathrooms at Liberty Place Mall

Learned that the hard way as I absolutely could not find a bathroom for blocks the first time I went there & felt like I was about to pee in the street

[Anonymous]

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.

Then don't. It is not worth their time.

:shrug: