The most awesome retail business model ever!

[mjr]

Re: Swiping the card for the bathrooms...

While I like this idea in theory, what happens if two or three people enter the bathroom at the same time? You have three different card swipes, for persons A, B, and C, but you don't know who smeared poop on the walls...you just know it might have been one of those three people...and you can't really ban persons A and C for something person B did (not that you'd know person B did it).

Unless you're talking about not swiping to enter the bathroom, but swiping to enter the stall. That causes another issue, though. What about urinals? You can go into the bathroom and just pee all over the place, and since you didn't swipe your card, no one would know it was you.

[mjr]

in which case you wait for the next incident which will undoubtedly have only one common factor.

Unless, of course, it's a one-time event. Maybe they do it to "get even" with an employee or something, but it's a one-off. Especially if they don't get caught.

[Pimento]

I have a feeling that cameras in the bathroom would just be prime poop targets for unruly customers :P

That's it. Bathroom "pods". About the size of poets potties, swipe in, do business, wash, leave. Then the bathroom hoses itself down with a bleach/water solution eliminating worker contact with nasties.

[mjr]

I have a feeling that cameras in the bathroom would just be prime poop targets for unruly customers :P

True. But at least at that point you'd know who did it.

That's it. Bathroom "pods". About the size of poets potties, swipe in, do business, wash, leave. Then the bathroom hoses itself down with a bleach/water solution eliminating worker contact with nasties.

As an alternative to this, bathrooms could be set up sort of like Port-A-Potties, where you only have a door, toilet, and sink. And there are a number of them lined up. You go in, swipe your card, go into the stall, do your business, wash up, and then leave.

That way if there's a poop mess you can KNOW who did it a little more easily.

[Pimento]

I'm never knew bathroom were so tricky in retail

[mjr]

I'm never knew bathroom were so tricky in retail

Oh, you'd be surprised. It's different, but I've seen many stalls in men's rooms that have been vandalized with things like "Johnny is a <blank>" or "Kim is a <blank>" or some other low-intelligence nonsense usually having to do with race, gangs, or sex acts.

I don't know if this is a common occurrence in women's bathrooms, but I've seen it enough to think something like that would be a bannable offense, too.

[Pimento]

I feel like I'm missing out by not making a mess of public facilities now lol :P

[Chromatix]

Unless, of course, it's a one-time event. Maybe they do it to "get even" with an employee or something, but it's a one-off. Especially if they don't get caught.

I don't foresee this being a likely problem.

If it's a one-time event as you say, then either the perp goes in alone, or he runs the risk of being ratted out by other members who went in at the same time.

If it's a one-time event, it's also possible that it's an accident, rather than deliberate. Okay, there are limits to this, but people who are inclined to deliberately make a mess are also likely to do it repeatedly.

[Pimento]

It's the stores fault. They all put washrooms at the entrances when they know the only time you need to run to one is with a load of groceries in a cart while you're at the other end of the store

[wolfie]

Of course they have them at the entrance - that's on the "world" side of the cash registers. Due to the ban on cameras in restrooms (for privacy reasons), a restroom on the "store" side of the cash registers would be a "gimme some privacy so I can ditch the packaging and sensors, and stash the stuff I stole" room.