What part of "No public washroom" don't you get???

[RecoveringKinkoid]

We kind of had the same problem. The loo was back behind the counter, past all sorts of machines, and right by the counter where finished customer's jobs were waiting to be quality checked. We could just say our lawyers didn't want non-employed persons behind the counter. Which wasn't entirely a lie.

It was great when the sink was broken in half back there. (yeah, you read that right. Customers suck. ) Big dangerous busted porcelain jagged thing back there provided a perfect excuse to tell customers they couldn't go back there.

There was a Wendy's next door. We told them to go there. I'm sure the Wendy's loved that.

My sister works in a law library, and got tired of bums filing in and out of there all the time using the bathroom. They do not have a public toilet, and since there was one a couple doors down, she didn't feel all that bad telling this guy to go the public one.

The guy dropped trou and crapped in the middle of the carpeted hallway.

[Morrigan]

Back when we were building our bigger, spiffier store, we were stoked to find out we were getting our very own washroom in the back. We would have been willing to share, but Exboss told us flat not to let customers back there; something about our insurance policy, we couldn't have customers wandering through the stockroom. We found it much easier to tell them there was no washroom rather than debate with them why ours wasn't open to the public.

...you might get the question, "How can you possibly not have a restroom? What do employees use, then?" and I have no clue how you'd answer that one (at least, how you'd answer it with a straight face and not get in trouble--I can think of lots of sarcastic answers).

My answer to that one was easy - you could clearly see the signs for the mall's public washrooms from my till. All I had to do was point.

[Reyneth]

A previous job in a photo lab (not like now, where we also have a portrait studio - and thus a "public" bathroom - kinda), was nice when we had these questions.

"No, sorry. Federal Law prohibits it, seeing as we store chemicals for the processing in the backroom. Nobody is allowed that hasn't been made aware of the risks." That stopped 'em.

[karma_gypsy]

We don't have public restroom either. I just point to across the street to the furniture place or a little bit further down the street to Dairy Queen. And yes, people do freak out on us for not have a 'public' restroom.

One guy even said, we'll, my wife used to work here . . . Just because she worked here 10 years ago, doesn't mean you're entitled to use our bathroom.

I told him, well, it's in a construction area, no one's really allowed back there (which it was. They're renovating the restaurant in the back, which are where the bathrooms are). He acted like he didn't believe me!!

Uhh, duh, that big ass half-complete wall over there wasn't there when you're wife worked here!! Go across the street like everyone else does . . .

[Tria]

I'd only get leary if they ask for a role of the "soft stuff" and a magazine from back behind the counter.

No not that one.... That one. They got bigger titties in there!

[Lace Neil Singer]

And hope your ex g/f doesn't end up with a stiff in the john.

That was what I was thinking when I read that.

[DGoddessChardonnay]

I'd only get leary if they ask for a role of the "soft stuff" and a magazine from back behind the counter.

And hope your ex g/f doesn't end up with a stiff in the john.

[phillippbo]

In the area I live, genuinely having no public restroom is the bane of any employee's existence, and let me tell you why. Several years back, the city council in their infinite wisdom determined that any business open to the public must provide a public restroom. Because we all know that selling goods or services to the public means that we have to invite as much mess into our store as possible, and making said messes consist of bodily fluids is not just a good idea, it's now the law.

At any rate, the law was not absolute, and did provide for businesses built before the law took effect. Essentially, so long as the interior of the store was not renovated ("major renovations" as I recall), the business was grandfathered in and did not have to provide a public restroom (along with complete compliance with some of the fire codes that would require renovations, like making the emergency exit open outwards).

Got that? Good.

I happened to work in a convenience store which was originally built when Jesus walked the Earth, and had last been renovated when Sherman was doing his March to the Sea. As such, the only restroom was a tiny room, which was really barely more than a closet, in the corner of the back room where the public was not allowed, and we were grandfathered in under the new law. Just about every exchange would go something like this:

SC: Where's your bathroom?

Me: I'm sorry, we don't have a public restroom.

SC: Why not? It's the law you know...

Me: Actually, since the interior of this store has not been renovated in a long time, we are not obligated to provide a public restroom, but the Food Lion up the street has them.

SC: I'm going to report you to the City Council. They'll make you put one in...

Me: Please do. Is there anything else that you need?

Now, I'm not completely heartless. If it was someone with a small child, or someone who was obviously in distress, I'd bend the rule a bid if they seemed honest. Not very often, but sometimes I did. Sorry it was so long...

[RecoveringKinkoid]

If a customer comes in with a kid who desperately needs to go, we will let them use the employee toilet. Its technically not allowed, but we allow it out of the goodness of our hearts.

Yeah, I think I posted the story to what happened the last time I did this a Kinko's.

The short version is that either the kid or the dad vomited all over the place in the single-room bathroom. And left it.

[Greenday]

I hate having people come into my store asking if they can use our bathroom. It's gotten so bad that the strip of stores we are part of all have signs at the entrances saying no public restrooms. Even still, we have morons coming in asking to use the bathroom. Look, unless you are a cop, paramedic, or firefighter, and you aren't on the job, you aren't getting into our bathroom.

[Lace Neil Singer]

Had that at the garden centre, not cuz we didn't have a customer loo, but cuz the customer loo was outside. We had loads of people coming in, going to the tills and saying, "Where's the customer loo?" "Outside," we'd reply. "In the carpark." "I'm not using an outside loo!!" says customer, puffed with indignation. FFS, we're not talking a shack with a hole in the seat here, this is a proper toilet block with clean facilities. Some of the staff ie the outside staff used the customer loos rather than go all the way thru the outside part and into the shop, and had no complaints about them. It's just the idiot customers who thought that "outside loo" was synonious with "complete cess pit craphole loo."

[Becks]

I worked at a place that didn't have a bathroom available to the public. Hell, it was such a pain in the ass to get to, even the employees had a hard time getting to it (if I remember correctly...). I was told to tell customers who asked if they could use the bathroom, "Sorry, but it is unsafe back there. Employees only. Please try next door at (retail store) or (the grocery store next to that)."

Worked like a charm.

[Thrifty]

Just say you don't have a bathroom at all.

That's what I would say to our customer's and then I would get a smart ass comment along the lines of "oohhh so you don't go to the bathroom either hmm" I just said yup I go to the 7-11 next door that has a public restroom. Hehe

[LIW]

I worked in a place that didn't have a bathroom. It was a place that sold surplus building materials. In the middle of nowhere. Luckily, the guy who owned it his house was right there and we workers were allowed to use his bathroom. People would look at us real weird when we said we didn't have a bathroom. A lot of the men would just go around the side or back of the building. We didn't care. Now the owner has a porta john there.

Now my thought on the matter is, if a place tells you they don't have a restroom-arguing with them is taking up valuable time that you could be looking for a bathroom.

One time, we were going somewhere, and my husband stopped at a gas station, and the woman told me they had no public restroom. I have a bladder problem, but I just went back to the car, and managed to wait til we got to the next town where there was a McD's.

[friendofjimmyk]

I'd only get leary if they ask for a role of the "soft stuff" and a magazine from back behind the counter.