No public bathroom!

[Roundyround]

I think a business should provide a public restroom. To me it is a form of "civic rent" that a business should voluntarily pay. I understand a very small store may not have room for any restroom, but that is the exception not the rule. I think most owners are just too cheap, as there is a definite cost involved. How many potential purchases are derailed buy not having a restroom. A harder cost to figure, but also a definite cost.

[Can I Help Your A$$?]

Well, if you don't mind it when someone craps on your floor, then by all means "uphold the rules."

'Cause yer gonna get crap on your floor, no matter whose "fault" it is. Shit, literally, happens.

There's more than Crohnes disease that can cause digestive "surprises." Diabetes is a bitch. Holding it is a doubled-over-in pain kind of thing.

My mom had a crappy uterus. She ended up bleeding down her leg without knowing it in a store, and had no access to a bathroom. "No excuse" indeed. Shit happens. You're walking around, feeling healthy, you're in your late 30's, and you bleed on the floor of a Top Ten Toys or whatever. I don't know that she "should have known." It's not like it happened before. If she had been able to change her tampon, it would have been one thing. But as it was, those many years ago, my mother ran, embarrassed to the car and drove home, leaving me there in the store with a basket full of gifts and no clue as to what happened to her. I suppose she could have gone to another store nearby, with a red stain down her pants.

Shit happens, and people bitch about you for it.

[BuggedMei]

At the last store I worked at, we had to keep stock IN the bathroom. NO ONE was getting back there except staff.

At GameStore I worked at, this was the case. When I tried explaining this to the she-beast demanding her kid use the bathroom she blew up in my face about it (and the kid wet the floor because she-beast was busy berating me when she could have ran across the hall to the fast food place...) Most people were understanding though.

I can understand disabilities and, well, sometimes lunch just does not want to sit in your stomach anymore. Shit happens (literally) to everyone, just have to go with it...

[MageAkyla]

I have no problem with stores enforcing a no public restroom policy. For the most part the stores without public restrooms are small, and usually located near other places as stated before. I know it's embarrassing, it has happened to me, but my main reason is what's the different between finding yourself or your kid needing to go when you're in the farthest corner of a store like Walmart away from the bathroom, or popping next door or across the street from the little store. You're probably further away in the Walmart and most ppl make that distance.

[Jay 2K Winger]

I'm of the belief that, when in compliance with state law, a business can dictate whether its restrooms are public access or not. It's their business, their decision.

If you have a digestive tract problem or anything that might cause embarrassment, then to quote Ron White, "You're probably aware of it." It's your job to prepare for emergencies, not the business.

That's just my call on it. You have to uphold the employer's policy, since violating it can cost you a job. Period.

[bainsidhe]

I see both sides. I find it extremely annoying if a store doesn't have a public restroom, but not to the point I'd never shop there. It's just that well, if ya gotta go ya gotta go.

Having worked on the retail side of things, I wish I'd had more control over who could use the bathrooms.

When I worked at Media Play, I had the joy of working those last few precious months during liquidation. Yuck! Scum-sucking hagglers/tightwads/assholes/rednecks flooded the store. It was the first time I've seen that much crap come from a single person. Unless it was a herd of *insert barn animal here* And on the wall. Which is why we tried to close the bathrooms to customers, so the employees would have a clean place to shit. The bathrooms would be destroyed five minutes after scrubbing. Every. Single Time. One shift during liquidation included more bathroom vileness than the previous three years slammed together. Yuck!!!

And thank goodness the sweet folks at the coffee shop next door didn't mind employees using their bathroom all the time. Irony at it's best, I suppose.

And back when I worked fast food, our lobby closed at 11pm. Period. Since drive-thru was open all night, we'd get drunk boobs wanting to borrow our restroom "real quick!" because most places were closed that time of night and the beer was working it's way through. No way! Not only had we scrubbed the bathroom to cleanly goodness, but we'd be in the middle of bar rush and couldn't have our attention directed towards babysitting some drunk idiot in the bathroom. Besides, can we say "Safety Issue?" And yes, many of these morons used our dumpster (or the wall behind it, I mean) as a toilet. Grrr.

[JLRodgers]

I've always thought every store should have a bathroom for people to use, at least if it's someplace where the cost of them leaving the store to go would be more than having a bathroom, or it would otherwise be expected (restaurant, gas station, family-friendly-store). Although I have no problem if a store doesn't have a public restroom -- although I prefer if I see a sign stating that on the door.

In my town, the entire downtown area (about 15 blocks) has no public bathrooms in stores! If you have to go, you either fly to a gas station (1-8 blocks from the stores), to Wal-Mart (about a half mile away) or your own house which is a half mile away. Now the courthouse, community center, and commercium do have bathrooms; however, unless you know where they are at, you won't find them in time if kids are involved -- plus they are only open until 4 or 5pm, so you're pretty much out of luck when people actually go shopping.

[dbblsanta]

If people ask to use the bathroom, just tell them there is no bathroom.

[finlayfox]

alighty, i have this link here, this is a state law in CT... my state, that says that if an elstablishment has facilities well... yeah
http://www.cga.ct.gov/2009/ACT/PA/20...B-06328-PA.htm

[finlayfox]

also, ifrom a little digging at multiple sites that i am too lazy to post all of, a few other state's have passed bills(TX,MI,KY,IL,CO) besides CT on just this thing, and PA, NY, MA, TN, OH, and FL have bills pending

[Broomjockey]

alighty, i have this link here, this is a state law in CT... my state, that says that if an elstablishment has facilities well... yeah
http://www.cga.ct.gov/2009/ACT/PA/20...B-06328-PA.htm

That's actually quite a reasonable law. You need written evidence, and the store needs at least 3 people working, and not if it's a health/safety risk for the customer, and a security risk to the store.

[CrazedClerkthe2nd]

That's actually quite a reasonable law. You need written evidence, and the store needs at least 3 people working, and not if it's a health/safety risk for the customer, and a security risk to the store.

I would support such a law. I wouldn't have a problem escorting someone back to use the bathroom in an emergency if I had someone to cover up front.

I've always believed that only stores of a certain size really needed a public bathroom, generally smaller stores don't have them.

I am thankful we don't have a public bathroom, at least because it means I don't have to clean one. I've worked other jobs where I've had to and that shit gets nasty. (pun completely intended )

[bloodrose]

So what's your take on this CSers?

I'm a sucker now, eh? Erm, so what I would do in your situation and would like were I in the customer's shoes would be to tell them where a nearby bathroom is. "Sorry, ours is not open to customers. There is a McDonald's at the corner of blah-de-blah, though." Some would still bitch but a few might say thank you.

[bainsidhe]

That's actually quite a reasonable law. You need written evidence, and the store needs at least 3 people working, and not if it's a health/safety risk for the customer, and a security risk to the store.

I dunno, I kinda take exception to:

(1) "Customer" means an individual who is lawfully on the premises of a retail establishment;

Regardless of whether or not they intend to buy something.

[Lace Neil Singer]

If people ask to use the bathroom, just tell them there is no bathroom.

Word. I do this at the petrol station; it's so much easier and we don't get abuse from people.

Two points; there is no way in hell that we can allow the public round the back. The safe is there, as is the office, as is all our stock. We can't. This is drummed into everyone who works here; only employees use the staff toilet, no exceptions. The supermarket over the road has a public toilet; all you have to do is walk over the road.

I feel for people with digestive troubles or tiny bladdered kids, I really do. But this is a security issue, and there can be no exceptions. Any accidents have to be dealt with by the janitor in any case as employees are not allowed to touch body fluids; only the janitor is. And yes, it has happened. -.-