The link is specifically about the issue in Chicago. Apologies if it is similar to Magiver’s link, which didn’t work for me. I do think the appropriate way to solve this problem is through the CTA providing restrooms. The OP is their customer. Call me a dreamer, but Chicago residents should be able to influence this through the political process.
See, this is a common problem. You have a legit beef, but your way of presenting it to the merchant is something you can’t know about. Write a letter to each merhcant, let them know that you are a paying customer but you will stop buying from them if they continue this rather rude policy.
What happened to planning and managing one’s own toileting needs? Unless you’ve got certain medical conditions like IBS, you should make your own arrangements based on known or likely public toilet locations. I don’t think you can just expect to use a toilet in any old store you happen to be shopping in whenever the need arises. It’s a personal responsibility thing. ‘Go’ before you leave home/work, look around for places that are likely to have public toilets. Don’t drink six cups of coffee, then decide to go shopping in a toiletless environment for a couple of hours.
I like walking around, exploring in urban areas for hours at a time. Pubs, big shopping centres, and McDonalds are prime pit stop locations. I won’t buy anything if I don’t need anything but I do try not to smear the walls or flood the place.
What he said. It wouldn’t even occur to me to ask to use the non-public washroom in a retail store unless, for some reason, it was an absolute emergency and there was no other way I could get anywhere else – restaurant, coffee shop, hotel lobby, mall, office tower, government building, bus depot, library, etc. – in time.
People sometimes asked to use the washroom at Hamish’s former and unlamented job, a magazine store, and were turned down because the washroom was in the employee only area next to the safe.
I understand that in the case of the Montreal metro, which has no public washrooms, passengers with these kinds of conditions have some sort of code or procedure that they use to get access to the employee washrooms.
When I was in France, I saw these cool sophisticated public washroom cubicles that somehow automatically sterilized themselves after use.
Large stores such as department stores and big box stores (IKEA, Staples, etc.) often have public bathrooms, in my experience.
They were almost certainly provided by the French company JCDecaux, although there are competitors with similar products. I know that New York City was investigating these devices back in the 1990s, although I don’t know if they ever introduced them.
I was 3 hours into a 5-hour car trip when I started bleeding like crazy. I have endometriosis, and sometimes weeks early and out of the blue, things happen. It was only a one-day trip (down one day, sleep there over night, back the next day), so I hadn’t brought anything with me in the event that something happened, and was screwed.
We drove around for a half an hour at 9-10PM trying to find a gas station in the middle of nowhere that was actually open.
We finally found one, and I went inside, visibly bleeding through my clothing, and the girl behind the counter refused to let me use their restroom. They had no public bathroom, and the one there was for employees only. My sister and I tried to plead with her that it was an emergency, she could clearly see the blood on my clothing, but still refused to let me use it. Even if I had anything with me to use to stop the bleeding, I couldn’t get into the restroom to use it.
The most she would offer me was a paper towel.
I couldn’t really get mad at her for upholding store policy, but I cried the entire rest of the way home (I was in pain, too), and my clothing was ruined. I really wouldn’t have asked if it had not been an emergency, but apparently rules are rules are rules.
Here in suburban Minneapolis, it’s pretty rare to find a store that does not have a public bathroom. Michael’s has one. Jo-Ann Fabrics has one. Target has one. Supermarkets have them. Walmart has one (not very clean, but I’ve never seen poop smears). Fast food restaurants and convenience stores have them. Usually, they are pretty clean, too. Essential when you have small children.
The worst bathrooms are at the Mall of America…I think they’ve just given up on dealing with the sheer number of people who come through on a daily basis, especially those who come from places like you all come from who don’t know how to behave. Also, the automatic flushers are so enthusiastic that they spray toilet water on the seat–ick (especially since, if you didn’t see it happen, it looks just like pee on a black seat.)
I visited NYC for a few days once, and I started limiting my consumption of liquids due to lack of bathroom access. I’m sure that wasn’t too healthy, but I could deal with it for a few days–not sure how I’d deal with it all the time, though!
In Spanish general law there is no rule about whether the bathrooms at a place of business are public or not. The National Labor Health Law says workplaces must have bathrooms and lists some characteristics, but doesn’t say anything about making them available to non-workers.
There’s places which make restrooms available to customers only. I’ve never been in one where they refused to let someone use the restroom; tops, they’d say you have to be a customer, leading to stupid situations like having to tell the guy behind the counter “listen, I’m alone, carrying an armful of books and need to pee NOW, so how’s about you give me the key first and I’ll buy a meal later? Or do I need to bring it into the restroom with me?” I avoid places that I know have that kind of rule.
In Navarra (the Spanish province I’m from), “state”-level law indicates that the restrooms at any public place are, by definition, public. If this means that you have to clean them often during the local fiestas, tuff luck. Makes life a lot easier for the public, specially with an incontinent mother…
Same here. I think fast food restaurant bathrooms are usually better maintained than gas station ones are :eek: so that’s where I go if I’m away from home and urgently need to go.
I would not expect other kinds of stores to have a public bathroom unless they served food there.