# McDonald's Restaurant Rest Rooms - AIIIEEE! The FILTH! **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [July 30, 2010, 4:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mcdonalds-restaurant-rest-rooms-aiiieee-the-filth/548550 "2010-07-30T04:32:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![bullrun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/d9b06d/32.png) [@bullrun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bullrun)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2010, 1:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mcdonalds-restaurant-rest-rooms-aiiieee-the-filth/548550/41 "2010-07-31T01:07:26Z")
I avoid most “mickey dees” because most are staffed with minorities (in the SOuth anyway) and MacDonalds have just about gone completely pro-black. I don’t know if they even want white business anymore. For a while…all of their commercials were shown to be “in the hood” with rap music and calling themselves…“Mickey Dees”. Then…they have a website called ‘black 365’ which talks about catering to the black community. Look it up. WHy don’t they have one called "white 365’? MacDonalds is usually a Mac-ghetto. ---
**Author:** ![Smeghead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f1d935/32.png) [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2010, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mcdonalds-restaurant-rest-rooms-aiiieee-the-filth/548550/42 "2010-07-31T01:51:06Z")
> [@bullrun](#): > > I avoid most “mickey dees” because most are staffed with minorities (in the SOuth anyway) and MacDonalds have just about gone completely pro-black. I don’t know if they even want white business anymore. For a while…all of their commercials were shown to be “in the hood” with rap music and calling themselves…“Mickey Dees”. > Then..they have a website called ‘black 365’ which talks about catering to the black community. Look it up. WHy don’t they have one called "white 365’? > MacDonalds is usually a Mac-ghetto. You’re going to be a long-lived and highly valued member of the community. ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2010, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mcdonalds-restaurant-rest-rooms-aiiieee-the-filth/548550/43 "2010-07-31T02:07:01Z")
Yo, bullrun! It’s not that they don’t want White business. It’s they don’t want racist’s business. In other words, they don’t want you. As **Smeghead** , probably prophetically but definitely with sarcasm, indicated above, you may not be wanted here much longer either! ---
**Author:** ![Rand\_Rover](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/db5fbb/32.png) [@Rand\_Rover](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rand_Rover)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2010, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mcdonalds-restaurant-rest-rooms-aiiieee-the-filth/548550/44 "2010-07-31T02:38:24Z")
Hey, a McDonald’s bathroom may smell like pumpkin pie, but I’d never know 'cause I wouldn’t step foot in the filthy motherfucker. ---
**Author:** ![Cubsfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f4b2a3/32.png) [@Cubsfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cubsfan)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2010, 2:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mcdonalds-restaurant-rest-rooms-aiiieee-the-filth/548550/45 "2010-07-31T02:45:26Z")
I went to Arbys one time and someone had shit in the middle of the bathroom floor. Like outside the stall. Like a swirly chocolate ice cream. It was fucking amazing! ---
**Author:** ![elmwood](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmwood/32/3060_2.png) [@elmwood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elmwood)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2010, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mcdonalds-restaurant-rest-rooms-aiiieee-the-filth/548550/46 "2010-07-31T02:56:26Z")
> [@Inner\_Stickler](#): > > Say what you will about McDonalds, their bathrooms have always been clean as whistle in my experience. Around here, the cleanliness of a McDonald’s bathroom correlates with with the income of the surrounding area. Go to a McDonald’s in a wealthy suburb, and the bathrooms will be as clean as an operating room, and the reassuring smell of Lysol. In a blue-collar suburb, you’ll see ass-gaskets and/or plugged-up toilets, and there could be an odd, pungent smell if you’re unlucky, like a mix of mildew and farts. Go into the inner city, and [the place is like this](http://www.theonion.com/articles/downtown-mcdonalds-perpetually-a-hairsbreadth-from,203/). ---
**Author:** ![joebuck20](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/74df32/32.png) [@joebuck20](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joebuck20)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2010, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mcdonalds-restaurant-rest-rooms-aiiieee-the-filth/548550/47 "2010-07-31T03:17:24Z")
> [@elmwood](#): > > > [@Inner\_Stickler](#): > > > > Say what you will about McDonalds, their bathrooms have always been clean as whistle in my experience. > > Around here, the cleanliness of a McDonald’s bathroom correlates with with the income of the surrounding area. Go to a McDonald’s in a wealthy suburb, and the bathrooms will be as clean as an operating room, and the reassuring smell of Lysol. In a blue-collar suburb, you’ll see ass-gaskets and/or plugged-up toilets, and there could be an odd, pungent smell if you’re unlucky, like a mix of mildew and farts. Go into the inner city, and [the place is like this](http://www.theonion.com/articles/downtown-mcdonalds-perpetually-a-hairsbreadth-from,203/). Damn, you beat me to it with the link. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2010, 4:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mcdonalds-restaurant-rest-rooms-aiiieee-the-filth/548550/48 "2010-07-31T04:04:41Z")
> [@Monty](#): > > The closest McDonald’s to my apartment here in Busan is in a Home Plus[sup]1[/sup] store and thus the restrooms are maintained by the store. The staff there are very diligent[sup]2[/sup] about cleaning the place. When I mentioned to one of the greeters[sup]3[/sup] that someone was smoking[sup]4[/sup] in a stall, the greeter had to race the middle school boys[sup]5[/sup] nearby to the men’s room to warn the man twice[sup]6[/sup]. I will place a final note here[sup]7[/sup]. > > * * * > > [sup]1[/sup]I’m sure there’s some kind of humor in a Mormon living close to a Home Plus, but I’m not seeing it. > [sup]2[/sup]The Home Plus men’s rooms maintenance sheets are very thorough. It amazes me every time I see the cleaner–usually a somewhat elderly woman–actually going through the checklist items and doing what’s directed. > [sup]3[/sup]It’s illegal to smoke in restrooms open to the public; however, like any other “no smoking” ordinance here, that one’s widely disregarded by the selfish _sangnom_ who can’t do their business in the men’s room without sucking on something. In that incident, the offender was smoking a cigar. > [sup]4[/sup]Korea does Japan one better on the deparment store greeter thing. Here, there are greeters at every floor, not just the entrance. > [sup]5[/sup]I know the boys in question were middle schoolers because they were my students and I teach at a middle school. > [sup]6[/sup]The first warning is a reminder that it’s illegal to smoke in the restroom. The second warning is that the middle schoolers love to throw water over the stalls when they discover someone smoking there. > [sup]7[/sup]By the way, **phouka** and **winterhawk11** , I hope this post didn’t exacerbate your OCD too much. 😃 Gah - this is like reading those freaking educational books I keep renting from the library. ---
**Author:** ![Smeghead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f1d935/32.png) [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2010, 4:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mcdonalds-restaurant-rest-rooms-aiiieee-the-filth/548550/49 "2010-07-31T04:05:59Z")
> [@Cubsfan](#): > > I went to Arbys one time and someone had shit in the middle of the bathroom floor. Like outside the stall. Like a swirly chocolate ice cream. > > It was fucking amazing! You think that was good, you should have tried the ice cream! ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2010, 5:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mcdonalds-restaurant-rest-rooms-aiiieee-the-filth/548550/50 "2010-07-31T05:25:55Z")
> [@Cat\_Whisperer](#): > > Gah - this is like reading those freaking educational books I keep renting from the library. You should move here. There is no charge for late returns on library books. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2010, 6:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mcdonalds-restaurant-rest-rooms-aiiieee-the-filth/548550/51 "2010-07-31T06:04:38Z")
> [@Cubsfan](#): > > I went to Arbys one time and someone had shit in the middle of the bathroom floor. Like outside the stall. Like a swirly chocolate ice cream. > > It was fucking amazing! I can go one better than that. A few years back, in the bathroom of the Stonestown Galleria in San Francisco, someone had managed to take a shit directly under the stall divider. I don’t even know how he got his asshole down there. It’s not like there was a ton of clearance. Same mall, I stop in to do my business. After I’m done, I start to reach for the toilet paper, and only then do I notice that it’s covered with a viscous white fluid. I’m looking at it, thinking, “That can’t be what it looks like. It’s got to be hand soap, right? Someone went over to the sink, got a handful of liquid soap, and dribbled it all over the toilet paper.” So I crack the stall door, and take a look at the sinks. And the hand soap is all bright pink. _\_ ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2010, 6:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mcdonalds-restaurant-rest-rooms-aiiieee-the-filth/548550/52 "2010-07-31T06:10:05Z")
> [@Cubsfan](#): > > I went to Arbys one time and someone had shit in the middle of the bathroom floor. Like outside the stall. Like a swirly chocolate ice cream. > > It was fucking amazing! More like it was extraordinary shit. (In the mundane sense of out of the ordinary, as well as the more fantastical sense of actually getting it in that shape.) My McDonald’s, and all the ones I’ve been in are perfectly well kept up, including the bathrooms. The worst you may encounter is someone forgetting to flush or wipe down the toilet seat, and that’s only if the people haven’t been in. Heck, I usually get someone knocking on the door to check up on the cleanliness when I’m in there around the hour. I think it has to do with it being the place where there are always more employees than they technically need. At least, based on how many times I see them just standing around talking. ---
**Author:** ![Smeghead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f1d935/32.png) [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2010, 12:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mcdonalds-restaurant-rest-rooms-aiiieee-the-filth/548550/53 "2010-07-31T12:42:33Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > Same mall, I stop in to do my business. After I’m done, I start to reach for the toilet paper, and only then do I notice that it’s covered with a viscous white fluid. I’m looking at it, thinking, “That can’t be what it looks like. It’s got to be hand soap, right? Someone went over to the sink, got a handful of liquid soap, and dribbled it all over the toilet paper.” So I crack the stall door, and take a look at the sinks. And the hand soap is all bright pink. _\_ Oh, barf. All the disgusting threads going on right now - this one is the post that made me feel ill. ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2010, 1:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mcdonalds-restaurant-rest-rooms-aiiieee-the-filth/548550/54 "2010-07-31T13:00:19Z")
**Miller** : Doesn’t all soap lather up white? I really don’t know, just relating what I’ve heard somewhere. ---
**Author:** ![Measure\_for\_Measure](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/measure_for_measure/32/557_2.png) [@Measure\_for\_Measure](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Measure_for_Measure)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2010, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mcdonalds-restaurant-rest-rooms-aiiieee-the-filth/548550/55 "2010-07-31T22:12:55Z")
> [@Freddy\_the\_Pig](#): > > My experience has been that McDonald’s hit a nadir about ten years ago with respect to service times, restaurant cleanliness, and washroom cleanliness. > > They were expanding too fast and management took their eye of the ball. In fact for a period of time I avoided McD, not because I didn’t like the food, but because I didn’t like the slow service and dirt. > > At some point new management took over and they’ve gotten a lot better. Huh. My impression is that Wall Street shared your take on matters. McD’s financial performance decayed until about 10 years ago, when management refocused the company and brand on their traditional strengths. Substantiation from a 2004 article: > [@](#): > > Money manager Robert Olstein, who owns 1.5 million shares of McDonald’s in the Olstein Financial Alert Fund, wrote a letter to Cantalupo just a few days after he took over as CEO. > > In it, he expressed concern that the company’s strategic direction of spending money on opening new restaurants while cannibalizing existing restaurants was a wrong move and that “the cash flow can be more profitably employed at a higher return under a stock buyback program.” > > “Jim wrote back to me in August thanking me for the letter, and we’ve seen the changes he initiated,” said Olstein. “Cantalupo was a visionary who took the money and invested it into fixing the older restaurants and diversifying the menu. The company is running on all cylinders now. He turned this company around very quickly.” [http://money.cnn.com/2004/04/19/news/fortune500/mcdonalds\_ceo/index.htm](http://money.cnn.com/2004/04/19/news/fortune500/mcdonalds_ceo/index.htm) ---
**Author:** ![Acantha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9fc348/32.png) [@Acantha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acantha)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2010, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mcdonalds-restaurant-rest-rooms-aiiieee-the-filth/548550/56 "2010-07-31T22:58:53Z")
All I can tell you is, if McDonald’s restrooms disgust you, don’t go into the ones in Toys R Us. _barf_ Just don’t. ---
**Author:** ![US\_Bureau\_of\_Labor\_Statistics](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/c2a13f/32.png) [@US\_Bureau\_of\_Labor\_Statistics](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/US_Bureau_of_Labor_Statistics)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2010, 3:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mcdonalds-restaurant-rest-rooms-aiiieee-the-filth/548550/57 "2010-08-01T03:48:23Z")
> [@elmwood](#): > > > [@Inner\_Stickler](#): > > > > Say what you will about McDonalds, their bathrooms have always been clean as whistle in my experience. > > Around here, the cleanliness of a McDonald’s bathroom correlates with with the income of the surrounding area. Go to a McDonald’s in a wealthy suburb, and the bathrooms will be as clean as an operating room, and the reassuring smell of Lysol. In a blue-collar suburb, you’ll see ass-gaskets and/or plugged-up toilets, and there could be an odd, pungent smell if you’re unlucky, like a mix of mildew and farts. Go into the inner city, and [the place is like this](http://www.theonion.com/articles/downtown-mcdonalds-perpetually-a-hairsbreadth-from,203/). I am down with this post. This is the pattern for just about every chain there is. FWIW, my McDonald’s bathroom experience, on a scale of 1 “death trap” to 10 “cleaner than home”, has averaged a 6. I’m not really fussy so I will sit on anything over a 5. Their bathrooms aren’t really worse than any other public place. One thing to add though - the bathrooms on the Oklahoma turnpikes are shitheaps in every meaning of the word. Just shit in the dirt if you’re driving them, you’ll save yourself a few steps.\* \*This doesn’t apply to the Oklahoma/Arkansas/etc. welcome centers, which are really nice. I’ve never gotten free coke at one (well, that one time…) but they always have free coffee and informational pablum about the local attractions (state parks, maps, the Pink Watermelon Suck festival, etc., etc.) ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2010, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mcdonalds-restaurant-rest-rooms-aiiieee-the-filth/548550/58 "2010-08-01T20:54:42Z")
> [@Cubsfan](#): > > I went to Arbys one time and someone had shit in the middle of the bathroom floor. Like outside the stall. Like a swirly chocolate ice cream. > > It was fucking amazing! I was in the food court restrooms at Fair Oaks Mall in Fairfax, VA once and somebody had taken a shit in the urinal. That is, somebody had attempted to shit in the urinal; there were large and small chunks of turn and a sort of turd soup substance all over the wall and floor nearby. ---
**Author:** ![scareyfaerie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scareyfaerie/32/3135_2.png) [@scareyfaerie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scareyfaerie)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2010, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mcdonalds-restaurant-rest-rooms-aiiieee-the-filth/548550/59 "2010-08-01T22:44:13Z")
I have not bothered to read all of this thread but if McD’s restrooms bother you so much, why are you still going in there? It’s not like they sell nutiritious food or anything… really, the packaging is better for you than what’s inside it. Go elsehwere and find better toilets. Use what little common sense you might have…which seems to be none at all. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2010, 12:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mcdonalds-restaurant-rest-rooms-aiiieee-the-filth/548550/60 "2010-08-02T00:53:24Z")
> [@bullrun](#): > > I avoid most “mickey dees” because most are staffed with minorities (in the SOuth anyway) and MacDonalds have just about gone completely pro-black. I don’t know if they even want white business anymore. For a while…all of their commercials were shown to be “in the hood” with rap music and calling themselves…“Mickey Dees”. > Then..they have a website called ‘black 365’ which talks about catering to the black community. Look it up. WHy don’t they have one called "white 365’? > MacDonalds is usually a Mac-ghetto. [Yo, **bullrun!** Over here!](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=573011) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mcdonalds-restaurant-rest-rooms-aiiieee-the-filth/548550.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mcdonalds-restaurant-rest-rooms-aiiieee-the-filth/548550.md?page=4)