Public Restroom Rant

Complaints Corner
41

Vons/Safeway stores have them, at least on the west coast.

Actually I ́ve also found restrooms to be widely available in Ticino. But if a store has posted public restrooms I also feel free to use them regardless of whether I ́m buying anything. If the restroom is clean and easy to find, maybe that scores a point in that store ́s favor the next time I ́m shopping.

42
Most department stores in Zurich have easy-to-find, free WCs.

43
Why no rants against your countrymen who call them "conveniences"? Talk about sensitivities...

Also, how often in your life have you referred to a place where you "can lie down and sleep" as a "rest room"? I'm guessing NEVER.

44
Many department stores and larger shops have them as an amenity for their customers, so the customers will linger longer, not out a sense of charity. Non food/drink establishments are not obliged to do so, and so a rant about why they don't provide them is not appropriate. If I had a small shop I wouldn't want a trail of non-customers taking advantage of my facilities (in many large cities they are used by backpackers as virtual shower rooms) with no intention of buying anything. In fact many shops have combination locks to discourage such behaviour.

dave

45
The WC was pivotal in the development of department stores. Once the steam engine allowed women - who traditionally didn't work - to travel long distances to 'market', stores recognised the need to provide 'conveniences'. The ladies lingered, the stores florished. Ta taa!

46
UBS has a rest room/calm room for sleeping off hangovers.

So did my last UK place.

Not that I condone it etc etc

47
As a mum of two (3yrs & 11mths) I regularly struggle to find public toiles that are equipt for all 3 of us to be in at the same time - strangely enough I am not comfortable parking my little ones in the street along with all our shopping and nipping in some where.

I for one, love airports, train stations and anywhere large enough to be required to provide disabled toilets - I am even willing to overlook the fact that most of them have not had their hourly clean as the little chart on the back of the door maintains .

I have to say that whilst Zurich is not one of the better cities I have ever lived in "toiletwise" it is far from the worst... I was unfortunate enough to be in Amsterdam (not that I have anything again the city itself per se) for a few weeks whilst heavily pregnant and with toddler in tow and found it damn near impossible to find anywhere to go. The few stores in town I found that had toilets (and no the baby store didn't even have as much as a changing room!) had them up on the highest (or lowest) floor and almost none had lifts due to the age and design of the buildings. In desperation I must have hit just about every large hotel in town over the time I was there to the extent I was on first name terms with the door men!.

The most useful piece (depending on your bladder control) of information I found upon my arrival in Switzerland was the following url for Zurich city public toilets which list all disabled, changing room and toilet facilities in the city area! www.zueriwc.ch

48
Great link maxhd. should solve a few problems.

49
A sorry testament to how my life has changed - the last time I moved the first piece of info I looked for was a list of the best local bars... and no it wasn't to make use of their toilet facilities!

50
This is the biggest issue I think. As long as you're a young, single guy with no medical problems you can laugh and tell others to "hold it" or "just go at home". As for the rest of us it's a pretty real issue, or becomes one once we have kids or Grandma comes to visit!

Somebody needs to make a webpage where you can print out all the locations of public/semi-public toilets in every big city. Including all of the ways to ask for the restroom in the local language. I would pay for that!

51
We could call it "Piss Out"

52
I used to manage a "small local store" in the UK some time ago, and while we didn't have a public toilet, we did have a toilet for the staff (every shop will have one of these I'm willing to bet)

Did we let customers use the toilet? Yes, all the time. Especially those with kids or in special circumstances. Did we advertise it with a sign? No, but if anyone asked (usually a few each day) then yes, feel free, it's in the back over there.

As others have indicated, it's part of a friendly service to the customer, it's partly just basic common sense and doing the right thing ethically for "your fellow man" (or woman!), and partly to get them to spend more time in the shop itself. But business motivation aside, you'd have to be a real hardcase to refuse to allow a pregnant woman access to your staff toilet facilities.

53
I agree totally except, if the shopkeeper does it out of goodwill, there should be no expectation on the part of the one-with-the-legs-crossed, and certainly no rant if it were to be refused. Mind you the example you gave was of a "local shop" for "local pissers"

dave

54
Did those customers ever made it out of your toilet Terry...?

Yes, I'm a League of Gentlemen fan...

55
No comment, but we did sell some excellent Local Sausage...

56
Some of these have already been listed but US grocery stores I've been to with public toilets (with signs on them indicating public) are: Ralphs, Vons, Safeway, Dominicks, Jewel-Osco, Costco, Whole Foods, Albertsons, Nob Hill, Belair.

There are many fast food type restaurants in the US which say "Restrooms for customers only" and in that case, unless it was an emergency, I wouldn't use them unless I had bought something - and if it was an emergency, I would probably buy something on the way out from guilt.

I've spent plenty of money at the big bookstores so I agree that I don't feel bad about using their facilities even if I don't buy something that visit.

In general, I think the public toilet quantity and quality go down as you go east - there are many more nice clean public toilets on the west coast of the US than there are in the midwest or east coast (from what I've experienced) and it sounds like the situation gets worse as you travel east of the Atlantic...

57
That's about as useful as a ham sandwich at a barmitzvah. Nice to know if I happen to be in that area though ....

dave

58
Was just chiming in to agree that there are public restrooms in grocery stores in the US, since there was a debate in this thread about whether they exist.

Granted, I chimed in a little late - when I get to Switzerland in Sept I won't be 7 hours behind so I'll get to these posts a little earlier...

59
Like I said before, the average grocery store in Southern New England (Stop & Shop / Big Y / Shaws) do not have marked bathrooms. I've run this through my head for a number of days, as I honestly cannot remember having seen a restroom within your average grocery store. All of these grocery store chains design their stores along general models (redesigned every 5-10 years or so?). I cannot picture where the bathroom is in any of the different models I've been into. If they exist, they are not marked. A typical grocery run will not last more than 30 minutes. I would expect that most people can plan to ensure that they can hold out for that long.

I was not talking about Costco or Whole Foods, to which I've never been. If I am not mistaken Whole Foods has only just entered Massachusetts within the past few years, and the only location that I have heard of is in metro Boston (90 minutes away from where I am from).

I was not referring to Swiss grocery stores, and I would call Globus a department store with a grocery section (somebody called it a grocery store). The same would apply to Walmart Superstores and Target in the US. I never said that *all stores* in the US are without facilities, I was referring to small, privately-owned shops that do not have publicly marked facilities. Didn't I say that department stores, malls, and so forth all have them -- in the US and CH?

Oh, and by the way, Starbucks is a cafe. Of course they have a bloody bathroom. Subway is a restaurant. When did I say that *restaurants* didn't have restrooms?

I know where the public toilets are located and whether or not they are free. I have nothing against someone charging me 1 CHF to use the facilities, as those restrooms will be kept clean and sterile. I believe that part of the initial objection was that people would have to pay, which is normal in continental Europe? As I said before, every shopping center in Switzerland that I have been to has had a free public toilet.

If you're out on a short shopping run that will take you 30 minutes, why are you bringing the entire family along? If you're going to Ikea, Sihl City or Tägipark with the kids, there are free, public facilities.

60
*completely removes the moderator hat, this is just from me*

Oh so holier than thou.

Just because you haven't noticed it doesn't mean it doesn't exist. You continuing to insist they don't exist is just annoying the many of us who can/have said they also know of grocery stores with toilets in America.

Just because you can "plan ahead" and not need to go to the toilet doesn't mean everyone else doesn't. We're not all as perfect bladder and bowel wise as you, particularly the pregnant, elderly and very young. And the busy, who might have gone five places before they hit the grocery store for that 30 minute trip. And if you've got kids or a large family, 30 minutes in a US grocery store is quite short.

Just because you seem to think that people shouldn't go out with their kids doesn't mean they don't and doesn't mean they shouldn't. And doesn't mean they always *can* leave their kids alone at home...

Grocery store toilets are located either in the front of the store or at the back. They don't have giant flashing signs telling you to look for them.

And $tarbuck$ is a coffee shop, not a cafe.

*puts moderator hat back on*