I am a proponent<\/a> of the \u201cpay to pee\u201d model, in which governments and private companies provide public restrooms in abundance, for a fee, whether in the form of a turnstile-type entrance at public restrooms or a request for a quarter or two at a restaurant or store\u2019s restroom \u2014 in either case funding the cleaning and overall costs of making them available, but reimbursable for customers making purchases.<\/p>\nBut the Starbucks approach?\u00a0 Yes, it\u2019s a given that Starbucks locations in the suburbs, or, really, anywhere outside the city center, leave the bathrooms unlocked.\u00a0 There\u2019s no real reason to lock them<\/em>, since the numbers of noncustomers seeking to use the restrooms are small enough that it\u2019s not worth the effort of managing a \u201cbathroom key.\u201d\u00a0 In principle, even in the city center, if there were plenty of available restrooms, no single restaurant\/coffeeshop\/donut shop\/store would be obliged to deal with a disproportionate number of restroom users \u2014 though each of them would still have to deal with the sort of users no one wants \u2014 homeless who use restrooms for personal grooming and washing (note:\u00a0 my local public library faces enough of a risk of homeless using the restrooms for these activities that there are signs expressly forbidding it, and that\u2019s in the suburbs), junkies shooting up or overdosing, and the like.<\/p>\nBut Starbucks is engaging in something more akin to unilateral disarmament, and seems destined to become de facto public potties and the destination for all manner of city-dwellers and visitors, with the only protection against abuse of its new policy being the reluctance some people may have to ask for the key for a bathroom of a place where they have no intention of purchasing anything.<\/p>\n
But could they have make a different decision?\u00a0 It\u2019s hard to second-guess them, once the reports of white customers claiming that they were given the bathroom code without purchasing and without questioning, were reported.\u00a0 Perhaps Starbucks could have gone the other direction and said, \u201cwe\u2019ll be sure that only customers are ever given the bathroom code from here on out,\u201d but it likely is the case that if a manager believes that pleading customer saying, \u201cI\u2019m going to make a purchase but I really have to pee first,\u201d is telling the truth, Starbucks wants its employees to have the discretion to believe them.<\/p>\n
Yet they are now at risk.\u00a0 They are exposed to the possibility that they\u2019ll have to spend an undesirably-large amount of time cleaning the bathrooms, that they\u2019ll acquire a reputation, among potential paying customers, of having dirty or crowded bathrooms, or, worse, being a place to avoid because of the homeless frequenting the place.<\/p>\n
So what would you do?\u00a0 And what should they have done?<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Image:\u00a0\u00a0https:\/\/upload.wikimedia.org\/wikipedia\/commons\/c\/c1\/Starbucks%2C_Universal_CityWalk_Hollywood.JPG<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
An update on Starbucks:\u00a0 as part of its resolution to the bad publicity in the wake of the arrest of two men at a Philadelphia Starbucks, the company has announced that, henceforth, they \u201cwill now allow anyone to use the restroom at Starbucks locations even if they are not paying customers.\u201d\u00a0 To be sure, executive […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2209,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[617,956],"class_list":["post-9281","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-public-toilets","tag-starbucks"],"yoast_head":"\n
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<\/p>\n