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You may want to ask WHY they decided to post a "customers only" sign!
They may tell you...
That homeless people will come in and "bathe" using the sink - keep the restroom tied up for 30 minutes!
Or that drug addicts will go in, shoot up, pass out and also tie up the restroom for long periods of time.
And that non-customers will steal rolls of toilet paper, make a big mess, paint graffiti on the walls, steal metal objects, or vandalize it.
Note that in Europe you have to pay to use public restrooms. They actually have businesses in shopping areas which are restrooms for pay!
The next time you see a janitor cleaning a public restroom - like at a rest stop or public park, ask about the theft and vandalism which occurs there. You will get an ear full!
With that said, many business owners are happy to let "regular people" use their restrooms. That is people who look like they will not damage anything. If it is someone working there who is not the boss, they may tell you customers only - as that is what they were told by the boss.
True,
If you go a public library in a downtown you can find this,
What started out as pristine at opening time by the middle of the day the toilets are clogged there is no paper and there is a beard in the sink and that’s the way they will stay till the Janitor cleans after closing at night.
Most of my doctor's offices have keys on huge key rings you have to ask for to gain access to the restrooms.
You can't just walk in off the street and use a restroom in most high rise office buildings; the owners of those properties know their occupants don't want that kind of traffic in and around their businesses.
How about erecting a sign in your front yard announcing your bathrooms are available for public use? Would you like the constant stream of people who care less about the wear and tear on your restroom or other parts of your house? Business owners are aware of the fact so don't have public facilities.
I have been to cities that have public restrooms for what I would assume to be tourists as the facilities are in a stand alone building or tucked into a small part of an existing building. It could be a good investment for someone as it would be paid for by the municipality if presented to them properly. The shopkeepers who advertise no public restrooms would be highly appreciative.
I think some of it depends on where the restroom is located in the business. My local cvs, while it has restrooms they are in the back stock room. So if they made them public an employee has to unlock the door and then stand in the stock room while the person is using the bathroom and then escorts them out. So they have a blanket no public restroom policy.
All you need is one maybe two people that were messy in there...maybe even stole the
paper towels and soap...you close it from then on.
No mystery to me.
This is a common practice in the touristy area where I live. If I have a restaurant on the main drag, I do not feel like paying my employees to keep a restroom clean and supplied with paper products for everyone who passes my restaurant without coming in to buy a meal or at least a few drinks. Not to mention, every homeless person for miles around. This seems like a no brainer to me.
On big holidays, like St Patrick's Day, the restaurants issue wrist bands to customers to gain access to the restrooms.
I wonder what ever happened to pay toilets??? When I was very young there used to be some in places like city parks and the zoo. The "psychology" (if you must) was apparently that even dropping a dime into a slot to gain access made the user more appreciative and therefore less likely to leave a mess behind or do "bad things."
Most of the businesses, in the urban neighborhood where I live, have posted "restrooms for customers only" signs on their front doors. As others have pointed out, it should be no mystery why. There are more appropriate places for vagrants and derelicts (spare me the poetic "homeless") to clean themselves up. Junkies just have to find another location to inject their poison. Few are the people who legitimately "gotta go" and can't hold it in until they're given a restroom key or find a public facility.
Gotta admit that it was nice to be on the road a few days ago, start getting the urge to dance behind the wheel, and be able to just walk into a restaurant and then walk back out 2 minutes later. No restrictive signage, no dead-bolted door, no cameras or suspicious employees. Of course I did my part by not spraying like a cat in heat or a skunk, then flushing before neatly washing my hands. It doesn't take much for that tacit social compact to be compromised, though.
My sister, fiancee, and I were having this very conversation today. My fiancee and I had gone to Austin to visit my sister, and gone to a touristy area in Georgetown, outside of Austin to go shopping. Apparently most of the tiny town closes down for holidays because few shops were open. We bought some items at the shops we went to, and my sister had to use the bathroom at the next. So she asked. The clerk told her no, and proceeded to try to sell us a bunch of stuff. The whole scene was rather off putting. We were obviously willing to buy things. We each had shopping bags in our hand. But her abject refusal to let my sister use her restroom, especially when hardly any other shops were open, totally turned us off from buying anything. We left and went to a wine bar a couple of blocks away. The owner was very nice, let her use her restroom, and I bought something else there as well.
My daughter works for a restaurant that's in a heavily trafficked area in a large city. The restaurant owner told the staff to let anybody use the bathroom---not a good idea! They've had homeless people in there who attempt to take a bath. Even worse, they get a criminal element in that once they use the bathroom, will wander around the busy restaurant looking for purses to steal. The staff has told the owner of all the problems but yet she insists on keeping the status quo with the reasoning that by letting anyone use the bathroom, that person just might decide to stay and have a meal.
I was once in a store with my daughter, who was 2-3 at the time, while we were working on potty traing. I get the dreaded, "Mommmmmyyyy . . . ." whine, with the grab to the shorts, and quickly asked the sales clerk if we could use her bathroom. "No, sorry, it's not a public restroom." "Well, if you don't let us, you're going to have a very public puddle of pee to clean up in about 90 seconds -- your choice." Magically, the restroom was suddenly available. Crisis averted.
How ridiculous to think that the owner of an establisment should now be in the public restroom business.
Think diners and restaurants. Most of them barely accommodate a rotating number of patrons. Notwithstanding everything else that allowing anyone to use them entails, who wants to see people and their toddlers traipsing through just to use the john?
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