A reader writes: “Last night we were out with friends and went to the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory at Bella Terra/Huntington Beach. We were eating outside as my 5 year old daughter got an uncontrollable urge to use the bathroom and began crying and screaming ‘diarrhea, diarrhea.’ I ran into the store with her in my arms, begging to use the bathroom and they refused multiple times.”
I explained she had diarrhea and couldn’t hold it and told them she was about to go on the floor. They refused again and never offered me any alternatives. I begged them to have a heart and that she was 5 but by that time she had lost it all over herself and me. I ran with her in my arms to the movie theater that let me use their bathroom. I cleaned her up, threw out some of her clothes and went back to the Chocolate Factory – asking for names and number of management. I again pleaded with them to use their heart in situations like this.
I called the manager today and she finally called me back. She supports the employees and tells me that it is an insurance decision. She told me to sue if it makes me feel happy. She laughed at me when I told her I would be using my extensive contacts to begin a viral campaign to boycott her store and the entire chain and told me that she was “sure that would make my daughter very proud.” My daughter was humiliated, forced to defecate on herself due to the lack of compassion exhibited by the store – which the owner continued to support on the phone with me. I don’t want anything, I just want them to have a bit of compassion in the future.
Longtime Consumerist readers know this isn’t the first time we’ve written about a company refusing a customer with a bathroom emergency and ending up with disastrous results. Last summer, a similar story involving Jo-Ann fabrics prompted enough complaints to the CEO that he issued an apology and “immediately changed [company] policy to allow any customer to use [store] restrooms upon request.” Our reader pointed us to a situation a few years ago when Old Navy denied bathroom access to a customer with Crohn’s disease that ended up with the customer’s state legislator introducing a bill requiring businesses to open up their bathrooms for emergencies. We don’t think a law is necessary, just basic human decency: if someone has an emergency, let her use your bathroom.
UPDATE: After reading some of the comments, I searched around some more to find out whether a place that serves food has to provide a bathroom to customers. As it turns out, Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory may have violated existing California Code provisions. An organization called the American Restroom Association has a Uniform Plumbing Code that requires a “toilet facility for customers, patrons, and visitors of all mercantile and business establishments.” The Uniform Plumbing Code has been adopted by California, so it seems that there IS a requirement for businesses to provide restroom facilities for customers.
(Photo: Getty)
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The online map isn’t very clear but the actual restrooms are very far and out of the way, down what looks like a shipment corridor. That being said, there are 3 restaurants that will let you use their restrooms within a stones throw that the parent should have run to the moment she was denied.
I know should know, I’ve had a potty emergency at the pinkberry there. TMI?
@GrandmaSophie:
I think you mean “against health code for NON employees” to pass through food preparation areas, but EXACTLY!
Between the possibility of an angry customer trying to get me fired and the possibility of the entire STORE being shut down, if I were in the employee’s shoes, I wouldn’t have let her use the bathroom either. Kids have accidents– it happens. Too bad for the girl, but if mom had wiped her up, said, “Poor baby, but that happens to everyone someday,” and put her to bed after a bland snack, she’d be fine. The only thing traumatizing the child here is her mother making a huge deal of a situation that was embarrassing to her daughter. Now she’ll have to hear about it every day as mommy’s viral campaign lets everyone know she pooped her pants.
I’m glad to hear that the CEO-type gentleman contacted the mother. However, I’m curious about two things:
1. Does anybody know if either of the owners pictured on the outlet’s website is the “manager” in question?
2. If not, will the manager face any consequences for her actions?
Addendum:
It looks like the website for that specific store has been removed. They have also removed the link to that page from the list of all the stores in California. (The store is still listed, however.)
@mandiejackson: ” I don’t owe ANY company my health and dignity to clean up someone’s excrements.”
Nice how you’re saying that cleaning up toilets and such messes is an indignant and unhealthy job. Do you treat all janitors as “unclean”? Believe me, having worked as a janitor I know all about those type of people. So high and mighty they look down their nose at you. Champion of the poor and despondent in the light of day but beat you with a switch if you don’t cut their grass in the vertical lines they asked for. Disgusting.
These readers amaze me. Yes it sucks it had to happen. Yes the parent can be upset but there is no reason to start a whole campaign against the store. I can see so many more reasons that they should not have let the kid in the employee restroom then reasons they should have. Does the parent not think the mess her and her child left behind are enough pain for that store?
We live in a sue happy world where people love to smear companies.
@TheUncleBob:
ummm.. comparing this situation to one where you open my front door and demand to use my bathroom is not jsut apples and oranges, it’s eggplants and dvds. The store is a place where consumer go to conduct business. It is expected for them to be on the premises so they can shop. in your example, you’ve got no expectation to be on my property, in fact you have no right to be there at all. It’s called trespass. Huge difference.
@infecto: No one is suing anyone. The argument is over human dignity. Unfortunately, lawsuits and publicity are the only forces companies seem to respond to.
[www.ocregister.com]
Child’s bathroom emergency puts candy store on the defensive
Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory official issues apology after Surf City store employees refuse to let a 5-year-old with diarrhea use bathroom
By ANNIE BURRIS
The Orange County Register
Comments 0| Recommend 0
HUNTINGTON BEACH Officials with Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory issued an apology Tuesday after employees at a Huntington Beach store refused to let a mother use their restroom when her 5-year-old daughter complained that she had diarrhea.
A story about the incident, posted on the consumerist.com Website, sparked a backlash that has led to death threats, said the store’s owner, Bonnie Overturf, who was not there during the incident last Thursday.
Overturf said her employees were following insurance policies for her store, and there were at least a dozen restrooms near the store the mother could have used.
The posting on the site said the mother, daughter and friends were eating outside at the Bella Terra Mall when the girl began crying and screaming “diarrhea, diarrhea.”
The mother ran into the chocolate store and asked to use the restroom but was refused multiple times without being offered alternatives, she wrote.
“My daughter was humiliated, forced to defecate on herself due to the lack of compassion exhibited by the store,” she wrote. The mother took the girl to a restroom at a movie theater around the corner where she cleaned her up and threw out some of her clothes.
The mother told editors of the site that she would not comment to reporters because she was also receiving threats. She would not provide her name to the Register.
“I don’t want anything,” she wrote. “I just want them to have a bit of compassion in the future.”
Bryan Merryman, chief operating officer for the Colorado-based candy company, issued an apology to the mother Tuesday, saying “the actions of one franchised store’s employees do not represent the values of the company … We truly regret this situation occurred.”
“We are a very family friendly company and would never encourage any policy that does not take individual facts and circumstances into account,” he wrote.
Overturf, who also apologized to the mother earlier, said she contacted police once death threats began and her home address was posted on an unknown Web site. People also threatened to throw feces at her home, she said.
Overturf said that it could be dangerous for customers to walk through their hallway, which is lined with supplies, to their back bathroom. At another Rocky Mountain store Overturf owns in Westminster, a man had snuck into the back in 2006 posing a firefighter, she said. Nothing was stolen from the store, she said.
“Even if insurance wasn’t an issue, there is the possibility of theft and people getting hurt,” Overturf, a mother of three, said today.
Alex Chasick, an editor with consumerist.com, said he did not talk with Overturf or Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory officials before posting the story on Monday. The story has had more than 116,000 views and 330 comments, he said.
“It was a pretty terrible situation that happened to her,” Chasick said about the girl.
To read the story on the consumerist.com click here.
Contact the writer: aburris@ocregister.com or 714-445-6696
They’ve got a notice posted on their feedback page ([rmcf5.com]) about the story.
I sent feedback anyway. It’s not enough to slough responsibility on the franchise owner. They should yank her license.
@Ravenwaift:
That is a rather misleading picture. I’ve been there and this story doesn’t stand up. I know where the RMCF is and where the theatre and public restrooms are. The more I read the more I think this lady was negligent in the care of her child and looking for a fight. IT has to be somebody else fault right.
@snclfe: Why does anyone here need this information? None of us had an issue with the store… You people confuse me sometimes.
Have you read the company’s apology?
[rmcf5.com]
My 2 cents:
I think you should just close up shop or change your name and drastically change your policies.
Your treatment of the mother and daughter was inexcusable and I don’t accept your half-baked apology (which in careful reading doesn’t even sound like an apology) while hiding behind your franchise agreements. Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory CAN dictate policies towards franchise’s treatment of customers as much as you dictate standards for chocolates sold in your franchises.
The actions of one store DO represent the values of its organization, like it or not.
As such, I will no longer purchase anything from Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory ever again. Your COO, Bryan Merryman, in your online apology has made a complete ass of himself while in the end has stood behind the incomprehensible actions of their franchise store. In all of the vapid content of Merryman’s “apology” I did not hear of any punitive action taken against the franchise owner – at the very LEAST you should cancel their agreement and run it as a factory store until new ownership is negotiated. Short of this, your company is trying to take the cheapest way out of a very serious situation.
How can I have confidence in your company maintaining a high standard of quality with regard to your products when you aren’t willing to maintain a minimal standard of human decency?
Your “apology” is not accepted.
Adam Lamar
Burbank, CA
It all depends on what the specific store looked like, if it was a mall type store or something where you had to go to the back of the store they were right to refuse access to the girl. Despite what some people may think a restaurant with limited space in which the only plumbing facilities are in the back of the store cannot allow people through kitchens and past management offices just because someone needs to use a bathroom. Anyone that thinks differently has obviously never been an employee of a small store with an employee only bathroom in the very rear. Imagine how upset you all would be if the headline had read “Rocky Mountain Choclate Factory Breaks Company Policy; Girl Has Runs in Kitchen.”
I once had to change my infant son’s poopy diaper in a BK in Lafayette, IN, which did not have a changing table in the restroom and the restroom floor was too gross to even think about putting my son on it to change him.
I asked the “manager” about a changing table and he said that they had it removed b/c someone at a BK somewhere in the world sued BK b/c their kid fell off the changing table.
So I proceeded to change my baby’s poopy diaper on a table (an eating table) at BK in front of everyone. Then I went back up to the manager and suggested that she sanitize that table before other customers sat down to eat at it.
@baraboo: That is fucking disgusting and you should be ashamed of yourself.
I live in the area around the corner and can print up a few hundred copies of the two articles. If anyone wants to head over there with me to hand them out, message me
You know..This shit (excuse the pun) is exactly why people sue companies stating that the food was contaminated and made them sick. I agree with the owner and am happy to hear that they take enough pride in their business to not allow for potential contamination. If it was me, I wouldn’t have allowed it either. The employees were also following the rules! Sorry if you don’t agree. Perhaps she should go back to where they ate to complain and stop harrassing the chocolate factory! I support them! and if anyone has a right to sue it would be them for threats and harrasement!
I’m sorry but I agree with the company. This shit (excuse the pun) is exactly why people sue for saying the food/chocolate made them sick. I am glad they have enough decency to protect their “true customers” well being. The lady and kid weren’t even customers there!
I commend the employees for following the rules because NO ONE knows what would have happend had it gone the other way. If anyone has the right to sue it is the company for being harrased and threatned… AND for a few other things that closely sound like defacation! lol Haa Haa!
Who gives a shit you say? I do because it’s people like that that create chaos in the world and why companies have to go to drastic measures to protect themselves and their customers.
I have never heard of this chocolate company before because I live out of the area but now plan to support them!!!
I can eat their chocolate with out worry….
WTG! I support you!
[www.bizbuysell.com]
20′ under new ownership neon sign included…
I have been to this outdoor mall that this occured at and there are plenty of other places that the mother could have taken her daughter to. Right across from the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory there are a few restaurants. I have 2 daughters and I know in situations like this you have to use your head. I would have ran to one of the restaurants that for sure have restrooms for the public to use and just taken her back there without talking to anyone. She chose to ask the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory which is a tiny little place and the restroom is in the back of a counter. Of course, she would have a hard time being able to use that restroom. Use common sense and think!
@TheUncleBob: You moron! This isn’t “private property” like your house is. It’s an establishment that sells to the public, and they have to provide reasonable accommodations. Or, they can face the consequences: people find out your customer service sucks, they won’t even want to come IN your store and spend their money, much less use the bathroom, and you go out of business. Problem solved!
@TheUncleBob: A private residence and a business where you want people to come in are two completely different things.
RMCF corporate has issued this statement on its web site, and also re-emphasized this was the action of a franchisee. It seems its aware CA code requires customer access to bathroom facilities by merchants.
An Apology to Our Customers :
Re: Incident at Bella Terra shopping center, Huntington Beach, California
The Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory Store in the Bella Terra shopping center in Huntington Beach, CA is an individually owned and operated franchised store.
The Company has personally called the individual involved in this incident and apologized on behalf of Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory, Inc. In this instance, the actions of one franchised store’s employees do not represent the values of the Company or our entire system of franchised stores.
We are a very family friendly company and would never encourage any policy that does not take individual facts and circumstances into account. We encourage all our franchisees to adopt policies that are in accordance with local laws and regulations and that are reasonable and compassionate. However, individual policies of this nature are ultimately adopted by each franchisee.
We truly regret this situation occurred and hope we can continue to serve your chocolate needs.
Bryan Merryman
Chief Operating Officer
Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory, Inc.
I can’t believe I’m going to say something that isn’t completely pro-consumer here, but here goes:
I’ve been to Bella Terra, and immediately next to Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory is Pomodoro, and two doors down is Daphne’s, both with a restroom easily accessible. Wouldn’t it have been quicker to go to the place immediately next door to use the restroom than to stand there and argue with the clerk, or than to run all the way to the movie theatre?
Now, that being said, I think it really stinks that the policy of this location is to not let them use the restroom, when in California, you are required to allow customers to use the facilities. And then, the manager could have simply just apologized over the phone, which probably would have soothed ruffled feathers, but chose her battle unwisely.
It saddens me how reactionary people have become. So many people are only able to see things in simplistic terms (i.e., the child should been allowed access to the bathroom) without any consideration whatsoever any possible extenuating circumstances.
It’s people wanting simple answers to multi-faceted issues that I believe has gotten this country into the shape that it’s in.
This is what i found on their website.. I am still NEVER using their service. I hope she does sue, and win big!
An Apology to Our Customers :
Re: Incident at Bella Terra shopping center, Huntington Beach, California
The Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory Store in the Bella Terra shopping center in Huntington Beach, CA is an individually owned and operated franchised store.
The Company has personally called the individual involved in this incident and apologized on behalf of Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory, Inc. In this instance, the actions of one franchised store’s employees do not represent the values of the Company or our entire system of franchised stores.
We are a very family friendly company and would never encourage any policy that does not take individual facts and circumstances into account. We encourage all our franchisees to adopt policies that are in accordance with local laws and regulations and that are reasonable and compassionate. However, individual policies of this nature are ultimately adopted by each franchisee.
We truly regret this situation occurred and hope we can continue to serve your chocolate needs.
Bryan Merryman
Chief Operating Officer
Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory, Inc.
@musac4life: I hope she does sue, and win big!
And it’s exactly that sort of mentality that likely prevented the child from being allowed to use the bathroom in the first place.
I love all the bickering about this…. you can say what you want, and feel however you want, but what it all boils down to is insurance reasons and our love of suing people. If my company’s policy said no public restrooms, then that is it. No negotiating. I need a job.
@Monoplex:
“I hope she does sue, and win big!”
Sue who? And on what grounds? What are the damages?
@IfThenElvis: @Monoplex:
“I hope she does sue, and win big!”
You do understand that the comment you attributed to me was not mine, right?
FYI: I wrote the company and got this reply. I don’t hold Rocky Mountain Chocolate responsible but the owner and appreciated the response back.
———————————————-
June 24, 2008
Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory’s Inc.’s Bella Terra Shopping Center in Huntington Beach, CA Bathroom Complaint Response:
The Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory Store in the Bella Terra shopping center in Huntington Beach, CA is an individually owned and operated franchised store. The Company has personally called the individual involved in this incident and apologized on behalf of Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory, Inc. In this instance, the actions of one franchised store’s employees do not represent the values of the Company or our entire system of franchised stores.
We are a very family friendly company and would never encourage any policy that does not take individual facts and circumstances into account. We encourage all our franchisees to adopt policies that are in accordance with local laws and regulations and that are reasonable and compassionate. However, individual policies of this nature are ultimately adopted by each franchisee.
We truly regret this situation occurred.
Bryan Merryman
Chief Operating Officer
Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory, Inc.
Update – I received this response from RMCF today:
“Please do not reply to this message as we are unable to respond at this time”
June 24, 2008
Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory’s Inc.’s Bella Terra Shopping Center in Huntington Beach, CA Bathroom Complaint Response:
The Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory Store in the Bella Terra shopping center in Huntington Beach, CA is an individually owned and operated franchised store. The Company has personally called the individual involved in this incident and apologized on behalf of Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory, Inc. In this instance, the actions of one franchised store’s employees do not represent the values of the Company or our entire system of franchised stores.
We are a very family friendly company and would never encourage any policy that does not take individual facts and circumstances into account. We encourage all our franchisees to adopt policies that are in accordance with local laws and regulations and that are reasonable and compassionate. However, individual policies of this nature are ultimately adopted by each franchisee.
We truly regret this situation occurred.
Bryan Merryman
Chief Operating Officer
Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory, Inc.
I worked at a “mall store” and one day a woman was shopping and her daughter started screaming “potty! potty! emergency!”. The mom looked frantic and begged me to use the bathroom. I knew how far away the closest public bathroom was and felt awful, and our bathroom was just inside our stockroom to the left. I propped open the stockroom door and she ran in with her daughter. I didn’t stand there and watch, but I was trying to keep an eye on the door so I could make sure they came right back out into the store and not into the rest of the stockroom. I was helping a customer when I heard the fire alarm, I ran to the back and found that a large amount of expensive items we sold were gone, and ran out the back door in enough time to hear peeling rubber. I turn around and the other customer that needed “help” was jogging out our front door.
Long story short, it was one huge scam that ended up costing us $800+ in merchandise and nearly got me fired. I can completely understand the employee’s stance on this. If I had told the customer to wait a second, I would have been written up if they complained. It was just a big old “screwed if you do/don’t” situation. It’s unfortunate that employees have to stick to their guns in situations like this, but the fact is a few bad apples ruin the bunch.
This, however, does NOT excuse the manager’s refusal to apologize and laughing in the mother’s face.
In the retail situation I have worked in the reason for bathroom request refusal is that the bathroom is not handicapped accessible. The store fears being sued by wheelchair bound customers and has to refuse access to avoid lawsuits. Sucks I know, but little girls aren’t suing anyone.
Gee, aren’t they nice?
I have a retail business, and we do not have “Public Bathrooms”. But for customers we know and or see that they have kids we usually let them use the bathroom. But even then it sometimes blows up in our face, cause sometime people are just totally inconsiderate. So we use our own discreation, so I agree with Coco Factory management, but there is also a thin line that one must walk when dealing with customers. Usually though you do need to make the customer happy or articles get written like this one above. But I also did not understand why a cafe/restaurant does not have a public restroom, i mean they seem to have a lot of stores and by now you would think they would of learned. But again Business is crazy, and who knows…
Go get ‘em!
I’ll never visit this place if I ever see one.
If the woman bought food FROM the Chocolate Factory, then why did they not allow her to use it? She is a customer, after all. It’s not like she’s some pedestrian.
And, what’s the “insurance reason” that was cited? What insurance reason could there be? Unless they were scared that their own food caused the illness? It’s unclear to me.
funniest story i have heard all day.
I can guarantee you after reading this I will not use Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory for the gifts I was getting ready to send over the internet.
Customer Service obviously is not in their company policy either.
Considering their sugar free chocolates carry this disclaimer: “SENSITIVE INDIVIDUALS MAY EXPERIENCE A LAXATIVE EFFECT FROM EXCESSIVE CONSUMPTION OF THIS PRODUCT.” ([www.rmcf.com]), one would think they would gladly provide the use of a restroom.
BTW, the serving size on the linked product ([www.rmcf.com]) is 5 pieces… 1 serving apparently counts as “excessive consumption” for myself & everyone else I’ve spoken to that has tried these. Give ya the Rocky Mountain Squirts.
If your child is unable to control her potty urges in public, she should be wearing a diaper, or not taken out. Just because you think the brat is cute, does not mean the rest of us want their shit everywhere.
I’d also point out that if in the backroom there may be confidential information, money or product that could conceivably be tampered with. If they let her run back and the poopies went into the next back of chocolate was mom gonna pay for it all?
I hate to be one of the few voices of dissent, but… I don’t blame the employees one bit. Most people who have worked in retail, especially those who have a lot of contact with mothers and their small children, have at least one horror story about a bathroom or (and I shudder to think, but I have heard it) a dressing room being left in a horrible state.
The mother, meanwhile, scoots out with an apology, and does nothing to clean up after herself or her child.
Get stuck, just once, cleaning up some strange child’s runny feces from the bathroom floor and walls, and the next time a Mom implores you to let her volatile child use the restroom, see what your response is.
I feel for the mother and the child, I really, really do, but I can’t blame the employees for not wanting to have that situation left in their hands. Literally.
@third001: Please never reproduce.
@Supriya..: Point of story being…There would be nothing to clean up, had there been access to facilities.
Personally if I was the manager I would find it hard to turn away a mother and her daughter …BUT..if the bathroom isnt for the public (and Im assuming it isnt or they wouldnt have had to ask to use it) and is only there for the employees they would have to be careful allowing people back there. Would they have access to areas they shouldnt have like food prep areas, storage, cleaning, employee lockers? Also if they allow them to use it they are setting a precedent and would potentially have to allow others. Then there would be the added duty of cleaning the bathroom. I wouldnt want to think the person serving me was knee deep in feces an hour before my arrival.
@gx
In any case, it is quite interesting that when you google Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory today, “Worst customer service ever: Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory” shows up as third link. It hope this company gets the point.
I totally support the company here. They really do have a legal issue, and if anything happened, they WOULD be sued – this happens all the time.
Shame on the woman for making such a stink about this – it was her fault, I’ve had young kids and I never expected a store to take on a huge legal risk because I was too lazy to cross the road to use a public restroom. Shame!
The Ironic thing about this situation is that the mom totally made this thing up. I work at a store right around the corner and I’m good friends with the employees that were working at the time, and was there when this “diarrhea” situation occured. The girl did not have an accident in the store, nor had an accient in the theater. Next time the mom should stop whining and compaining and do the logical thing, and take her to another restroom. Its a shopping center so of course there is going to be a restroom around the corner.
I am not going to agree with the company decision at that store. I will say this. Please remember the majority of stores are not company owned stores and that they are owned by the individual operators.
I have no problem with an establishment not allowing bathroom use, however I also feel certain exceptions need to be granted. When you ahve a young child who is obviously in distress I think it is an exception that needs to be granted. If a person is using your establishment is obviously is going to get sick would you rather have it in your restroom or all over the sales floor? I do see certain instances that companies should not allow use of the restroom facilities. My best friend works in a jewelry store. They can’t offer the restroom for customers due to the store design. It becomes a safety issue for them to do so. A place like RMCF should make exceptions for customers obviously in distress.