One can even go as far as to say that the manager is shitting on the other franchisees...

We knew this was coming. I couldn't think of a worse thing for a chocolate store to do than what this chocolate store did. Talk about brand association!

I don't think is a "consumer" story. I didn't yesterday. I worked at a jewelry store, customers could not use our restroom. There was stock back there. Can't trust people. Plus, would you want some kid with the shits using your restroom? The mother probably is not the type to clean up after her kid.

manager = asshole
owner = clueless

Everyone needs to slow down the the torches and pitchforks.

@Bodgy: If the child has the runs, it's best they do use the bathroom, otherwise you will experience a case that Rocky Mountain is going through. I bet you'll love adding Diarrhea to the floor.

There is a distinct difference between a jewelry store and a chocolate store. Also, it was the sarcastic response of the owner that caused the controversy. I bet she wishes she could take it back now. Who wants to bet that corporate will be sending a delegation of compliance folks to make sure that this particular franchisee has lived up to the terms of their contract? Hope she crossed every t and dotted every i.

does that mean she gets free chocolate?

@Bodgy: The mother probably is not the type to clean up after her kid.

How did you infer that from the story?

@Jonbo298: Then they need to clean it up. Your need to go to the bathroom does not trump my right to private property.

Seriously, I feel for the mother and child, but in my old job, our bathroom was for employee use only. It was in the backroom, had expensive stock right nearby, and could cause more issues (i.e. finding more places to "have an accident.") Unless there is a law stating specifically that every business must have a public restroom, these folks had no right to expect it.

Still fuck Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory

Besides,I like to watch them squirm and squeeze their legs together after you tell them theres no public restroom!

if an apology isn't enough, it's pretty funny that the franchise owner is getting threats that people are going to throw feces...the death threats and publishing her address are more scary than funny.

Well, IMO ...if a store refuses you the use of a bathroom & it is an emergency (like those who have IBS sometimes have).... then you are justified in cutting loose RIGHT THERE in the middle of the store floor. And let them clean it up.

I would say its a bare minimum of customer service to allow them to use the facilities when there is an emergency.

in the register's news article they say the owner said there were a dozen other restrooms in other establishments and around the area, yet on the consumerist the mother in this story did mention that the employees didn't tell her about any of them and just flat out refused her

@girly: ah, they mentioned that in the regersiter, story too (about no alternatives being offered)

Would have liked to see a follow up question on that one

I wonder if this response was prompted by the numerous people who e-mailed corporate. In addition to the story being here on the Consumerist site, the story was number 1 on Digg yesterday, with over 5,000 diggs.

Then again, maybe the people at the corporate offices are just more humane that the manager at this particular location.

Probably it was the scary splashy cup of chocolaty diarrheac goodness on the original story that set off the alarm bells at Rocky Mountain Central...

I posted the whole article on the original story discussion area.

"Overturf, who said she apologized to the mother earlier, contacted police once death threats began and her home address was posted on an unknown Website. People also threatened to throw feces at her home, she said."

What a loser. This person has made such a mess for herself it's unbelievable.

@Shadowfire:

on last week's episode!!

"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."

Since when do our rights as Americans entitle us to use ANY bathroom, public or not, when we deem it an "emergency"? would you go to a strangers house and demand to use their bathroom because your kid had the runs?

The kind of mother who would demand to use a private restroom is the kind of mother who would not clean up after her kid.

@Bodgy:

I dont neccessarily believe that americans are entitled to be given bathroom priviledges whereever they go, but if you operate a business & refuse someone who has a severe intestinal need.... be prepared to clean up a mess.

And there is a difference between a private residence & a business open to the public.

@Bodgy: This has already been discussed and dispelled ad nauseam in the original post, please stop conflating businesses with private homes.

@Bodgy:

You're right, nobody should go up to a stranger's house and demand access to a bathroom. But in California, any place that serves food has to have a public toilet. Check the original article on this.

Oh and the email to the reporter is at the end of the article I posted, it seems what was said and what happened might be of interest to the reported (who is probably reading this ...)

Oh, for fuck's sake, people! Fine, yes, the store had the right that they exercised. Now, how about a simple dose of humanity?!? I think just the idea that someone could have shown just an eensie bit of compassion could have prevented this whole clusterfuck.

Fuck RMCF. Fuck this franchise owner. Fuck the fucking fucks who fucking blame the fucking customer every fucking time. FUCK YOU ALL!!!

From the OC Register: "At another Rocky Mountain store Overturf owns in Westminster, a man had snuck into the back in 2006 posing a firefighter, she said."

Yep, I can see how they didn't want to take a chance on a five-year-old impersonating a firefighter. (Yes, I know the owner wasn't there when this happened.)

kc2idf, you need to chill. take a valium.

sometimes i NEED the bathroom, but i understand the whole world isn't out there to offer me one.

i can't even imagine being a business owner, a storefront business selling candy and food, and having a mother run in with her child screaming "diarrhea!! diarrhea!! diarrhea!!"... yeah, that would really make me want to let them back into the private store bathroom.

imagine if they had let this woman and her child in? the woman is obviously an opinionated loudmouth... what if something happened and the complaining letter was from the people who ran the store?

again, what about "diarrhea!! diarrhea!! diarrhea!!" would allow you to let a stranger into your private employee bathroom?

@Shadowfire: "Then they need to clean it up. Your need to go to the bathroom does not trump my right to private property."

Why the fuck should the customer have to do that. They don't work there. I come into your store with a kid who desperately needs use the toilet and you basically refuse because you can,I'm going to let my kid shit on your front counter. And when you hand me a mop and some Brawny I'm going to laugh in your face. Simple as that.

Consequences, bitch. They sting like a fucker.

@kc2idf: Fuck YES!!!!!!!

I'm still not convinced that the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory people take this customer's concerns very seriously. They treated her like crap. What a load of doo-doo! I mean, only the shitty COO called her? He's only the number two on their org chart. Where the dookie is the CEO during this crisis?

Geez, to the people who mentioned they had expensive stock in the back near the bathroom, how is that at all relevant? The RMCF, at most, would have chocolate or some such back there, hardly expensive stock that they should worry about. And I shudder to think if the child would even be thinking of reaching for chocolate as she had to do her doodie. (See what I did there?) Or maybe this is some huge scam by the mother and her daughter for free chocolate?
You and your inflated egos. Gah.

@stevegoz: your comment seems a little clogged with metaphor.

Huh. I wonder what karma will deal the manager for this poop-denial offense? I mean, besides the poop-on-home threats already dealt. Will she be reincarnated as some kind of intestinal parasite?

She screwed up, lied to the press, corporate, and no doubt friends, etc. Way to dig yourself into a real pile of it.

To the customer service kids in the crowd: this is a shining example of how sticking to an ass-hat policy, existent or invented, can be worse for everyone involved: manager, customer, store, corporate... Consider the alternate possibilities, and how it could only have been better.

I can't believe people are so entitled these days....

Your seriously gonna let your kid crap all over the place? Really? So that the minimum-wage smuck has to clean it up? How compassionate of you. Show some humanity.

There are hundreds of tiny shops in a mall, each one might have a small toilet for their staff if they're lucky. But the customer restrooms are big, spacious and maintained on a regular basis. Guess which one people should use.

Also...since we're talking about humanity...wasn't there a story a few days ago about a tech who came on a service call and asked to use the washroom? As I recall he did a number and the customer got all upset and righteous. Show some humanity. If you want the store to let you use their private washrooms out of a sense of "doing what is right" then you have no right to complain when the issue is reversed.

@girtych
The mall's centrally located public restrooms satisfy the store's fixture requirement per the Universal Plumbing Code that California adheres to.

Ah..I realize I've had my rant for the day but..

To all of you bleeding-hearts who blast the manager for being rude to the customer: you have no idea how many times I've had customers scream, insult, swear at, and threaten me. They are furiously unreasonable and I must stay polite...right.

@Prions: When a five year old has diarrhea, you don't "let" them crap anywhere, they just crap. Also, I think in the previous post the customer was upset because the tech came (late?), crapped, and then left without doing the work.

When I worked in retail (thank god those days are past) we would escort a customer to the employee restroom if it was an emergency, then wait outside the restroom and escort them back onto the sales floor. No theft, no lawsuits, just decent, common-sense customer service.

This P.R. nightmare is what you get when you hire employees that are unable/unwilling to think for themselves and assess a situation with half a brain. The manager laughed at her when she said she would use her contacts to start a viral campaign? Hadn't the manager ever heard of the internet?

@JennQPublic: I was referring to the following:

"Why the fuck should the customer have to do that. They don't work there. I come into your store with a kid who desperately needs use the toilet and you basically refuse because you can,I'm going to let my kid shit on your front counter. And when you hand me a mop and some Brawny I'm going to laugh in your face. Simple as that.

Consequences, bitch. They sting like a fucker."

It sounded callous and brutish.

@Bodgy: You suck.

Pathetic. If that store only has a bathroom accessible via the kitchen, what this guy is suggesting is disgusting. And if the insurance factor is true, that is all one needs to deny a customer use of a bathroom. What small business is going to risk their whole store to let someone use their private bathroom? And what kind of sick person would ask them to? That COO is an idiot. I don't care if you're the president asking to use a bathroom because you have diarrhea. A store wold be committing a serious health violation letting someone crapping themselves walk through the kitchen.

@vagabond1:

Yep, they sure do.

Satisfying the requirements is one issue. Behaving like an adult is another.

I have public restrooms. They exists, by city code, for the use of my customers. Guess what? Non-customers can use them as well. But I do draw the line at street people that want to camp out in my restrooms ..... there is a McD's across the street.... use their restrooms.

There is proper use and then there is abuse. Sometimes the grey areas are easily confused. For me, when young children are involved the grey areas disappear. IF the store does not want to provide public restrooms, even for a young child in great need, then the store needs to be prepared to quickly direct the parent and child to the proper facilities.

If the kid was sick, what was it doing out in public in the first place?

Although I feel sad for the little girl in this situation, I have some questions. Do 5-year-olds even know when they are going to have a diarrhea episode? When I was little, I didn't ever know I had diarrhea until after I "went," yet this very young little girl was yelling "diarrhea, diarrhea," as if she knew what was coming. The exception to this would be if the little girl already had diarrhea, but they went to the Chocolate Factory anyhow, in which case, why was a little girl with diarrhea eating (I presume) at the Chocolate Factory? The mom could have reasonable answers to these questions, but I did want to ask them. Regardless of the answers, I can't believe a store or restaurant would refuse access to a little girl who needed to go to the bathroom. If it was a security concern, mother and daughter could have been escorted by an employee to and from the restroom.

And one more thing: Why do people even go to Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory? There's one on the corner of nearly every tourist hangout, so the stores are not a unique shopping or eating experience; they are practically clones of one another, and they serve huge amounts of useless calories.

From now on, I'm only going to patronize businesses that specfically REFUSE customers from using the restroom. I think it's good policy. Brings the snooty hoi polloi back down to earth. Everyone thinks they and their children are so goddamned special and the red carpet should be rolled out for them. Let them crap their pants in public once or twice and maybe they start to realize that we're all just stupid animals.

Essentially:

The mother/daughter have no right to claim use of a private space (the bathroom). They also have no right to defecate on the premises of private property (the store.)

But, from a "public service" vs. "profit" point of view, the company/employees could have granted use of the bathroom. However, their refusal is not illegal nor unexpected.

If anyone could sue anyone else in this case, it would be the franchise owner suing the parent for damage/clean up costs of the toddler's shit.

Not to sound cruel or crass, but, if you want to play with fire - (pushing your agenda/fighting for what isn't really your "right,") in a legal frame, you're going to get burnt and bitten when you're so clearly in the wrong.

An "apology" from Rocky Mountain is just a public relations stunt. They know they won't have to shell out a dime, but, don't want all these idiots boycotting them.

I don't think they broke any codes. I'm not sure that the requirement to provide restrooms extends to candy stores.

As an aside to the debate here, if there's a third installment to this story, can the staff of The Consumerist run a photo of a pile of chopped nuts as the main image? : ) (Maybe even a melted Snickers bar?)

@Concerned_Citizen: Yeah, this could very well have been the case. What if the kid couldn't make it to the bathroom and crapped in the food prep area? What if you had to navigate them around vats of boiling chocolate to get to the restroom? Those are insurance problems and valid reasons to keep customers out of the prep area.

I can understand the manager's refusal; however it was handled extremely poorly. Why not simply direct the customer to the nearest restroom?

First, thank you Rocky Mountain for calling htis girl's mother.

I really think it was decent of the COO to speak with this 5 year old's mother and I imagine this same COO may help the franchise owner develope better customer relations. Hope you find your way back to Rocky Mountain but not the store your daughter had such a terrible experience.

BTW, yesterday I read the Rocky Mountain website and sent the founder an e-mail on your behalf. The site suggests that the company wants to be a good corporate citizen and the call from their COO was a nice gesture.