A Burger King in Houston, TX has had it with bathroom vandalism, so they’ve installed a pay toilet. You can operate it with your own quarters, or you can request a token– but either way you have to feed the machine in order to… you know… says the Houston Chronicle.
“Vandalism is costly,” another sign on the restroom doors read. “To help with these costs and to continue providing restrooms, this security lock has been installed. Your cooperation is appreciated.”
Pay toilets are illegal in Houston, hence the free tokens. Still, the reporter who wrote the story says he saw a customer use his own quarter to access the toilet.
Is this the future of fast food?
Need to answer nature’s call? It’ll cost you [Houston Chronicle](Thanks, Therese!)
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This sort of system is far better than “restroom for customer only” signs. Customers get tokens, non-customers slip a quarter in the machine. Everyone wins.
Here in Vancouver, Canada many of the downtown fast food resturants make you first see the front counter and ask to be “buzzed” into the washroom. It seems to work well and they have let me in even though I didn’t buy anything. I think its manily to keep the homeless and drugged up people out as I have seen people either sleeping or passed out in public restrooms.
What’s to stop a would-be vandal from entering as another person is exiting?
I hate pay toilets. I’m sorry, but when mother nature calls, she shouldn’t be calling collect.
I fail to see how this would stop vandalism though especially since someone can use their own quarter to get it. Sure, the staff will be (slightly) more aware when someone asks for a toekn, but someone paying is probably going to fly under the radar of the staff, especially during meal rushes.
Thanks goodness I stopped eating at BK years ago.
Many states have outlawed pay toilets (NY did in the 70s), due to arguments that they discriminate against women. (Women always need a stall, while men can often suffice with a tree), which is why many McDonald’s have non-functioning token/quarter locks. This is probably Burger King had to create the “free token” policy. Not exactly sure whether this will make bathrooms cleaner. I mean, since anyone can go in anyway–after ponying up the quarter or token. Seems a lot like Security Theater to me…
Burger King can now officially make their slogan “Pay for poop, Pay to poop”
..I’m still excited that their open till 2am lol..
@mmmsoap: even though public urination is illegal. and women can most certainly squat.
They’ve had these in downtown boston for god knows how many years. At least 7 or 8.
I hope they have stall doors that go all the way to the floor, otherwise determined folks will just just crawl under them to use the bathroom.
@RabbitDinner: What I’m saying is, it’s called discrimination because some men may stoop to the level of indecent exposure and break the law by urinating in public?
@chiieddy: some of the fast-food restaurants in San Francisco (like Burger King) have token-powered pay toilets for that exact reason. The main library downtown also has a sign telling people to not use the restrooms for their bathing needs – and includes the address for a shelter where they can use the shower facilities.
I remember almost 20 years ago when Harrod’s in London started to charge a quid to use the toilet. There was outrage at the time. I was happy to pay to have a clean toilet.
@dragonfire1481: Actually, you use the token to get into the restroom itself, not the stall. It doesn’t stop someone from waiting until you leave to grab the door and surf in.
They are still providing FREE toliets to their customers (through the token) But the hookers using the stalls now have to pay $0.25. Oh well.
The McDonalds on State St in Santa Barbara, CA (the one right next to Quizno’s, can’t remember the cross-street) does this as well. Primarily because of bums – there are a ton of them in Santa Barbara.
Great idea. Much more sensible than using a key, since there’s nothing to re-collect from the customer after. And non-customers can pay a quarter, which is cheaper than buying something.
@rdm:
This is to make it cost-effective to provide restrooms. Fast food workers (actually, pretty much all workers in places that have public restrooms) do NOT get paid well enough to deal with a shit-bomb in the restroom. Having them quit in the middle of a shift isn’t really good for business, even in places where they’re easily replaceable.
I honestly don’t think I’d mind pay toilets too much if the alternative is the situation in California. (For example, IIRC, downtown Monterey has ONE public toilet) Of course, in an emergency situation, this is a non-optimal solution. It’s also just one more thing to go out-of-order in a restroom.
I think this makes fantastic sense. They have to provide a restroom for paying customers since they’re a sit-down eating establishment (I assume that law is universal), but need not provide an outlet for vandals. Customers can get free tokens from the counter and non-customers have access for a reasonable fee (or maybe they can also get free tokens when they’re willing to be seen and thereby identified?).
I hope this becomes more wide-spread, encouraging more businesses who aren’t required to have a public restroom to make their restrooms available. (I love it when they lie and say they don’t have a restroom. Well, can I use the cup you pee in, then?) For men, the world is a potential urinal. For women, the world is a frustrating “treasure” hunt for public restrooms.
And I’d no longer have to figure out how to wash my hands after returning that gross key and “chain” back to the counter person. Blech.
The McDonald’s near the Kenmore T stop (around the corner from Fenway Park) requires tokens for the restroom, too, but you just ask for it at the counter, so really, it’s the same as asking for a key at the gas station. It’s not a pay toilet. Given that before and after games they are swarmed by a deluge of drunk fans trying to get cheap food, plus panhandlers, I can’t really blame them for trying to restrict access. It did cause me to wait to go until I got in the stadium, though. It was an extra step I wasn’t willing to take. But I had no problem with it.
Even my *grocery store* at home does this.
The bathrooms at the Downtown Crossing McDonald’s in Boston have worked this way for at least twelve years.
In Shanghai, I went to a fairly nice restaurant, followed the restroom signs to a stair down into the back alley, where a grungy attendant was asking 2 RMB (about $0.25 US) to use the facilities, customer or no. I paid but instantly regretted it.
We have it pretty good in the US. If you are charged for a restroom visit, at least you get a toilet.
@Corporate-Shill: And the clients now need to pay $20.25 for “services”.
The MSP airport is doing something like this for the Republican National Convention, only the coins open up a hole between the stalls.
I have a feeling that the vandals will simply piss on the floor. In the Romanian MickeyDs I remember you had to have a receipt to access the toilet. Not that big of a deal for me unless I’m traveling and don’t want to buy anything.
This is new? All the fast food resturants in Philly need the little gold tokens. They’re dime-sized, but I never thought of using an actual dime. Also, I always assumed that you had to buy something to get a token, but I never tried to ask for one without paying. Does anyone know what’s the law in PA?
@toxbrux: The difference in pay bathroom culture was interesting when I was traveling in Italy. I started at the top, Venice, where there was a mechanism for your coin and the door would swing open after a given amount of time. As I went south, machines became narrow-mouthed jars with a sign and an eagle-eyed clerk. Outside a bathroom on the southern coast, an open basket of coins sat precariously on a stool; you threw in whatever coinage you had.
@Channing: Obviously, they won’t remember but there’s a psychological effect on some people that make them think they’ll be found out.
That’s true, it’s not just for mess, but to cut down on people ducking into the bathroom to shoot up or sell a quick sex act.
I don’t think pay toilets are ok… and that is not because I think that cleaning up crazy shit is OK, but because it’s just so darn unfair. Even in establishments where they HAVE a public bathroom, there will often be ONE and it will be unisex and you’ll be stuck in line behind crazy amounts of people.
Restrooms in restaurants, museums, airports, malls, and gas stations should be free. Restrooms that are in the street should accept quarters.
Also, they should build 2 x as many bathrooms for women as they do for men. But that’s a different story.
Given that they’re offering free tokens and they’re advertising that you need to pick up tokens from the front, I don’t see what’s wrong…
There isn’t a requirement that you need to be a paying customer get a token. The guy who used the quarter probably ignored the sign or had to go really bad. If requested, I’m pretty sure BK would’ve reimbursed the poor man’s quarter.
There is nothing wrong with restricting usage to the bathroom as others have mentioned that gas stations do it all the time.
Once again, THE BATHROOM IS FREE TO USE, you just have to request for a FREE TOKEN from the front.
When I worked at a coffeeshop in LA we installed a token door lock. It definitely helped cut down the tragedies in the bathroom because we could refuse to give tokens to non customers. There was some grumbling from customers, but I’ll take that over having to clean up after a bum using the sink as a shower any day.
Forget the token! I’m doin it Rocky-Mountain-Chocolate-Factory-style! Yep, and I’m going to wait till I’m in the 10 customers deep in the middle of busy line……frrrrrrrrrrrrrrt, oh yea!
@happysquid: “Also, they should build 2 x as many bathrooms for women as they do for men. But that’s a different story.”
Wow. There goes the idea that women should be treated equally.
I am not above pissing on the bathroom door should I find it locked when it was time to go. I’m certain most any lawyer, and especially an ADA lawyer, could get the King to change his mind about all of this.
@MyPetFly: Right. Almost every fast food joint I’ve ever been to in Los Angeles has them. You pretty much just have to show that you’re not homeless or drug-addled and they’ll let you in.
Eww… think about how many folks have handled said tokens… and how many folks DON’T wash their hands.
P2P : Pay to Poop!
I’ll bet one gold bathroom token that everyone who says this is wrong has never had to clean up after an upper decker.
Where I used to work we just locked the door after the restroom was cleaned then if anyone asked if there was a key you say NO. People stop waiting and go somewhere else after a while.
This is pretty much par for the course at the Borders in L.A. and a few Taco Bells.
The fact that a free token will get you in tells me they are trying to circumvent many local health codes which require a restroom-free:for the public.
A vandilized or dirty restroom sucks but that’s partly the business fault in that if they don’t even do rountine cleaning it will build up/comeback on them.Hate to say it but in my experience the places with the most homeless and/or junkies have the worst restrooms:but it those problems that need to be addressed and not the symptom of the restroom.
Saw a special on McDonalds and one of the managers said the number one issue affecting a McDonalds is the restroom.
Doesn’t surprise me BurgerKing is one of the first major fast food places to do this.I had trouble getting a signed price on a meal.The owner was trying to get out of it,in front of a corporate official who didn’t help AT ALL.
I can see all kinds of problems with this but basically it will be ‘sorry;out of tokens BUT YOU CAN USE A QUARTER’
This is purely inconvenience to me. How would requesting a token stop vandalism unless it’s going to be inspected every time someone leaves? They can still request a token, go in and then wreck whatever they like and then leave. I really don’t see the point, just seems like more work for the employees to give out the tokens, inconvenience for the customer to maybe even queue to get one and the vandals can still do what they please. It could get worse if the employees start to profile and won’t give out tokens to people who ‘look like the kind that would vandalise stuff’…
@JustThatGuy3: I’m willing to bet that some advocacy group for the homeless or poor probably pushed the city council to ban pay restrooms so businesses in certain areas would be inundated with bums hanging out in the bathrooms.
Even the super-socialist countries in Europe allow for pay public bathrooms. Typically the only free bathrooms are in public transportation centers, your own hotel room and occasionally in some of the places you’d go sightseeing. Almost everything else, including every gas station, either didn’t have a public restroom at all or you had to pay. Quite a few of the gas stations along the Autobahn in Germany have adopted a system where you get a voucher equal to the amount you paid to use the restroom to turn around and use in the store. Heck, even the public restrooms in the “New” City Hall building in Munich required 0.25 EUR to use them.
@6809er: If you’re leaving, you don’t pay. If you’re entering, you pay.
I wonder if this being the first pay toilet in a fast-food restaurant in America (that I’ve heard about) its location, and the fact that pay toilets are illegal in Houston are all connected… Actually, I don’t wonder.
How is this new? Fast food restaurants in Los Angeles have been doing this for at least 20 years (I remember as a little kid being scared that I would get locked in the restroom and unable to get out without a token).
whats sh*tty is how it seems so many people cant go into a bathroom without ruining it. and so we can’t have nice things.