While retail stores all need someplace for employees to wash up and occasionally relieve themselves, many stores have a “staff only” policy for access to the toilet. But are there situations where the store staffers should make an exception in the name of saving a customer from embarrassment?
A Consumerist reader Joe in Texas writes in to tell us about an unhappy experience he and his mother-in-law had while shopping at their local Lady Foot Locker.
While Joe’s wife was shopping for shoes, his 70-something mom-in-law, who wears a protective undergarment in case of a bathroom-related emergency, suddenly needed to use the loo.
“She asked the worker behind the counter if she could she their bathroom,” writes Joe. “They told her no it was against store policy. She pleaded with them to use it because it was an emergency. The worker again told her no she cannot use the bathroom.”
Joe’s mother-in-law headed over to JCPenney, where an employee gave her directions to the bathroom at the back of the store.
“She couldn’t make it in time and soiled herself in public,” says Joe. “She made it to the bathroom and my wife helped clean her up, but not without being embarassed in public.”
Joe was aghast at the lack of compassion show by The Lady Foot Locker employee.
“When someone of any age has the sudden, unexpected urge to use the bathroom, stores should at least accommodate the customer in case of emergency,” he writes. “To allow someone to suffer public embarassment for the sake of store policy is ridiculous.”
Stores usually keep customers out of the bathroom because they want to avoid any liability that could arise from customers using the bathroom, and in some cases, employee bathrooms are in a place that could provide easy access to either store inventory, cash or sensitive information.
All that being said, it couldn’t hurt for retailers to train their employees how to handle these situations — when to recognize true emergencies; how to minimize liability concerns when exceptions are made; and at the very least, how to politely turn customers away and steer them to the nearest viable bathroom option.
I am perfectly happy to vomit all over your store fixtures should the need arise.
Why would you need to do that? Conveniently bagged trash cans are generally even closer than a restroom.
Congratulations, you’re one of many Americans who are making crap like this happen.
Exactly.
We keep our valuables in the same bathroom (it has lockers). No one except us can use it for obvious reasons.
This is absolutely ridiculous. YES, she should be allowed to use the restroom. To the imbecile who said no, if you’re not authorized to make the ‘big decisions’ like whether it’s a good idea to have a customer shit themselves in your store, then go get the manager, who can. If they’re somehow NOT THERE, then guess what, you’re in charge big fella.
If the OMG expensive electronics or super dangerous footwear related items, like socks, give you pause then escort them to and from the restroom. This is not a nuclear plant.
But what if they’re there to maybe bespoil our precious potty! There aren’t to my knowledge, a lot of middle aged women strutting around the mall trying to tag the Lady Footlocker bathroom.
Oh and by the way, if she leaves to visit another store to use the facilities, she probably not going to come back, so you’ve robbed yourself of that potential sale.
Luckily things are much more civilized in Florida. If you are open to the public, in any regard, you MUST have and furnish on request access to a restroom. Failure to do so is a fine of $250 per violation.
“If the OMG expensive electronics or super dangerous footwear related items, like socks, give you pause then escort them to and from the restroom. This is not a nuclear plant.”
Yes, it totally makes sense to leave the entire front stock of fne jewelry in order to protect the entire back stock of fine jewelry, including items belonging to people whom have left them for repair. It also makes sense to ignore my insurance companies’ policies and therefore negate the policies we paid big bucks for so someone can avoid using the public restroom the next store over. Totally!
/sarcasm
“But what if they’re there to maybe bespoil our precious potty! There aren’t to my knowledge, a lot of middle aged women strutting around the mall trying to tag the Lady Footlocker bathroom.”
Then you are not very knowlegeavble. They’re not just out for your restrooms, but also for your dressing rooms. *retail dressing room shudder*
“Oh and by the way, if she leaves to visit another store to use the facilities, she probably not going to come back, so you’ve robbed yourself of that potential sale.”
Oh, and by the way, if she came in to use the rest room, then she probably wasn’t there to shop, anyway. Either way, her entire lifetime of purchases is not worth my insurance policy. Also, a same-day carpet cleaning is still cheaper.
“Luckily things are much more civilized in Florida. If you are open to the public, in any regard, you MUST have and furnish on request access to a restroom. Failure to do so is a fine of $250 per violation.
A search through http://www.leg.state.fl.us/statutes turned up no such statute, although I did note that quite a few types of businesses are required to do so. A mall, for instance, is required to have public sanitary facilities, but the individual stores within those malls are not mentioned. One would suppose that the mall restrooms are good enough for both the State of Florida and Floridians with IBS.
“If you are open to the public, in any regard, you MUST have and furnish on request access to a restroom.”
1. Please cite the law. Having researched this, it only applies to places which serve food or offer lodging (Foot Locker does not seem to )
2. Based on YOUR reading of the law a newsstand, a fruit stand (I See them all over Florida) a beach, or a KIOSK in the middle of the mall MUST have a restroom. I am sure the MALL had restroom access. Even if I take what you say as truth (which I do not) there was access. It was just not close enough for this woman.
That falls under, NOT MY PROBLEM.
Spoken like a person who has never actually worked in retail and certainly never cleaned a bathroom used by the public…
Yes, we can feel bad for the old lady… but I certainly don’t blame this store IN A MALL for not maintaining a public bathroom, or for turning this person away.
Well, I have IBS and have had to ask at stores on occasion to use their bathroom. It’s nice to know that the majority of people who voluntarily come to a site that’s supposed to be about HELPING other humans are insensitive d**ks who think everyone is looking to sue to make a quick buck, going to steal everything they can while doing it and shit in the sink and leave it for you to clean up to. I personally hope every single ONE of you one day have to rely on the kindness of strangers to avoid pain or embarrassment and you’re turned away. Let’s see how you feel about then. Personally, I think you all deserve it. Karma’s a bitch.
“Well, I have IBS and have had to ask at stores on occasion to use their bathroom.”
I’ve had some not-fun pregnancies and have also had to do so.
“It’s nice to know that the majority of people who voluntarily come to a site that’s supposed to be about HELPING other humans are insensitive d**ks who think everyone is looking to sue to make a quick buck, going to steal everything they can while doing it and shit in the sink and leave it for you to clean up to.”
It’s good to know that an unfortunately large minority of people are insensitive dicks who are looking to sue to make a quick buck, going to steal everything they can while doing it, and shit in the sink and leave it for the not-dickish majority, thereby ruining everything for IBS sufferers, pregnant ladies, and other folks who need a restroom quick.
FTFY
“I personally hope every single ONE of you one day have to rely on the kindness of strangers to avoid pain or embarrassment and you’re turned away. Let’s see how you feel about then. Personally, I think you all deserve it. Karma’s a bitch.”
I have had to do so, and been turned away, and that still doesn’t change how I feel about it, which is irrelevant, anyway, because even if I felt otherwise, my insurance company still REQUIRED that you have a background check or an escort to pass by that Employees Only sign and I’m still going to refuse to leave the front of the store to do so. Take responsibility for yourself, and walk to the next store over.
The response s pretty simple: don’t shop at foot locker. Write a letter to the store, district and regional manager while you’re at it. It might not change policy, but it will get the person who made grandma poop herself in public to look for new employment.
I used to manage a small walk-up food service kiosk in a mall. It was basically three counters and a wall shared with one of the big stores. More often than I can recall, we had customers ask to use our bathroom. When told there was no bathroom (seriously, you could see the entire store from the customer side of every counter), they would ask what employees used. So we would explain we, like all the other kiosks in the mall, had a storeroom in another part of the mall with a bathroom for employees only. They would then ask where the storeroom was and could they use that bathroom. Even when I would explain that the mall restrooms, as well as those of several big stores were closer, they would still insist to be allowed to walk across the mall to the storeroom.
Of course, the answer was always no but people will never cease to amaze me.
What’s so embarrassing about pooping on yourself? you do it all the time when you are a baby. You probably do it between the age of 5-65. And you’ll do it when you are older.
It would be nicer if bathroom has a little water hose next to it so people can properly wash themselves when it does happen.
Do we need to train employees on all 98439874239874297 possible situations that can occur. Wow, people are overly sensitive these days. Let’s go back to the real world ok.
I thought I read somewhere a while back that you could potentially sue a store for not letting you use their restroom in an emergency.
I’ve never been in a situation like this, but if it were me and it was an ABSOLUTE emergency, I would be saying, “Look, this is happening. Either you escort me to the bathroom or I am crapping on your floor in front of all these customers. Your call.”
Normally would agree with a story like this but not so this time. Why should an employee risk their job by violating company policy just cause you gotta go to the bathroom? Joe is completely wrong on this one.
I work retail and we have public bathrooms in our store
and the men’s room is DISGUSTING every night when we go to clean it.
We don’t have a cleaning crew that comes in, the employees do all the work, It’s a free standing building and the things customers do in those bathrooms leaves most of us wondering what their homes look like.
I feel bad that the woman had a problem, she was wearing “protective undergarments” though for just such an issue – if she were somewhere else that didn’t have a bathroom when the urge hit would she blame them too? Safest bet is to figure small stores/shops don’t have bathrooms period. If you have issues you should plan on this happening.
Willing to bet that their own private bathrooms would be spotless and they would rage if someone made a mess of it.
My refusal to let you use the employee bathroom has nothing to do with a failure to be a decent person — it has everything to do with my boss firing me for not following a basic rule that frankly I agree with.
In high school and college, I worked at a small dairy store with a tiny employee-only restroom in the back near the safe and next to the cigarette-carton-and-coin-roll-room. Usually only one person was on staff at the time. Letting an unauthorized person in the back was an invitation to theft. Abandoning the front counter and the till to accompany someone to the restroom for however long it might take would be similarly irresponsible.
If someone had an emergency, I told them the restaurant next door had public bathrooms. In the years I worked there, we had one older lady and one small child relieve themselves on the floor upon being told we had no public bathroom. Cleaning it up was better, though, than being summarily fired if the boss had found out.
I have IBS myself, but I wouldn’t expect to use a private bathroom at a store any more than I would expect to walk in and use a bathroom at a stranger’s house if I was driving past and felt the need to go.
The people complaining about the clerk here seem to have no idea that what they consider being a good person may well be wholly unreasonable given the clerk’s position.
I had a woman from the neighborhood come in one night who wanted to take milk and cereal for her family and pay for it when she had money the next morning. I told her I couldn’t let her do that (although if I had had any cash on me I likely would have just loaned her the $$ until the next time she came in when I was working — something I’d done before on occasion with known customers). If my boss found out I let something out the door without being paid for, the best I could have hoped for would be a strong reprimand, although being fired would have been possible, too.
Anyway, the lady got mad, threw a fit, and stomped out. I heard later she came in the next morning — with money — and bought the cereal and milk and complaining about how I had inconvenienced her. I ran into her a week later in church, and she said really loudly “Well, I didn’t know YOU were a Christian.”
What can you say to something like that?
“Anyway, the lady got mad, threw a fit, and stomped out. I heard later she came in the next morning — with money — and bought the cereal and milk and complaining about how I had inconvenienced her. I ran into her a week later in church, and she said really loudly “Well, I didn’t know YOU were a Christian.”
What can you say to something like that?”
Ma’am I’m generous with my own money and property, but not with someone employers which is not mine, if I were I’d be a thief. That isn’t Christian is it?
years ago, I stopped at a McD’s to use their bathroom. It was an older one with the restrooms outside – which were locked. I asked for the key and was told the bathrooms were for customers only. I then ordered a small soda, and then asked for the key. The clerk told me no. I told him, I was going outside and was going to piss on their store. Which I did. Right as I finished the cops rolled up (Yea, that fast!) – and asked me what I was doing. I told him exactly what had happened.. I sad, I really had to go, I tried to do the right thing..
The cop shook his head and told me to have a nice day – then went inside and yelled at them..
lol.
that is awesome!!! those cops were cool.
Sorry but I had to put my two cents in here.Unless they sell food,a public store is not obligated to provide customer bathrooms.In the case of an elderly person,I would have personally let her pass,but keep in mind please there are good reasons why most smaller retail places do not allow customers to use the bathrooms.
Firstly,as said in the article,there are security issues.In the last shop I worked in,one had to go through our office and stockroom to reach the employee (and only) bathroom.There is not much they can do with employees present but someone with thievery in mind could “scope out” the rear exits,location of the safe,etc.Not to mention private notices between staff that are posted.
Secondly, there are a few among us who love nothing more than to vandalize and/or otherwise “blemish” public bathrooms.There is nothing more annoying than falling for an “I really gotta go” tale of woe only to go back later into the bathroom and see that your “visitor” has left pee all over the floor and seat,stolen all the toilet paper,or worse,decided to redecorate the place with feces.YES,it happens and it makes you wonder how they live at home.
Lastly, the “slip and fall lottery”.There are also people who would love nothing more than to use your stores bathroom so they can get out of sight of cameras and stage a “slip and fall” in your supposedly employees only bathroom.
You know how many people will claim “it’s an emergency!” when the only emergency is that they just don’t want to walk somewhere else?
I basically don’t have an issue with this… I’m sorry that this happened to the lady, but you know, I mean it’s just too bad… I don’t think that Lady Footlocker at the mall should be required to maintain a bathroom that customers can use, and I can understand them having a bathroom that is for employee use only.
You know, something just doesn’t compute. She’s at a Lady Foot Locker, then goes to the bathroom at the JCPenney…Sounds like a mall to me. And malls have public restrooms. Sounds like she didn’t want to hike to the public or couldn’t be bothered to look for it.
I tend to agree employees who are front line who do this if that old women went in there fell and hurt herself it would be the company’s fault and they could be sued. I remember years ago when I was working at Jewel and I was helping another old lady to her car. She parked far away and slipped when it was very icy.
By her car however there was no ice but that didn’t stop her son from trying to hit the ghetto lottery.
For a store to have public restrooms they must sure be handicap’d accessible with some more annoying restrictions on what you can and cannot do.
And what’s to stop the person from helping themselves to items from the stockroom while they’re back there? If crooks knew that faking a bathroom emergency could get them into the backrooms, stores would be inundated with people having “emergencies.” The store also doesn’t want to add any liability by letting customers into the back area of the store, because there are usually boxes and other items back there that could possibly fall and hurt the customer. Employees are insured against such a thing, but NOT customers.
I’m sorry the OP’s mother-in-law had an accident, but now they can plan ahead and bring the proper supplies in case of another emergency.
Sadly no. Exhibit A, ADA access cases are the number one or number two most popular cases filed in the Southern District of Florida, if I make my employee bathroom available to customers than depending on age of building, etc. I have to make bathroom ADA accessible and I have to make the route to the bathroom ADA accessible. Exhibit B, slip and fall cases are also very popular, if I let people in the back room and they slip and fall they will sue driving up my insurance costs. Exhibit C, shoplifting, staffing and cleaning issues.