Starbucks closing some restrooms?
The company is reportedly allowing only employees into the facilities at some New York cafes.
The company is getting a little tired of that in New York, according to news reports. So it's begun closing off some restrooms to everyone but employees.
"Starbucks cannot be the public bathroom in the city anymore," one source familiar with the company's plans told The New York Post. The location on 45th Street and Sixth Avenue was one of the first to convert its restroom to employees-only.
There were two main reasons for the change, according to the Post. The restrooms got awfully dirty and sometimes needed repairs two to three times a week, and employees had to wait in the restroom lines along with everyone else. They could probably cut in line, but that makes customers angry.
The move comes after Starbucks began covering up its electrical outlets to discourage laptop parkers.
The result is that Starbucks will not be the home away from home that some customers desire. But will it lead to a drop in business?
New York Magazine says New Yorkers who need to use the restroom instinctively look for a Starbucks, whether they plan to buy something or not. "The mere prospect of large-scale bathroom-shutterings is terrifying," Dan Amira writes.
"It's almost as if this multinational corporation only cares about money!" Gawker observes.
| Tags: | Kim PetersonSBUX |
As a former small business owner I would like to give some insight into opening up a restroom to the public. In a very busy area we felt that the restroom should be open to all traffic. The result was as follows:
Our customers had to often wait until non-customers were finished with their bathroom urgencies. If these walk-ins left their own bathrooms in the shape that they left ours it is sure a filthy society.
My husband was tending to those restrooms a minimum of three times a day armed with a plunger, tools, and cleaning supplies. He cleaned up more feces than people should ever see in a lifetime.
For all of you that feel that the public has a right to use restrooms that are in private businesses - ask yourself how willing you would be to clean up after disrectful people every day.
Having work in a retail setting where I was responsible for cleaning the restrooms, I can see Starbucks point of view. Now being disabled and on meds that make me go to the bathroom often I can also see the need for having restrooms available. Maybe what Starbucks and other places can do is put some kind of code on your receipt that if you can use to punch into a keypad to get into the restroom. Make it good for one hour and after that time if your still there you'll have to buy something else. It's just a thought.......
I think some of the people posting here are missing the point. Starbucks does not want to close the bathrooms just because they feel like it, it's because many people are pigs and what they do in the restrooms is a disgrace.
Starbucks does not have a restroom attendant, the employees have to clean the restrooms, if I was hired to serve coffee and then I was told I had to clean the bathroom I would have to quit.
Cleaning pee off the floor and the toilets and the walls is bad enough, but feces smeared all over and tampons stuffed in the bowls is just repulsive.
I used to run a fast food restaurant and I can't tell you how amazed I was at what people did in the bathrooms. If people could act like human beings this would not be an issue.
Again, manners have become a thing of the past. We have become a nation of advantage takers and abusing the bathrooms at Starbucks is just a microcosm of the ills that affect our country. Responsilbility and personal accountability are no longer the norm and have been replaced with entitlement and relativism.
It is unfortunate but some humans are absolute pigs when it comes to public restrooms. I used to work at a place that had public restrooms & it got so bad that we hired someone to monitor the bathrooms after each person went in & if the bathroom was left dirty they were told to clean up their mess. Once that person was hired & customers knew the bathrooms were being monitored the problem was solved because no one wanted to run the risk of being humiliated with their sloppy bodily functions in a public location.
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