No Bathroom is a Public Store???

[Bijou]

I am beyond mad at this store. Back story is I use to work right next door to this boutique and have spent several thousands of dollars there over the years.
Friday morning they were having a giant sale (things that were normally $150 where around $8 and so forth.) I got there early but there were about 20 people in the store. I go through the racks, make my selects and get in line for the dressing room. I'm in the dressing room and mid-way through trying things on a get very very sick. (I'm on this new medicine that makes me violently ill if I get too hot, etc. it's not pleasant and I never know when it's going to happen) I stick my head out the door and ask if I can use their bathroom. The sales girl says "no, we dont have one." I said I'm really sick and I need one now, which she replies "Well if you really want one then you can go five doors down and use the restaurants bathroom (note this restaurant is NOT fast food of any kind) but if you do we have to take everything out of the room and let someone else use it and when you get back in line you have to go to the BACK of the line." Note here that they have 6 dressing rooms, it would not have killed them to hold one for two minutes to let me use the bathroom. I say fine, I finish trying on the thing i had on and then run out of the dressing room to the store I used to work at and use their bathroom. I get back to the store and get back in line. Once that is all over I get to the cashier line and again get sick and I have to get them hold my stuff long enough to go next door to use the bathroom again. If the prices weren't insanely low then I wouldnt have gone back, but I'll never go back again now.

My fiancee deals with health board licenses everyday and he said in our state it is illegal for a public store to not have a bathroom. He suggests I write or call the board of health and report them which I plan to do.

This isnt the first time that they have said to someone that they dont have a bathroom, they use to say it was broken and they would send people to use my old store's bathroom or some other store around them.  I do know for a fact that they have one.

The sales girl was being rude, right?  Any other suggestions for things I could do beyond reporting them?

What gets me is they won't let you use theirs, but send you to neighboring merchant when you are not even their customer, to use their facilities.  At the very least, when a customer is ill they could make an allowance. 
I used to do beadwork and as anyone who does this knows, it is EXPENSIVE.  I used to go to this one store that is about 6 hours round trip away and would spend a couple of hundred dollars each time.  I asked to use their restroom once and they refused to let me do it even though it was obvious I was doing major bead shopping.  The real kicker, though, is that my dh asked to use their restroom once and they allowed him to do so.  They told me to go next door and use the deli's restroom.  What a bunch of creeps.  If I had known about this other smaller, but much more interesting bead store in the same area, I would have put everything back and told them I would go to another bead store and shop and use their bathroom.  I stopped going to them and don't like to recommend them either...see what happens when you are rude to a customer? 

[jfulle5]

While it would have been nice of the clerk to point you to the staff restroom, particulary since you were feeling ill, she was not obligated to do so.  Nor was her attitude especially helpful.

But if you needed a bathroom "now," then why did you finish trying on the item you were trying on?  I'd have gotten myself dressed and gotten to the nearest bathroom, pronto!  It's possible that since you didn't, it gave the clerk reason to believe your situation not to be as urgent as you described.

As for "holding" a fitting room, while you use the restroom facilities:  There was a line behind you.  Who knew how long you would really be gone?  It seems unreasonable to think you could have gone to take care of "business" and not have to re-join the line, at the end, when you returned.  It's not like having to go back to the sales floor to pull yourself a different size of something.

I'm certainly not saying you weren't ill.  But honestly, if you were that ill, finishing the trying on of a garment, and fussing about losing your place in the que, would likely have been the last thing in mind at that moment.

What I would have done (and have done):

Gotten myself back into my clothes, as quickly as possible. 
Scooped up the things I knew I wanted.
Taken them to the nearest sales person.
Asked sales person for a restroom. 
When told where restroom was, ask sales person to please hold the items...I'll be right back.
Hightailed it to the bathroom.
Return to the store.
Collect items being held.
Return to the fitting-room line to try on anything more that needed trying on.
Proceeded to checkout with items I'd decided to purchase.

(Sickness hits again)
Ask sales clerk to hold items.
Go take care of "business."
Return to store to make purchases.
Get in line behind others who may have arrived while I was gone to the bathroom. (Unless sales person waves me to be next.)
Purchase items.
Head home.

But...that's just me.  YMMV

I mistyped or at least didnt clearly state the situation. When I wrote that I finished trying on the garment, I meant I had it on and I took it off and left. I just didnt walk out with it on. Sorry for the confusion.

[Twik]

Well, you could have asked them, if they didn't have a washroom facility, if they could hand over the nearest garbage can for your use  .

Unfortunately, I have read of people leaving truly revolting messes in store washrooms, and I can understand why they wouldn't want to be the one stuck cleaning up the various bodily excretions that people have with distressing frequency, left decorating the interiors of such places. Just one more example of how the lack of consideration of the few has made life more difficult for the rest of us.

[Cattaby]

I had a Christmas job working in a retail jewelery story a few years back. I remember hating the days when major sales were on, because that meant hordes of people coming in and being rushed for my entire shift. Not that I'm excusing the rudeness of the store clerk, but there may have been other reasons for her testiness.

We also had a store bathroom, but were told it was strictly for employee use only. Frankly, I didn't like using it myself - it was small and cramped, and the light only worked half the time. Not something I'd want customers to have to deal with either! I'd much rather walk through half of the shopping centre to go to one of their public bathrooms.

In another related note, regarding holding the change rooms. I don't think it's ever really acceptable to 'hold' a change room for yourself if there are others in the store, and especially if there is a line. It screams entitlement to me and grates me entirely the wrong way.

Btw Mondrian, I'm curious - what type of store did you used to work in when you worked next door to this clothing store? I assume your store let customers use the facilities (since clothing store just kept sending them over!).

[lolane]

The clerk could have been nicer in her responses but overall I do not think she was rude:

1. Their washroom is obviously for employee use only. There are probably rules that employees must follow concerning letting customer use the restrooms. I certainly wouldn't fault the employee for following company policy. As far as them telling customers that there is not restroom - I understand why. If you say there is not one people will let it go, if you say there is one, but they can't use it, people  will try to convince you to violate company policy to allow them to break the rules - I know was my experience when working in retail.

2. The stores policy seems reasonable to me. Theft and filthy bathrooms are two huge problems in retail and just because you may not steal and you may not make a mess it does not mean that the next person won't.

3. If there is a long line, I think it would be rude of you to expect that a room be held for you while other people have been patiently waiting.

So, no I do not think the cler was rude, and I think you should just forget about it.

[Rach]

Mondrian, this is not related to you question, but not OT..

I have also been prone to getting sick (assuming you were referring to throwing up - if not, ignore me) and while a bathroom is preferable, I always carried water tight plastic bags just in case. Its still horrible to be sick in public but at least you don't make a mess

Plus you could have thrown up in front of her if you wanted lol

[FoxPaws]

Let it go. The clerk was not the one being unreasonable.

ETA: I actually prefer to use "public" bathrooms as opposed to ones for employees only. They're much more likely to be cleaned regularly, stocked, and well lit.

[MineralDiva]

<<<I mistyped or at least didnt clearly state the situation. When I wrote that I finished trying on the garment, I meant I had it on and I took it off and left. I just didnt walk out with it on. Sorry for the confusion.>>>

I'm still a little confused, but that's nothing unusual for me.  Anyway, it's probably one of those things you should file in the memory banks, but not do anything more about.

They have their "policy."  It may be irritating, but now that you know, you can make sure there's time enough to get to a bathroom you 'can' use...when you need to.

[Slartibartfast]

The one and only time I allowed a customer to use my bookstore's employees-only bathroom, it was a mother whose toddler gave her about a 10-second warning that he had to pee.  Apparently they were in the middle of that post-potty-training phase where the kid knows what it feels like, but doesn't know what to do about it . . . anyway, I decided it was better for me to let them in the back room than to have to clean up a puddle of pee in the middle of the store    I did get reamed out for it from my supervisor, but I pointed out I was working alone that day and having one customer with a toddler in our storeroom was "safer" than having ME have to run back and forth to get the mop and bucket, thus leaving the rest of the store without anyone watching it.

I did that because I knew I was willing to stand up for myself in front of my supervisor, though.  I suspect most people would have rather followed the rules and not made a scene - including the clerk at this store.  After all, "I feel sick" can meen "I'm going to throw up NOW" or it can mean "I'm a bit queasy and should find a bathroom to sit down in just in case."  I wouldn't have bent the rules for you either if I didn't know for sure.

[sparksals]

I'm dissenting with everyone else here.  She was rude.  I wish you had puked in the store then she would have gotten what she deserved. 

This wasn't a random situation.  It was a medical illness.  I think that should be an exception and she should have let you use the bathroom.

[veryfluffy]

I'm dissenting with everyone else here.  She was rude.  I wish you had puked in the store then she would have gotten what she deserved. 

I don't see any way in which the salesgirl was rude. She explained they didn't have a bathroom, she suggested where the OP might be able to find one, and explained that the changing room couldn't be held in the meantime. I didn't see any indication that she did this in some kind of rude way -- aggressively or condescendingly. Why should she deserve to be confronted by someone vomiting? She didn't make the policy. The suggestion that this would be "deserved" is utterly offensive.

The Op said they could hold it "for two minutes" -- I don't know in what alternative space-time dimension someone can go out to find a washroom, be sick, get oneself back together, and get back in two minutes. I think it is outrageous of the OP to feel that everyone else in the store who is waiting for a dressing room should be inconvenienced.

This wasn't a random situation.  It was a medical illness.  I think that should be an exception and she should have let you use the bathroom.

If she had actually been overcome and vomited suddenly, they would likely have been perfectly understanding. Given that she was simply claiming to be unwell, and obviously did have time to reach the other facilities, this hardly seemed like a medical emergency. I imagine that in an average day there are plenty of people who would see themselves as an exception for one reason or another.

[Morty'sCleaningLady]

Years ago, I worked for a bank.  None of our branches had public restrooms.  I'm in the greater Boston area and if you have a public restroom, it must be handicap accessible.  Often our restrooms were in basements of old banks with no elevators.  I also second whomever mentioned that they were less than adequately stocked and often time had lighting issues. 

That said, I did rarely take a customer to use it.  Often it was the toddler emergency situation, but I also took an expectant mother on occasion.  I had to stay with them during their trip.  So, the bank would lose an employee to sit outside the restroom. 

It's possible that on a quiet day, the clerk would have let you use the restroom for an emergency.  But it sounds like it was so busy that she wouldn't have been able to wait out back with you. 

Check the laws before you send that letter!

[mindibrad]

That said, I did rarely take a customer to use it.  Often it was the toddler emergency situation, but I also took an expectant mother on occasion.  I had to stay with them during their trip.  So, the bank would lose an employee to sit outside the restroom. 

I remember one time when I was pregnant with my first child, we had a major snowstorm....one of those ones that takes you 3 hours to get home from work (when it normally takes 20 minutes)

I had been sitting in traffic for 2 hours and was 8 months pregnant.....and I had to go!

To this day, I am forever grateful to the employee at the convenience store who "broke the rules" and allowed me to use the employee restroom.  However, had I not been obviously pregnant, had it not been a snowstorm, and had the clerk not been a woman (who might know exactly what I was going through), it would not have shocked me in the least if she had refused to let me use the bathroom!

[ccnumber4]

From your post, I understand that you simply went next door to your old place of employment and went there?  Whenever I am out and about, I never assume any store has a public restroom.  If I have to go, I ask.  If they say they don't have one?  I simply go to another store.  I realize yours was illness-related. 

But, if you knew this store's past history with no restroom being available and you knew your tendancy to get ill on this new medication, why would you go there?  Or, having gone there, why would you be surprised at the outcome?

If you really felt the clerk was rude enough to warrant sending a letter, then you should simply have left and not returned for your items.  Sounds like the situation wasn't bad enough to keep you from giving them business. 

[jfulle5]

From your post, I understand that you simply went next door to your old place of employment and went there?  Whenever I am out and about, I never assume any store has a public restroom.  If I have to go, I ask.  If they say they don't have one?  I simply go to another store.  I realize yours was illness-related. 

But, if you knew this store's past history with no restroom being available and you knew your tendancy to get ill on this new medication, why would you go there?  Or, having gone there, why would you be surprised at the outcome?

If you really felt the clerk was rude enough to warrant sending a letter, then you should simply have left and not returned for your items.  Sounds like the situation wasn't bad enough to keep you from giving them business. 

They've let me use the bathroom there in the past.