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Respected Contributor
Posts: 2,576
Registered: ‎06-13-2011

Coin operated public bathroom stalls.

[ Edited ]

Before anyone starts to say negative things about this idea just read our experience from yesterday.

 

My husband and I were in a department store and he wanted to use the restroom.  He went in and came out in just a few minutes.  I wondered why.  He said both stalls were being used by what he assumed were two drug users.  He said he could see filthy dirty clothes on the floor and both of them had thrown their used needles on the floor.

 

Needless to say he immediately got out of there.  We mentioned this to an employee and he said it happens all of the time.  The stores just cannot control who uses their restrooms and they have to periodically close them and totally clean them of drug paraphernalia and dispose of all of the filth they leave behind.  

 

After our shopping trip my husband said I'm going to stop for gas and use their restroom.  When he went in to use it the clerk told him he couldn't because she had just disinfected it because someone had totally used the floor for a toilet and she had to bleach the entire room.  She told him I'm usually alone here and when these people come in she's afraid to tell them they can't use the bathroom.  She said she fears what they might do to her.  

 

Our final stop on our way home was to our pharmacy to pick up a prescription.  Usually we use the drive-thru but for some reason it was closed.  My husband said while you are getting your meds I'll use the restroom.  Nope again!  Both the men's room and the ladies room were closed.  The clerk told us that management has permanently closed them because of the things that go on in them.   He told us they have had to call the police to remove people who have set up housekeeping in them and refuse to leave when they are told too.  For a while they tried to keep them open by using a code that you had to get from the clerk but people became irate and the store feared for the safety of their employees.

 

By now it sounds like we live in a crappy area but I can assure you that we do not.  We live in a very middle class area of a nice suburb of a large city.  It is not a rundown area and our police try to keep the bad folk out of the businesses but their hands are tied and they move them out and within a short time they are back.

 

After seeing how bad restrooms have become in our stores I told my husband that perhaps we need to go back to pay toilet stalls.  Most of you are probably too young to remember them but you had to deposit money to get into the stalls.  

 

I know that sounds extreme but perhaps it would keep out the objectionable people who are intent on ruining everything for the good decent people.

 

I'm to the point where I don't even want to use a public restroom.  I have seen so many disgusting things such as used needles and used sanitary products just thrown on the floors of the bathroom stalls.  

 

I'm a compassionate person but it really saddens me to see the way society is going.  Perhaps we need to go back to the ways of the past.  I wouldn't complain of paying a small amount if it meant that we could be sure our public restrooms were clean and  drug free and safe for us to use.

 

For those of you who live in other part of the country do you encounter the same problems in your stores and public areas?

 

Honored Contributor
Posts: 9,329
Registered: ‎02-07-2011

Re: Coin operated public bathroom stalls.

[ Edited ]

I remember Macy's on 34th street in Manhattan.  There were free stalls in the ladies room and stalls that cost 10 cents.  Mom and I usually sprang for the 10 cents!!

 

The restrooms near me in Chicago are clean but the ones I go to are not on street level.  A shortage of public restrooms is a problem in many cities and I do not have a solution.  

 

PS  I hope your hubby made it home without a problem!!!

Honored Contributor
Posts: 13,019
Registered: ‎03-09-2010

Re: Coin operated public bathroom stalls.

The last time I used a public restroom was a couple months ago at Costco.  It was clean and unoccupied.

Honored Contributor
Posts: 19,347
Registered: ‎03-09-2010

Re: Coin operated public bathroom stalls.

What an awful experience. I try not to use public restrooms. I've never seen a pay toilet - must be a big city thing.

Honored Contributor
Posts: 15,345
Registered: ‎05-01-2010

Re: Coin operated public bathroom stalls.

No. And I was on vacation in RI last summer and didn’t have that problem and Cape Cod the summer before with no problem and I have  to use the facilities frequently.

Honored Contributor
Posts: 43,246
Registered: ‎01-08-2011

Re: Coin operated public bathroom stalls.

[ Edited ]

Where I work the floors are cleaned and disinfected daily.  I have occasionally gone into our mall stores and they are scrubbed clean.

We are an "outside mall" where people don't tend to congregate, and we have security driving around the parking area and inside all day and night.  

 

The inside mall in the city?  Sometimes things happen there.

Esteemed Contributor
Posts: 5,291
Registered: ‎06-15-2015

Re: Coin operated public bathroom stalls.

@J Town Girl 

 

I understand completely what you are saying. Yes, I remember the pay stalls, and a few where you had to pay for hand towel, from a worker in the restroom.

 

There was/is always an over/under way to get into a stall. I haven't seen any that could not be breached either way. And the ones that are the problem using them now? I doubt it would effect them accessing the stalls by using the pay-to-go way of the past.

 

Until more is done with criminal acts/arrest/ charged, and put in jail? With all the mental health issues of many of the homeless, that too has to be honed in on also.

 

It's said remembering back what my decades ago life was in this regard, and watching so much being decayed or ruined in today's era.

 

Could go on, but these are just a couple of my thoughts on this topic.

 

 

hckynut 🥅🏒

hckynut(john)
Respected Contributor
Posts: 4,535
Registered: ‎10-05-2010

Re: Coin operated public bathroom stalls.

No, I have never seen what you are talking about in my area or anywhere. Sometimes a toilet is not flushed or there's paper on the floor, but that's about it.

 

As far as pay toilets, I think you'd have to charge a hefty amount to discourage "undesirables".  Then what would the customers be saying about that.

Trusted Contributor
Posts: 1,168
Registered: ‎10-23-2011

Re: Coin operated public bathroom stalls.

@J Town Girl   Since the COVID emerged I refuse to use public rest rooms.  I make sure to stop drinking before I go out shopping so I can ensure that I can shop and go home without any necessity to use a public restroom.

 

My daughter, husband and grandchildren live in L.A. and I haven't been there in 2 years because I refuse to use public restrooms at the airport. 

 

I wasn't crazy about using public restrooms from retailers I usually frequent prior to the COVID but with what you're describing (that I've never experienced personally but completely believe) it simply presents too much of a health risk for me to even consider at this time.

Honored Contributor
Posts: 16,233
Registered: ‎03-09-2010

Re: Coin operated public bathroom stalls.

@AuntG   I haven't seen a pay toilet for many years, but in the 1950's when I went shopping with my mother and aunt, I remember we had to pay a nickel to use the toilets --  central Pennsylvania, not what I would call a big city.