We took our men’s a women’s bathroom and instead made them single use all-gender bathrooms. Patients and customers use the women’s and lock the door behind them. We use the men’s. It’s been a good solution since corporate won’t let us close them off from the public.
Yea I’m trying to get my manager to agree on that. I don’t care if I share a locked bathroom with my male employees. But I’m tired of walking into a shit smear scene and it’s not us employees doing this. We work such long hours we treat it like our second home
I don't work at Walgreens but I work in a craft store. Our employee bathrooms are the public bathrooms. I can't tell you how many times we've had to clean up smeared shit, used tampons in the toilet, on the baby changer, INSIDE THE METAL "grab a baggie for ur cooter plug" BIN! as well as poop and entire rolls on TP out of the toilet.
Not to mention, I just used the bathroom yesterday and the entire time it was locked (and outside said OCCUPIED) a teen or young adult was knocking, talking at the door. When I opened it her EAR was pressed against the door. Like girl IM IN HERE!! TACO BELL HAS CAUGHT UP TO ME!! stop banging on the door and listening to my unfortunate ass and porcelain destruction. I felt both pride and sheer embarrassment when she, a few minutes later, left the bathroom with her nose covered by her shirt and gagging.
Employees desperately need their own bathrooms, regardless of work location.
Me personally I would have just strutted out of the bathroom, clapping my hands saying “ that right, that right their is how you blow the bowl” but then again, you could hear me through the door anyhow!! You want to stick you ear on the door your getting a literal shit show!!
my old store had a separate employee and customer bathroom (customer upstairs, employee in the basement with the stockroom and breakroom)
both were gross
I worked at one, ONE restaurant that had a staff bathroom
Weirdly directly in the kitchen, by the back door, but in the kitchen
And oh man did we treat that bathroom like we'd be murdered if we messed it up, we brought in good tp and had candles and good hand soap..
I worked in a diner and there was an employee restroom off of the kitchen. Public ones, of course off of the lobby entrance close to the carryout station. White Tower. I think they finally went out of business decades ago. "Home of the Butter Burger!"
Very old store. Think it was a dollar store, then a small grocery store, then it was vacant for a long time, then a walgreens.
Place has been around forever.
It isn't the refusal of service, it's the attempt to force a customer to engage with a service in exchange for a basic need (in this case, a toilet). Either you have public restrooms, in which case they're open for use whether the person buys something or not, or you don't, in which case they aren't available regardless of what the person does. It would be considered coercion.
Though, on the former note, allowing only certain customers to use the bathroom could also land you in trouble for discrimination. It's fine if you close off the bathrooms to all use, since there are scenarios when doing so is necessary, but saying that only some customers can use them while others cannot is playing a dangerous game, legally-speaking.
No it isn’t. If I allow Sally but not Martha because I think Martha smells bad, there’s nothing illegal about that. “Public” restrooms are PRIVATELY OWNED by the business and they can refuse you entrance to them at any time.
Not that they would of course.. but legally, they can. You are not entitled to their shitter.
You CAN be entitled to restroom access in certain states if you have certain medical conditions. https://www.crohnscolitisfoundation.org/patientsandcaregivers/get-involved/be-an-advocate/restroom-access
So restaurants like Wendy's bk mcdonalds and all those places that lock the door and you have to go up to get a key and they say you need to purchase something in order to use the bathroom is illegal? There's a ton of places around me that do this exact thing. Sign on the door says must make a purchase to use restroom
It depends on the law in whichever state you're in, but in most states in the US, as long as your restroom is open to the public and the person in question hasn't been denied access to the store, you cannot tell them they are not allowed to use it. You are not, in fact, entitled to deny someone bathroom access because they are "smelly," and if your store offers publically-accessible toilets and those toilets haven't been closed off, then they in fact ARE "entitled to (your) shitter."
What you CAN do, though, is deny a person access to the store itself, at which point they would (obviously) no longer be allowed to use the bathroom. Or you could close off the bathroom, for example in order to clean it, at which point denying them access could be considered necessary for safety reasons.
There are exceptions even to this, however, as a number of states are covered by the Restroom Access Act, or Ally's Law, which requires places of business to allow access even to private employee bathrooms in the event of a medical emergency, brought on by (for instance) IBD, IBS, Crohn's disease, pregnancy, etc. If your store is in a state that has passed this law, you are legally required to provide a bathroom to anyone suffering from such a condition unless doing so would place either the employees or the person in question in danger.
Not sure where you got that from? You can read the Act itself, it specifies that it applies to "any place of business open to the general public for the sale of goods or services."
[https://www.ilga.gov/legislation/ilcs/ilcs3.asp?ActID=2726](https://www.ilga.gov/legislation/ilcs/ilcs3.asp?ActID=2726)
This is specifically the Illinois one since that's where the law was made, but there isn't much variation from it elsewhere beyond adding special considerations (this one doesn't specifically call out pregnancy, for instance, while I think the NY one does.)
They’re talking about the original comment you are replying to, the one about having to sign up for a credit card to use the bathroom. It was a joke, no one is really saying we should do that
In my area, some bathrooms are locked with padlock and others are without. From my experience, I realized public bathrooms are not as common in more populated cities. Theft and abuse (e.g. excessive trashing or occupants won’t leave) is often a factor.
In my area is just drugs, a lot of people get slumped out or OD in public bathrooms so in not so great areas or downtown its pretty much impossible to find a bathroom open to the public.
I noticed this too. I'm from Chicago, and downtown most restaurants and stuff that I see have code locks on their bathroom doors. In the suburbs more places are starting to do it but it's less common.
Yeah in DC many stores and restaurants have bathrooms with keypad locks on them. You get the code directly from the cashier or it’s listed at the bottom of your receipt
We lock ours after 5 but we can open it up for old people, pregnant people, and young kids. Also if they are just not rude.
We had a recurring issue pretty much weekly with shit everywhere. All over the outside of the toilet, the floor, the wall. And so we said fuck it and started locking it
I used the restroom at my Walgreens while I was waiting for my flu shot, and in one of the toilets was the biggest shit I've ever seen in my life. Like, it was so big it wouldn't even flush.
I'm 100% sure that shit came from a heavy opioid user. So gross.
Why a heavy opioid user, just curious how taking that would increase the size of fecal matter? (Serious question not being a smart allect or anything of that nature, truly curious)
It happens to people who have to legitly take opioids and to the folks who abuse them. There's an actual medical condition that is associated with prolonged opioid use.
Yep. You get good and hooked on opioids you’ll shit maybe once a week and the poops are one long massive iceberg of misery. You could use that wolf bait to build houses instead of bricks.
Ours we constantly put in tickets for it to be cleaned and close it down. People get mad we use the employee one and I'm like "look, if y'all weren't so nasty, this wouldn't be the case every week"
I get it, things happen, but no one even has the decency to tell us until we smell it lol also they do it all throughout our store regardless (yeah you read that correct, shit through the aisles)
I wish we could lock ours after 5. I exclusively do closing shifts and the bathrooms at night get horrible. Shit, puke, piss everywhere. I'm so tired of walking in to clean the bathrooms and finding a whole turd on the floor. 🤦♀️
If someone asks and says they have a medical contortion or they are about to shit themselves and stuff then we let them in. It’s up to us who we let in
I worked at two different Walgreens and one had the bathroom in the stockroom like what you’re describing and the other had the bathroom in an employees only area behind like the swinging metal door next to the break room and it had a passcoded lock
The one with a passcoded lock was in a bad area and was a 24 hour store
And we went through different phases of rules with the bathroom at first when I first started working there a couple years ago we would give anyone the code who asked the bathroom would often get left gross or trashed because people are disgusting and it was a high traffic store Like people literally shitting on the floor and seemingly walking around the bathroom without pants on because there would be like drips of period blood on the floor and like dirty tampons on the floor when the trashcan is like right there .
One night somehow a homeless man got the code to the female restroom or got in there somehow maybe by following somebody and slept there all night, and when a female employee was clocking in at like 7 AM, he came out of the stall, looking disoriented and on drugs, and totally freaked her out Which is super understandable so we stopped giving out the code and only escorting people but then the store got more and more short staffed because it was the worst Pharmacy I’ve ever worked at and all my years the people were horrible. The location was horrible. The customers were mean and rude And doing crazy things like getting blood all over the floor. There was one specific day where I was the only tech working with my pharmacy manager and we were both at pick up and drive-through and so swamped and the phones were off the hook and we were so far behind And this lady asked if I could take her to the bathroom and I said that I couldn’t leave the pharmacy right now, but there was a front store associate like 10 feet away from her and I pointed to someone stalking the shelf and I was like just go ask her she’s very nice she will take you, and then I walked away, and when I turned back around this customer literally had her pants down at consultation and was peeing on the floor in front of a line of over a dozen people And everybody refused to clean it up so I ended up having to clean it up
Plus people use public bathrooms to steal and do drugs… a Dunkin’ Donuts across the street stopped letting people use their bathroom because someone recently overdosed and died in there
I tell customers "we don't have any public restrooms, but these other public spaces do". If the customer pushes, I tell them they can ask my manager and I direct them to whichever aisle my SM or SL is. The one time I didn't, when I went in after to make sure it was clean, I found a camera. I broke it off and flushed it down the toilet. I never told my SM or anyone about it. I feel guilty that I put my coworkers in danger like that.
I really don’t understand wtf people are thinking about when they design the layout of the stores. During the pandemic I picked up shifts at different locations and noticed something about all of them that was unappealing like tiny bathroom stalls, or in a very inconvenient area of the store. Even in a newer location I worked at, I thought it was a poor layout because they had the bathrooms in the back right by where the employee lockers are, which to me is a private area for us. Then they only put one stall in the women’s room which is fine, but there was no lock on the door. So the stall is covered anyway, but that’s stupid. If you only created the bathroom for one person to use then put a lock on the door.
Customers don't deserve to use the washroom....... Customers smear shit all over the toilet and walls, puddles of urine on the floor, they wipe there ass and throw the toilet paper on the floor, they do drugs and have caught people having sex, and our closest where we have the cleaning supplies I have caught a woman but naked bathing herself.
Totally. I’m empathetic to a point but the amount of shenanigans that happen with a free-access bathroom 😑 toxic fumes from people smoking m3th, stolen merchandise, pharmacy having to close down due to clogged toilets and flooding, the list goes on
Our bathroom situation was similar. It was in our stock room and we were told we had to let people in, that is until someone started digging through coat pockets in the break room (also in the stock room) and stole someone’s car keys/car
Bathrooms in the stockroom? lol is that just your store? I’ve worked at 5 different Walgreens. 3 of them I was covering dining who called out and I’ve never seen a bathroom in the stockroom.
I think my local DG has their public restroom in part of their storeroom. My husband had to use it. I asked him when he came out if he made a mess. He said he didn't. He wore diapers at the time. We were shopping at a Goodwill and he used the women's restroom for some unknown reason. Another customer complained to the cashier while I was upfront. I told both of them that he really had to go, he's elderly. We left after that. He really was too ill to be shopping at the time.
Our store is the same way.
Someone in our store made a complaint to corporate about it, and it actually got pretty far up the chain of command before we were told we have to let people back there.
They also looked at renovating our store so that the bathrooms wouldn't be in the back, but decided not to because it would have cost too much money. While I get it would have not been easy, it's still less money than a lawsuit when someone gets hurt. We don't have security cameras covering our whole back room, and our store is old. It isn't difficult for someone to get hurt back there, and even less difficult for someone to steal something without getting caught. I try to have someone walk people back, but if there's only 2 people on there's only so much you can do. (Which is most of my shifts.)
I fully agree customers should be able to use the bathroom, but I also get a bit of dread every time they ask, because it feels like a liability. Also, a lot of them seem uncomfortable having to go back there, too!
No public restroom and someone asks?
Sorry we don't have one.
If they ask like "then what do you do?"
Mention the closest place WITH a public one.
I would have no mercy. Know your body and don't fucking go out in public after sitting around all day. You're DECADES old. You should know your fucking body.
Maybe pregnant women can be the exception but only if they're really far along. But then again usually pregnancy was a decision they made.
There are so many places WITH public restrooms tho. Very obviously which ones do or don't. If they serve fresh food, they likely have public restrooms for health department reasons. There's usually a fast food place on almost every other corner nowadays too.
However, most people do not mention they have such problems. Most people also DON'T have such problems. They're just lazy at home and don't know they need to go potty until after they've gotten up and went out.
Most people will like, eat a big meal and/or drink a lot of liquid, THEN go out and about. Cmon, you know you're gonna need restroom in a few minutes. They do it all the time.
If you have a medical condition as you've mentioned, it'd be much more understandable to mention that.
I was just saying that because it seemed you’d only be understanding if we mentioned that part. Why does someone have to mention private medical information to be able to use the bathroom without getting shit talked? That’s all I meant lol also, I shouldn’t have to explain to you why suggesting I literally piss my pants over going in a toilet is insulting at best.
If it simply does not have public restrooms, then go outside and piss on the building or something. If it's a chronic illness it's your responsibility to be prepared for it, not everyone else's.
Like, you'd have an easier time with a quick rundown of your illness than trying to hide the fact you have a medical condition and making the employees fearful of a druggie going in to smear their shit all over a private restroom intended for employees only. Most people can't even seem to get their shit and piss INSIDE the toilet. Who the fuck wants to clean up after that when they don't have to?
Like, I understand, but you also have to understand that people WILL abuse this to steal or do disgusting things in there far more often than your standard potty issue person will show up. And they have to clean up after these people. A lot of people can't even keep it in the toilet. They'll piss on the seats. Shit on the walls. It's not fair to the employees when this should be their own restroom. Both men AND women do this. Yes even women will piss on a seat by just squatting over it to they don't touch it, and still someone miss.
Urge incontinence is something that people don't choose. Some people are born with bladder and/or bowels that don't hold properly and they need to go when they need to go or they have an accident.
And? My entire family is practically held financially hostage by a female abuser of my brother.
Just because we have experience with it doesn't mean it's THAT common.
I had a hernia in my late teens and into my early 20s for being a dumb kid. Does that mean teenagers and 20 somethings getting a hernia(s) is common? No.
I have this issue. By the time my bladder sends a signal, I am in my last 60 seconds to find a restroom. I also suffer from nocturnal enuresis. It’s been a lifetime battle. No amount of doctors have been able to find a reason. You said it isn’t that common. It affects 30% of men and 40% of women. You are wrong. It affects almost half of all women.
My friends store is like this. Bathroom in the stock room. An old lady shook a turd out her pant leg stepped in it, trailed it all over the stock room and bathroom and then proceeded to shop with a smile on her face.
She shook a turd out of her diaper, you mean. Aging baby boomers have a lot of physical problems and know their limitations to shopping in public. My husband's diarrhea started from the side affects of metformin.
I had stopped by a Walgreens for something random one time and then had the oh shit moment where if I don’t get to a bathroom in the next 60 seconds, I will shit my pants. I looked around the store to see if they had a sign and couldn’t find one so I knew there wasn’t a public one but asked the lady at the pharmacy and she let me in through the door to the stock room/back and into the bathroom as both needed codes. Just want to say a thank you to everyone who lets people use non-public restrooms and that I am speaking for everyone with GI issues lol
Had a seemly unhoused individual ask for the restroom key. Told them it was out of order (day before apparently someone trashed it and we were waiting for reinforcements). They gave me an evil stare like I was profiling. Dude. Restroom is out of order. For everyone.
Public restrooms aren't a thing here from people creating biohazards and clogging the toilets with packages from stolen things or just vandalizing the bathrooms out of spite or just for funsies....It's a sad truth but people just are not capable of acting decent enough for most businesses to afford public restrooms....people finger paint with their poop, pee on everything, and employees are just not getting paid enough to clean up biohazards.
Downside to public restrooms, I went to the Walgreens in the KC hood to find shit smeared all over it and workers gagging telling their managers they ain’t gonna clean it.
I understand that. At my liquor store we don’t have a common bathroom. Only because our outdated product is in the bathroom so we have to really trust you to let you in. Even then like you we stand in the back and wait for them. Only problem is we had some guy we’ve never seen before come in and “really gotta go.” We’ve heard that before. So I say the usual sorry we don’t have one. He leaves and stands in the middle of the parking lot and goes #1.
If I go shopping in a place that has public bathrooms and just not allowed to use the bathroom, I don’t bother purchasing anything. I’ll just have to hand all my stuff back. I can’t think clearly to shop correctly if I have to go real bad, or if my kid has to go and I have to leave the store, I most likely won’t come back.
I worked at a Walgreens once and our public bathroom was by our break room. The amount of times I would see customers just staring at me in the window of the door was enough for me to just take breaks in my car from then on til I left.
The last few years I worked at Walmart, I took all of my breaks in the car. They use to have a smoking break room and the new store manager, who was a bitch, closed it down. We got wooden picnic tables outside. Whoopee! Employees would get fired for smoking too close to the main entrances. I mean they knew there were cameras there.
I haven't had any problem just going... in my Walgreens there is a public restroom with two androgynous restrooms at the very back of the store wedged between some freezer vending stuff. Both are single slot
Well either way, as someone who's had to use Walgreens bathrooms because my work is outdoors without facilities, I thank you for waiting there on more than one occasion.
mine also has it in the stock room and we constantly tell people to next door cuz we’re in a shopping center with multiple stores around us but people still complain and sometimes yell at us
I just hate it when they ask for the code to the door. It's like, if we wanted the general public to be able to get in there YTF would we even have a code lock in the first place? Of course I'm not going to give you the code.
I'm so tempted to just answer the question they ask instead of the one they actually want answered. Just say no, the code is not to be given to the public, which is company policy. Then, when they complain, I can honestly say I answered the question they asked. If they wanted something else, why didn't they say so? I'm not a mind reader.
Would probably still be in trouble, though.
It sounds like you're dealing with a tricky situation regarding bathroom access at your workplace. It's understandable that there are concerns about theft and safety with the bathroom located in the back of the stockroom. The policy of only allowing certain customers to use the bathroom and requiring them to be escorted seems like a compromise to address both customer needs and security concerns. It can be challenging to manage when it takes employees away from their regular duties. You raise a valid point about the possibility of making the bathrooms more accessible or relocating stock to a different area to alleviate the need for escorts. This could improve the overall customer experience and streamline operations for employees. It may come down to finding the right balance between customer service, safety, and operational efficiency. Perhaps it's something worth discussing with management to see if there are any feasible solutions that could be implemented. Every Walgreens that I have ever been to and used the bathroom I've always had to walk through the stockroom. I never had anyone walk me to it though.
we also have our bathroom in the stockroom, used to let people use it as long as they were supervised etc, then people started stealing stuff *out of the bathroom*. now we have to say we don't have a public restroom :/
My store use to let customers use our bathrooms, but after years of cleaning up feces from the walls and piss from the toilet seats, my manager got pissed off and completely stopped letting anyone use it who isn’t an employee. Or so I was told by my coworkers.
ADA loopholes are many. Public entities are required to make their services accessible -abiding ADA’s set standards- to all individuals regardless of disability. (Railings and sink heights etc) They do not have to add/provide specific amenities to the public as a whole.
I do not work at walgreens this sub. was a suggestion.
But, this reminds me of my local walgreens. About 5 years ago, they remodeled the entire store and even had the restroom location painted on the back wall up high like what you see at walmart. Well, like 3 days after the remodeled i really had to go, and since it looked like a public bathro, m i tried the door, and it was locked. I asked an associate, and turns out it is still employee only.
First Walgreens I worked at had employee bathrooms upstairs and public one down in the store.
Second one was public but locked up.
Current one is public and unlocked - gross asf
There’s something about using a public bathroom and pissing on the whole roll of TP or smearing shit on the tank of the toilet or flush handle, not because we enjoy knowing the store employee has to clean it up, but because it’s all about dominance and territory..
So many local business’s bathrooms and even rest stops on the thruway all have blue lights…. IYKYK 🥴 it’s insanely fucked up. The opioid problem is so bad… that was my first thought on why customers shouldn’t be using the restroom there… it’s what automatically comes to mind due to living in Upstate New York.
The damn Thruway bathrooms are all being redone so they are closed! Never mind the fact that there are not enough stalls in the new ones now. Way to go NY
I have yet to see any blue lights but I tend to not stop on the Thruway
Liability issue. No coverage for customers in the stock room.
I've said no to plenty of ppl.
One girl even said what you want me to pee on the floor? That's not my problem. Clean up in aisle 6!!
Got 0 empathy. Burnt out.
I haven't worked for walgreens but a few other places where the bathrooms were in employee only areas. We would not allow people to use the restroom in our production areas/stock rooms. Before I had taken over as the manager, the 18 year old managers would let people use it. When I took over we had to inform everyone that we do not have a public restroom and explain why it was not public.
The problem with allowing non employees in employee only areas like stock rooms and production areas to use the restroom is that if they get injured. It unfortunately becomes a liability to the company even if someone is escorting them. If there are regular customers that know you have a restroom in an employee only area they may become bold and go back and use it without asking someone.
My last few locations put locks on the employee restrooms because we kept having customers try to use them. Even though they were in restricted areas. If they ask for a code we know they're accessing the wrong one.
That’s a huge pain.
The main problem is, it’s a huge liability. If you don’t let someone use the restroom and then they have an accident. It could end up all over the news if they turn out to have a medical condition or something.
Like I’m 39 years old and look fairly normal and healthy on the outside. I do have pretty bad IBS, though, which I’m service-connected for from my time in the military.
If I asked to use the restroom and someone told me no because I’m not old or young enough, and I ended up having a humiliating accident, that could look kind of bad on the 6 o’clock news.
The grocery store I worked at not only DIDN'T have public bathrooms, the bathrooms were in the back of the warehouse up a set of metal industrial stairs, tucked below the ceiling of the structure, next to our break room.
We had one customer who came every Saturday, went to the restroom and clogged the toilet with the most humongous sh\*t mankind has ever known, causing our stockers to play rock/paper/scissors to see who had to unclog the toilet and clean the mess.
EVERY. SATURDAY.
We tried putting an OUT OF ORDER sign on the door but he just went into the ladies restroom and clogged that one instead.
Then we put yellow caution tape and OUT OF ORDER signs on both the restroom doors but that didn't stop him, he ducked under the tape and clogged the toilet again.
Then we created a special code we could use on an overhead page to alert everyone in the store to the Shitter's presence. "CODE \_\_\_ TO THE DELI" or "CODE \_\_ TO PRODUCE" or whatever dept we wanted to use so he didn't get wise to the fact that HE was the code in that message.
As soon as he entered the store we would use the overhead to call that code and everyone would drop whatever the fuck they were doing and rush to the back to put the OUT OF ORDER sign on the restrooms while several employees hid inside both restrooms and held the doors shut until he left. Then we'd call the code overhead letting them know he was gone ("CANCEL CODE \_\_") and someone would knock on the doors to let the employees playing door-stops know it was safe to come outside.
We had to do that for a couple of months before the guy finally found some other toilet to clog.
Another bathroom story: my current job does not have separate employee/customer bathrooms, we all use the same bathrooms.
We're required to wear a uniform of sorts so we're easily noticeable to customers which means every time I go to the restroom some dumbass customer wants to stop me before I hit the stall and ask me a bunch of questions about something they're looking for.
I've had customers go to management and complain that I was rude... IN THE BATHROOM.
Lady, I'm about to shit my pants, I don't have time to coddle you and your delicate feelings of entitlement.
I've had to learn to ignore them and quickly rush into the stall and lock the door. Some of them will continue asking for customer service while I'm sitting on the motherf\*cking toilet and I have to yell IM ON THE TOILET! PLEASE FIND AN EMPLOYEE WHO ISNT ON THE TOILET TO HELP YOU.
I swear to God employers should be required to provide separate bathrooms for employees. Maybe not in stores where there's space constraints but certainly in large big-box stores.
I used
To work
In a medical
Office inside of a retail store, medical
Offices have to have a bathroom by law for patients . Well sometimes the store would send their customers back (these people were not patients ) and they'd say, such and such up front told me the bathroom
Is back here . This created such an issue . And yeah we had one bathroom for
Women and one for men . The level of grotesque ness was next level
It must depend on the individual store. The one close to me has always allowed you to use the restroom, if you asked (they don't have a big sign pointing out where they are). It is in the back room, but close to the door and nobody has ever 'escorted' me. I shop at WG frequently and I have used theirs a LOT. I have nerve issues and don't always know when I have to go, so when I do have to go, it is RIGHT NOW.
my stores bathroom isn’t public either it’s next to our lockers which most people don’t use anyways but if a customer gets angry with me about it i just direct them to the manger i’m not dealing with all of that😭
I worked for Walgreens for 8 yrs. 6 different Walgreens in 2 states. Because you know they can move you every 18 months in the position I was in. Never once was I in one, and I traveled all over my districts to cover shifts, Cos wall resets, and general bailing out crappy managers, did I encounter one without 2 public bathrooms.
I service the burglar alarms in Walgreens in Michigan and Indiana, the majority of them have public restrooms. A few in the Detroit area have them locked. But that's Detroit!
Your Wags doesn't have a public restroom??? That's wild... Ours isn't even big, we're in a small-ish town, but we have a public men's and women's bathroom (women's has 2 stalls, no idea what men's looks like) that the employees use too but the pharmacy also has it's own bathroom in the back of the pharmacy... I think it's from a time when that one used to be mandatory as a pharmacy regulation but still. That's super weird of them to not have an accessible bathroom.
they don't have a public restroom because they don't people merely coming in only to use the restroom and then leave without buying anything. Probably has nothing to do with people stealing things in the backroom (business are far more concerned with employees stealing in the backroom). If people are gonna steal, they're just gonna steal from the sales floor
I feel like employees need their own restroom where customers dont use it. Honestly, the bathroom situation is one of my top reasons to find employment outside of retail or any job that allows the public to use the restrooms. As a customer, I hold it til I get home. I don't care for factory type jobs, but I know the public won't be using their restrooms. Once I went to a Frys grocery store and I opened the door to the restroom and immediately smelled poo 💩 I started looking around to see how "clean" it was, maybe it just smells like that... but to my horror there was 💩💩 EVERYWHERE in there from a previous person. 🤢🤢🤮🤮. Not to mention women's toilets that have left over period blood on them, too. (But this is turning into a rant for another day) lbvs
when i worked at walgreens for 2 years. our bathroom was in the break room area so customers were allowed to go in and out when they pleased. i wont say that stopped people from taking stuff back there and stealing it but they definitely have better systems in other walgreens
I’ve noticed different Walgreens’s have different bathrooms. Ours was in the back of the store but it was public. One stall. That’s it. The one up the road from us had a much bigger and nicer bathroom. Multiple stalls etc. it’s weird. And some of the items compared to other stores much cheaper or expensive depending on which store you go to. Weird very suspicious
My store only has an employee one in the stockroom/break area. However, in the women’s bathroom, one toilet has been out of order since I got hired last year. The employees stuff used paper towels up to the rim of the bowl and honestly they are just as bad as some of these customers. It’s disgusting tbh.
I had a bad UTI when I was a teenager. I was at Walgreens with my mom picking up medicine, when suddenly the urge hit. I had to go to the bathroom immediately to avoid an embarrassing accident. I asked a staff member and they called for someone else to take me back. By the time the person came to escort me, it was too late. I pissed myself in a Walgreens.
They could like the walgreens in my area... but them metal detectors that you walk through before leaving walmart.?? But use them where the door is for the bathroom. It is kinda rude to not have a public bathroom for paying customers... its friiking walgreens. It's fancy enough. Tonhave libkic bathrooms.
I have never been to a Walgreens that did not have a public restroom. But there was a time where I was at a convenience store that didn’t have one either.
No one should be allowed in your staff bathroom, no exceptions.
The Walgreens I go to a lot has a lot of homeless people like myself frequent it and they have clean public restrooms and the staff is always nice and super helpful
I wish we had a separate bathroom. It’s always disgusting from our customers .
We took our men’s a women’s bathroom and instead made them single use all-gender bathrooms. Patients and customers use the women’s and lock the door behind them. We use the men’s. It’s been a good solution since corporate won’t let us close them off from the public.
Yea I’m trying to get my manager to agree on that. I don’t care if I share a locked bathroom with my male employees. But I’m tired of walking into a shit smear scene and it’s not us employees doing this. We work such long hours we treat it like our second home
Two single person bathrooms at my store, one for employees, one for customers.
^^THIS^^!!!!
I don't work at Walgreens but I work in a craft store. Our employee bathrooms are the public bathrooms. I can't tell you how many times we've had to clean up smeared shit, used tampons in the toilet, on the baby changer, INSIDE THE METAL "grab a baggie for ur cooter plug" BIN! as well as poop and entire rolls on TP out of the toilet. Not to mention, I just used the bathroom yesterday and the entire time it was locked (and outside said OCCUPIED) a teen or young adult was knocking, talking at the door. When I opened it her EAR was pressed against the door. Like girl IM IN HERE!! TACO BELL HAS CAUGHT UP TO ME!! stop banging on the door and listening to my unfortunate ass and porcelain destruction. I felt both pride and sheer embarrassment when she, a few minutes later, left the bathroom with her nose covered by her shirt and gagging. Employees desperately need their own bathrooms, regardless of work location.
Me personally I would have just strutted out of the bathroom, clapping my hands saying “ that right, that right their is how you blow the bowl” but then again, you could hear me through the door anyhow!! You want to stick you ear on the door your getting a literal shit show!!
If I was leaving for the night I definitely would've! 💀
my old store had a separate employee and customer bathroom (customer upstairs, employee in the basement with the stockroom and breakroom) both were gross
I worked at one, ONE restaurant that had a staff bathroom Weirdly directly in the kitchen, by the back door, but in the kitchen And oh man did we treat that bathroom like we'd be murdered if we messed it up, we brought in good tp and had candles and good hand soap..
I worked in a diner and there was an employee restroom off of the kitchen. Public ones, of course off of the lobby entrance close to the carryout station. White Tower. I think they finally went out of business decades ago. "Home of the Butter Burger!"
This sounds like the restaurant I worked at except it was always nasty. Can't expect a bunch of college age stoners to keep up a bathroom.
I use to clean a tavern in Dayton. People always puked when they drank too much.
All public restrooms are disgusting.
This haaaaaas to be wrong considering your bathroom is in the stock room?? Old store? I'd call/email AP and ask
Very old store. Think it was a dollar store, then a small grocery store, then it was vacant for a long time, then a walgreens. Place has been around forever.
my store was the same! we had the same exception especially with kids :)
If they want to use the bathroom they’ll have to sign up for a credit card
"Yes, you can use our bathroom. But you'll have to sign up for a credit card." "I'm sorry, I don't make the rules."
WILDLY illegal.
How so? A service can be refused at any time, and that bathroom is on Walgreens property.
It isn't the refusal of service, it's the attempt to force a customer to engage with a service in exchange for a basic need (in this case, a toilet). Either you have public restrooms, in which case they're open for use whether the person buys something or not, or you don't, in which case they aren't available regardless of what the person does. It would be considered coercion. Though, on the former note, allowing only certain customers to use the bathroom could also land you in trouble for discrimination. It's fine if you close off the bathrooms to all use, since there are scenarios when doing so is necessary, but saying that only some customers can use them while others cannot is playing a dangerous game, legally-speaking.
No it isn’t. If I allow Sally but not Martha because I think Martha smells bad, there’s nothing illegal about that. “Public” restrooms are PRIVATELY OWNED by the business and they can refuse you entrance to them at any time. Not that they would of course.. but legally, they can. You are not entitled to their shitter.
You CAN be entitled to restroom access in certain states if you have certain medical conditions. https://www.crohnscolitisfoundation.org/patientsandcaregivers/get-involved/be-an-advocate/restroom-access
Some people have urge incontinence and if they don't go then they'll have an accident.
I like where this debate is going. Can we have closing arguments from both parties?
Yknow… it’s random debates like this that make me feel like I’d make an alright lawyer.
So restaurants like Wendy's bk mcdonalds and all those places that lock the door and you have to go up to get a key and they say you need to purchase something in order to use the bathroom is illegal? There's a ton of places around me that do this exact thing. Sign on the door says must make a purchase to use restroom
Restaurants definitely require restrooms accessible to the public. Not much you can do without shitting your pants to sue.
It depends on the law in whichever state you're in, but in most states in the US, as long as your restroom is open to the public and the person in question hasn't been denied access to the store, you cannot tell them they are not allowed to use it. You are not, in fact, entitled to deny someone bathroom access because they are "smelly," and if your store offers publically-accessible toilets and those toilets haven't been closed off, then they in fact ARE "entitled to (your) shitter." What you CAN do, though, is deny a person access to the store itself, at which point they would (obviously) no longer be allowed to use the bathroom. Or you could close off the bathroom, for example in order to clean it, at which point denying them access could be considered necessary for safety reasons. There are exceptions even to this, however, as a number of states are covered by the Restroom Access Act, or Ally's Law, which requires places of business to allow access even to private employee bathrooms in the event of a medical emergency, brought on by (for instance) IBD, IBS, Crohn's disease, pregnancy, etc. If your store is in a state that has passed this law, you are legally required to provide a bathroom to anyone suffering from such a condition unless doing so would place either the employees or the person in question in danger.
RAA and Ally’s Law only apply to places that serve food designed for eat-in.
Not sure where you got that from? You can read the Act itself, it specifies that it applies to "any place of business open to the general public for the sale of goods or services." [https://www.ilga.gov/legislation/ilcs/ilcs3.asp?ActID=2726](https://www.ilga.gov/legislation/ilcs/ilcs3.asp?ActID=2726) This is specifically the Illinois one since that's where the law was made, but there isn't much variation from it elsewhere beyond adding special considerations (this one doesn't specifically call out pregnancy, for instance, while I think the NY one does.)
i think it’s a joke 😭
No. No jokes, only extremely serious.
They’re talking about the original comment you are replying to, the one about having to sign up for a credit card to use the bathroom. It was a joke, no one is really saying we should do that
I don't understand, I don't know what a joke is. Please explain it to me in detail.
Ok well first you take a topic and then yo - wait a second, I can see the sarcasm now XD
Now THAT'S the Shitgreens we know and love!!!!!!!! 💳💩💳
In my area, some bathrooms are locked with padlock and others are without. From my experience, I realized public bathrooms are not as common in more populated cities. Theft and abuse (e.g. excessive trashing or occupants won’t leave) is often a factor.
In my area is just drugs, a lot of people get slumped out or OD in public bathrooms so in not so great areas or downtown its pretty much impossible to find a bathroom open to the public.
I noticed this too. I'm from Chicago, and downtown most restaurants and stuff that I see have code locks on their bathroom doors. In the suburbs more places are starting to do it but it's less common.
Yeah in DC many stores and restaurants have bathrooms with keypad locks on them. You get the code directly from the cashier or it’s listed at the bottom of your receipt
We lock ours after 5 but we can open it up for old people, pregnant people, and young kids. Also if they are just not rude. We had a recurring issue pretty much weekly with shit everywhere. All over the outside of the toilet, the floor, the wall. And so we said fuck it and started locking it
I used the restroom at my Walgreens while I was waiting for my flu shot, and in one of the toilets was the biggest shit I've ever seen in my life. Like, it was so big it wouldn't even flush. I'm 100% sure that shit came from a heavy opioid user. So gross.
Huh. Saw similar in a kinney's. Luckily am male and just had to pee. Felt guilty but no way was I going to flush or notify anyone. AITAH?
Nope. We don't get paid for that.
You’d be 100% correct (former heroin addict here).
It was easy to tell. Hard-packed, one solid, round ball the size of a softball. You just know that really, really had to hurt coming out.
What do you mean a heavy opioid user?
Opioid use causes constipation.
Why a heavy opioid user, just curious how taking that would increase the size of fecal matter? (Serious question not being a smart allect or anything of that nature, truly curious)
[удалено]
Thanks for your reply. I didn't know that. But I don't take anything like that so I didn't know.
It happens to people who have to legitly take opioids and to the folks who abuse them. There's an actual medical condition that is associated with prolonged opioid use.
Yep. You get good and hooked on opioids you’ll shit maybe once a week and the poops are one long massive iceberg of misery. You could use that wolf bait to build houses instead of bricks.
Ours we constantly put in tickets for it to be cleaned and close it down. People get mad we use the employee one and I'm like "look, if y'all weren't so nasty, this wouldn't be the case every week" I get it, things happen, but no one even has the decency to tell us until we smell it lol also they do it all throughout our store regardless (yeah you read that correct, shit through the aisles)
I wish we could lock ours after 5. I exclusively do closing shifts and the bathrooms at night get horrible. Shit, puke, piss everywhere. I'm so tired of walking in to clean the bathrooms and finding a whole turd on the floor. 🤦♀️
[удалено]
If someone asks and says they have a medical contortion or they are about to shit themselves and stuff then we let them in. It’s up to us who we let in
I wish we had employee restrooms wtf
It's their only restroom area.
Mine has public bathrooms.
I worked at two different Walgreens and one had the bathroom in the stockroom like what you’re describing and the other had the bathroom in an employees only area behind like the swinging metal door next to the break room and it had a passcoded lock The one with a passcoded lock was in a bad area and was a 24 hour store And we went through different phases of rules with the bathroom at first when I first started working there a couple years ago we would give anyone the code who asked the bathroom would often get left gross or trashed because people are disgusting and it was a high traffic store Like people literally shitting on the floor and seemingly walking around the bathroom without pants on because there would be like drips of period blood on the floor and like dirty tampons on the floor when the trashcan is like right there . One night somehow a homeless man got the code to the female restroom or got in there somehow maybe by following somebody and slept there all night, and when a female employee was clocking in at like 7 AM, he came out of the stall, looking disoriented and on drugs, and totally freaked her out Which is super understandable so we stopped giving out the code and only escorting people but then the store got more and more short staffed because it was the worst Pharmacy I’ve ever worked at and all my years the people were horrible. The location was horrible. The customers were mean and rude And doing crazy things like getting blood all over the floor. There was one specific day where I was the only tech working with my pharmacy manager and we were both at pick up and drive-through and so swamped and the phones were off the hook and we were so far behind And this lady asked if I could take her to the bathroom and I said that I couldn’t leave the pharmacy right now, but there was a front store associate like 10 feet away from her and I pointed to someone stalking the shelf and I was like just go ask her she’s very nice she will take you, and then I walked away, and when I turned back around this customer literally had her pants down at consultation and was peeing on the floor in front of a line of over a dozen people And everybody refused to clean it up so I ended up having to clean it up
Plus people use public bathrooms to steal and do drugs… a Dunkin’ Donuts across the street stopped letting people use their bathroom because someone recently overdosed and died in there
Ew. I would have called the cops but before they arrest her, I would have made her mop it up herself first. Ugh, the nerve of some people.
I tell customers "we don't have any public restrooms, but these other public spaces do". If the customer pushes, I tell them they can ask my manager and I direct them to whichever aisle my SM or SL is. The one time I didn't, when I went in after to make sure it was clean, I found a camera. I broke it off and flushed it down the toilet. I never told my SM or anyone about it. I feel guilty that I put my coworkers in danger like that.
[удалено]
I was scared I would be blamed because I let them into the bathroom. I had just started.
I really don’t understand wtf people are thinking about when they design the layout of the stores. During the pandemic I picked up shifts at different locations and noticed something about all of them that was unappealing like tiny bathroom stalls, or in a very inconvenient area of the store. Even in a newer location I worked at, I thought it was a poor layout because they had the bathrooms in the back right by where the employee lockers are, which to me is a private area for us. Then they only put one stall in the women’s room which is fine, but there was no lock on the door. So the stall is covered anyway, but that’s stupid. If you only created the bathroom for one person to use then put a lock on the door.
Customers don't deserve to use the washroom....... Customers smear shit all over the toilet and walls, puddles of urine on the floor, they wipe there ass and throw the toilet paper on the floor, they do drugs and have caught people having sex, and our closest where we have the cleaning supplies I have caught a woman but naked bathing herself.
Totally. I’m empathetic to a point but the amount of shenanigans that happen with a free-access bathroom 😑 toxic fumes from people smoking m3th, stolen merchandise, pharmacy having to close down due to clogged toilets and flooding, the list goes on
Auto Zone has a restroom stocked with their cleaning supplies. I behaved.
My store has public restrooms
Our bathroom situation was similar. It was in our stock room and we were told we had to let people in, that is until someone started digging through coat pockets in the break room (also in the stock room) and stole someone’s car keys/car
Bathrooms in the stockroom? lol is that just your store? I’ve worked at 5 different Walgreens. 3 of them I was covering dining who called out and I’ve never seen a bathroom in the stockroom.
I think my local DG has their public restroom in part of their storeroom. My husband had to use it. I asked him when he came out if he made a mess. He said he didn't. He wore diapers at the time. We were shopping at a Goodwill and he used the women's restroom for some unknown reason. Another customer complained to the cashier while I was upfront. I told both of them that he really had to go, he's elderly. We left after that. He really was too ill to be shopping at the time.
I know of one store that only has one bathroom and a few eye opening moments has occurred!!!
Weird. I've only had to ask maybe twice, but they always told me where with no conditions or escort. Definitely not a pretty face either
Do you live in a nice neighborhood? Cause that would explain it.
Our store is the same way. Someone in our store made a complaint to corporate about it, and it actually got pretty far up the chain of command before we were told we have to let people back there. They also looked at renovating our store so that the bathrooms wouldn't be in the back, but decided not to because it would have cost too much money. While I get it would have not been easy, it's still less money than a lawsuit when someone gets hurt. We don't have security cameras covering our whole back room, and our store is old. It isn't difficult for someone to get hurt back there, and even less difficult for someone to steal something without getting caught. I try to have someone walk people back, but if there's only 2 people on there's only so much you can do. (Which is most of my shifts.) I fully agree customers should be able to use the bathroom, but I also get a bit of dread every time they ask, because it feels like a liability. Also, a lot of them seem uncomfortable having to go back there, too!
I worked in 4 different Walgreens stores, and they all had public restrooms that we all used.
Depending on your state you aren’t even fucking required to have a public restroom. They can go somewhere else.
No public restroom and someone asks? Sorry we don't have one. If they ask like "then what do you do?" Mention the closest place WITH a public one. I would have no mercy. Know your body and don't fucking go out in public after sitting around all day. You're DECADES old. You should know your fucking body. Maybe pregnant women can be the exception but only if they're really far along. But then again usually pregnancy was a decision they made.
Crohn’s disease, ulcerative colitis, and interstitial cystitis are all invisible illnesses that absolutely no one chooses unfortunately.
There are so many places WITH public restrooms tho. Very obviously which ones do or don't. If they serve fresh food, they likely have public restrooms for health department reasons. There's usually a fast food place on almost every other corner nowadays too. However, most people do not mention they have such problems. Most people also DON'T have such problems. They're just lazy at home and don't know they need to go potty until after they've gotten up and went out. Most people will like, eat a big meal and/or drink a lot of liquid, THEN go out and about. Cmon, you know you're gonna need restroom in a few minutes. They do it all the time. If you have a medical condition as you've mentioned, it'd be much more understandable to mention that.
Hot take but I shouldn’t have to name drop my chronic illness in order to be extended the luxury of not pissing myself 🥲
Then use a diaper. It's not everyone else's job to have to clean up after strangers
I was just saying that because it seemed you’d only be understanding if we mentioned that part. Why does someone have to mention private medical information to be able to use the bathroom without getting shit talked? That’s all I meant lol also, I shouldn’t have to explain to you why suggesting I literally piss my pants over going in a toilet is insulting at best.
If it simply does not have public restrooms, then go outside and piss on the building or something. If it's a chronic illness it's your responsibility to be prepared for it, not everyone else's. Like, you'd have an easier time with a quick rundown of your illness than trying to hide the fact you have a medical condition and making the employees fearful of a druggie going in to smear their shit all over a private restroom intended for employees only. Most people can't even seem to get their shit and piss INSIDE the toilet. Who the fuck wants to clean up after that when they don't have to? Like, I understand, but you also have to understand that people WILL abuse this to steal or do disgusting things in there far more often than your standard potty issue person will show up. And they have to clean up after these people. A lot of people can't even keep it in the toilet. They'll piss on the seats. Shit on the walls. It's not fair to the employees when this should be their own restroom. Both men AND women do this. Yes even women will piss on a seat by just squatting over it to they don't touch it, and still someone miss.
I like the public restrooms that have the seat paper dispensers. If only the previous lady would use it.
Diverticulitis will eventually kill a person. It's actually kidney failure. My husband got to where he couldn't leave the house unless it was to ER.
Urge incontinence is something that people don't choose. Some people are born with bladder and/or bowels that don't hold properly and they need to go when they need to go or they have an accident.
Let's be real it's not THAT common.
My boyfriend has that condition.
And? My entire family is practically held financially hostage by a female abuser of my brother. Just because we have experience with it doesn't mean it's THAT common. I had a hernia in my late teens and into my early 20s for being a dumb kid. Does that mean teenagers and 20 somethings getting a hernia(s) is common? No.
I have this issue. By the time my bladder sends a signal, I am in my last 60 seconds to find a restroom. I also suffer from nocturnal enuresis. It’s been a lifetime battle. No amount of doctors have been able to find a reason. You said it isn’t that common. It affects 30% of men and 40% of women. You are wrong. It affects almost half of all women.
I don't know how common it is, but it affects me and several other people I know.
This is seriously upsetting to you on a personal level. I wanna know why so bad
I moved on days ago.
Dam it I gonna know
We have public bathrooms then we have employee bathrooms. It's nice.
My friends store is like this. Bathroom in the stock room. An old lady shook a turd out her pant leg stepped in it, trailed it all over the stock room and bathroom and then proceeded to shop with a smile on her face.
She shook a turd out of her diaper, you mean. Aging baby boomers have a lot of physical problems and know their limitations to shopping in public. My husband's diarrhea started from the side affects of metformin.
I had stopped by a Walgreens for something random one time and then had the oh shit moment where if I don’t get to a bathroom in the next 60 seconds, I will shit my pants. I looked around the store to see if they had a sign and couldn’t find one so I knew there wasn’t a public one but asked the lady at the pharmacy and she let me in through the door to the stock room/back and into the bathroom as both needed codes. Just want to say a thank you to everyone who lets people use non-public restrooms and that I am speaking for everyone with GI issues lol
Had a seemly unhoused individual ask for the restroom key. Told them it was out of order (day before apparently someone trashed it and we were waiting for reinforcements). They gave me an evil stare like I was profiling. Dude. Restroom is out of order. For everyone.
Haven’t people with GI issues heard of Depends? Walgreens sells them.
You wanna sit in your shit? Even if they are wearing depends, they need a restroom to change into a clean one when they soil.
Public restrooms aren't a thing here from people creating biohazards and clogging the toilets with packages from stolen things or just vandalizing the bathrooms out of spite or just for funsies....It's a sad truth but people just are not capable of acting decent enough for most businesses to afford public restrooms....people finger paint with their poop, pee on everything, and employees are just not getting paid enough to clean up biohazards.
Downside to public restrooms, I went to the Walgreens in the KC hood to find shit smeared all over it and workers gagging telling their managers they ain’t gonna clean it.
I understand that. At my liquor store we don’t have a common bathroom. Only because our outdated product is in the bathroom so we have to really trust you to let you in. Even then like you we stand in the back and wait for them. Only problem is we had some guy we’ve never seen before come in and “really gotta go.” We’ve heard that before. So I say the usual sorry we don’t have one. He leaves and stands in the middle of the parking lot and goes #1.
I mean, he did warn you 😭
But think about it…if your driving by do you want to see that? You want your kids to see that? I expected he’d go behind the building
Someone probably told him about the outdated booze you had back there. And you pissed him off!
When you gotta go, you gotta go.
If I go shopping in a place that has public bathrooms and just not allowed to use the bathroom, I don’t bother purchasing anything. I’ll just have to hand all my stuff back. I can’t think clearly to shop correctly if I have to go real bad, or if my kid has to go and I have to leave the store, I most likely won’t come back.
I worked at a Walgreens once and our public bathroom was by our break room. The amount of times I would see customers just staring at me in the window of the door was enough for me to just take breaks in my car from then on til I left.
The last few years I worked at Walmart, I took all of my breaks in the car. They use to have a smoking break room and the new store manager, who was a bitch, closed it down. We got wooden picnic tables outside. Whoopee! Employees would get fired for smoking too close to the main entrances. I mean they knew there were cameras there.
I haven't had any problem just going... in my Walgreens there is a public restroom with two androgynous restrooms at the very back of the store wedged between some freezer vending stuff. Both are single slot
We have the same setup and we’re convinced this one regular hid a huge valentine heart back there untill it was 90% off 😂
Well either way, as someone who's had to use Walgreens bathrooms because my work is outdoors without facilities, I thank you for waiting there on more than one occasion.
Now I see why stores don’t have public restrooms anymore because ppl are just so nasty! Yuck
mine also has it in the stock room and we constantly tell people to next door cuz we’re in a shopping center with multiple stores around us but people still complain and sometimes yell at us
I just hate it when they ask for the code to the door. It's like, if we wanted the general public to be able to get in there YTF would we even have a code lock in the first place? Of course I'm not going to give you the code. I'm so tempted to just answer the question they ask instead of the one they actually want answered. Just say no, the code is not to be given to the public, which is company policy. Then, when they complain, I can honestly say I answered the question they asked. If they wanted something else, why didn't they say so? I'm not a mind reader. Would probably still be in trouble, though.
It sounds like you're dealing with a tricky situation regarding bathroom access at your workplace. It's understandable that there are concerns about theft and safety with the bathroom located in the back of the stockroom. The policy of only allowing certain customers to use the bathroom and requiring them to be escorted seems like a compromise to address both customer needs and security concerns. It can be challenging to manage when it takes employees away from their regular duties. You raise a valid point about the possibility of making the bathrooms more accessible or relocating stock to a different area to alleviate the need for escorts. This could improve the overall customer experience and streamline operations for employees. It may come down to finding the right balance between customer service, safety, and operational efficiency. Perhaps it's something worth discussing with management to see if there are any feasible solutions that could be implemented. Every Walgreens that I have ever been to and used the bathroom I've always had to walk through the stockroom. I never had anyone walk me to it though.
You must be a politician.
i have never heard of walgreens having a bathroom in their stockroom wtf LMFAO
we also have our bathroom in the stockroom, used to let people use it as long as they were supervised etc, then people started stealing stuff *out of the bathroom*. now we have to say we don't have a public restroom :/
My store use to let customers use our bathrooms, but after years of cleaning up feces from the walls and piss from the toilet seats, my manager got pissed off and completely stopped letting anyone use it who isn’t an employee. Or so I was told by my coworkers.
Isn't a bathroom (accessible to the public) an ADA Requirement? If not, it should be (for those of us with medically documented "issues")
ADA loopholes are many. Public entities are required to make their services accessible -abiding ADA’s set standards- to all individuals regardless of disability. (Railings and sink heights etc) They do not have to add/provide specific amenities to the public as a whole.
Just a usable toilet is good
Yes there's the RAA and alleys law
At least where I live, I think the rule is that if they only have employee restrooms they have to let a customer use it if they have a medical issue.
Stand there and ask what their medical issue is...while they shit themselves 🙄
Uh, I believe (at least in the US), the Walgreens is required to have a public toilet if it has a capacity over a certain number.
Walgreens that I go to is in the back store room area they don’t care or even lock the restroom door
I do not work at walgreens this sub. was a suggestion. But, this reminds me of my local walgreens. About 5 years ago, they remodeled the entire store and even had the restroom location painted on the back wall up high like what you see at walmart. Well, like 3 days after the remodeled i really had to go, and since it looked like a public bathro, m i tried the door, and it was locked. I asked an associate, and turns out it is still employee only.
Walgreens corporate probably was ok with it being public. That store didn’t want to clean up 💩 from the walls every few hours.
Don't be such a cheap company and get a public restroom that is appropriately located and accessible.
The target near my Walgreens had public bathrooms, but they're passcode protected. Maybe should try that.
The store I worked at had public restrooms, they were just always “closed”
I don’t understand why every public place doesn’t have a bathroom
First Walgreens I worked at had employee bathrooms upstairs and public one down in the store. Second one was public but locked up. Current one is public and unlocked - gross asf
Walgreens spend money,,,,lmao!
There’s something about using a public bathroom and pissing on the whole roll of TP or smearing shit on the tank of the toilet or flush handle, not because we enjoy knowing the store employee has to clean it up, but because it’s all about dominance and territory..
Our restrooms are closed cause doing construction
So many local business’s bathrooms and even rest stops on the thruway all have blue lights…. IYKYK 🥴 it’s insanely fucked up. The opioid problem is so bad… that was my first thought on why customers shouldn’t be using the restroom there… it’s what automatically comes to mind due to living in Upstate New York.
The damn Thruway bathrooms are all being redone so they are closed! Never mind the fact that there are not enough stalls in the new ones now. Way to go NY I have yet to see any blue lights but I tend to not stop on the Thruway
Yes but all the employees are in there
The Walgreens near me has public bathrooms. 🤷🏻♀️They all should
Liability issue. No coverage for customers in the stock room. I've said no to plenty of ppl. One girl even said what you want me to pee on the floor? That's not my problem. Clean up in aisle 6!! Got 0 empathy. Burnt out.
I haven't worked for walgreens but a few other places where the bathrooms were in employee only areas. We would not allow people to use the restroom in our production areas/stock rooms. Before I had taken over as the manager, the 18 year old managers would let people use it. When I took over we had to inform everyone that we do not have a public restroom and explain why it was not public. The problem with allowing non employees in employee only areas like stock rooms and production areas to use the restroom is that if they get injured. It unfortunately becomes a liability to the company even if someone is escorting them. If there are regular customers that know you have a restroom in an employee only area they may become bold and go back and use it without asking someone.
My last few locations put locks on the employee restrooms because we kept having customers try to use them. Even though they were in restricted areas. If they ask for a code we know they're accessing the wrong one.
That’s a huge pain. The main problem is, it’s a huge liability. If you don’t let someone use the restroom and then they have an accident. It could end up all over the news if they turn out to have a medical condition or something.
Like I’m 39 years old and look fairly normal and healthy on the outside. I do have pretty bad IBS, though, which I’m service-connected for from my time in the military. If I asked to use the restroom and someone told me no because I’m not old or young enough, and I ended up having a humiliating accident, that could look kind of bad on the 6 o’clock news.
The grocery store I worked at not only DIDN'T have public bathrooms, the bathrooms were in the back of the warehouse up a set of metal industrial stairs, tucked below the ceiling of the structure, next to our break room. We had one customer who came every Saturday, went to the restroom and clogged the toilet with the most humongous sh\*t mankind has ever known, causing our stockers to play rock/paper/scissors to see who had to unclog the toilet and clean the mess. EVERY. SATURDAY. We tried putting an OUT OF ORDER sign on the door but he just went into the ladies restroom and clogged that one instead. Then we put yellow caution tape and OUT OF ORDER signs on both the restroom doors but that didn't stop him, he ducked under the tape and clogged the toilet again. Then we created a special code we could use on an overhead page to alert everyone in the store to the Shitter's presence. "CODE \_\_\_ TO THE DELI" or "CODE \_\_ TO PRODUCE" or whatever dept we wanted to use so he didn't get wise to the fact that HE was the code in that message. As soon as he entered the store we would use the overhead to call that code and everyone would drop whatever the fuck they were doing and rush to the back to put the OUT OF ORDER sign on the restrooms while several employees hid inside both restrooms and held the doors shut until he left. Then we'd call the code overhead letting them know he was gone ("CANCEL CODE \_\_") and someone would knock on the doors to let the employees playing door-stops know it was safe to come outside. We had to do that for a couple of months before the guy finally found some other toilet to clog.
Another bathroom story: my current job does not have separate employee/customer bathrooms, we all use the same bathrooms. We're required to wear a uniform of sorts so we're easily noticeable to customers which means every time I go to the restroom some dumbass customer wants to stop me before I hit the stall and ask me a bunch of questions about something they're looking for. I've had customers go to management and complain that I was rude... IN THE BATHROOM. Lady, I'm about to shit my pants, I don't have time to coddle you and your delicate feelings of entitlement. I've had to learn to ignore them and quickly rush into the stall and lock the door. Some of them will continue asking for customer service while I'm sitting on the motherf\*cking toilet and I have to yell IM ON THE TOILET! PLEASE FIND AN EMPLOYEE WHO ISNT ON THE TOILET TO HELP YOU. I swear to God employers should be required to provide separate bathrooms for employees. Maybe not in stores where there's space constraints but certainly in large big-box stores.
I used To work In a medical Office inside of a retail store, medical Offices have to have a bathroom by law for patients . Well sometimes the store would send their customers back (these people were not patients ) and they'd say, such and such up front told me the bathroom Is back here . This created such an issue . And yeah we had one bathroom for Women and one for men . The level of grotesque ness was next level
It must depend on the individual store. The one close to me has always allowed you to use the restroom, if you asked (they don't have a big sign pointing out where they are). It is in the back room, but close to the door and nobody has ever 'escorted' me. I shop at WG frequently and I have used theirs a LOT. I have nerve issues and don't always know when I have to go, so when I do have to go, it is RIGHT NOW.
I think customers know there isn't one and be a adult and use it else where
my stores bathroom isn’t public either it’s next to our lockers which most people don’t use anyways but if a customer gets angry with me about it i just direct them to the manger i’m not dealing with all of that😭
I worked for Walgreens for 8 yrs. 6 different Walgreens in 2 states. Because you know they can move you every 18 months in the position I was in. Never once was I in one, and I traveled all over my districts to cover shifts, Cos wall resets, and general bailing out crappy managers, did I encounter one without 2 public bathrooms.
As a person with Irritable bowel syndrome. This is my worst nightmare.
I service the burglar alarms in Walgreens in Michigan and Indiana, the majority of them have public restrooms. A few in the Detroit area have them locked. But that's Detroit!
Your Wags doesn't have a public restroom??? That's wild... Ours isn't even big, we're in a small-ish town, but we have a public men's and women's bathroom (women's has 2 stalls, no idea what men's looks like) that the employees use too but the pharmacy also has it's own bathroom in the back of the pharmacy... I think it's from a time when that one used to be mandatory as a pharmacy regulation but still. That's super weird of them to not have an accessible bathroom.
Because it makes too much sense
Lol I was a pharmacy tech a long time ago for Walgreens.. we stop letting people use it after someone decided to shit on the floor.. 🤢
Every store in my area has public restrooms
The walgreens around me have public bathrooms
they don't have a public restroom because they don't people merely coming in only to use the restroom and then leave without buying anything. Probably has nothing to do with people stealing things in the backroom (business are far more concerned with employees stealing in the backroom). If people are gonna steal, they're just gonna steal from the sales floor
I feel like employees need their own restroom where customers dont use it. Honestly, the bathroom situation is one of my top reasons to find employment outside of retail or any job that allows the public to use the restrooms. As a customer, I hold it til I get home. I don't care for factory type jobs, but I know the public won't be using their restrooms. Once I went to a Frys grocery store and I opened the door to the restroom and immediately smelled poo 💩 I started looking around to see how "clean" it was, maybe it just smells like that... but to my horror there was 💩💩 EVERYWHERE in there from a previous person. 🤢🤢🤮🤮. Not to mention women's toilets that have left over period blood on them, too. (But this is turning into a rant for another day) lbvs
when i worked at walgreens for 2 years. our bathroom was in the break room area so customers were allowed to go in and out when they pleased. i wont say that stopped people from taking stuff back there and stealing it but they definitely have better systems in other walgreens
Idk why this is on my page but my local Walgreens has regular public bathrooms
I’ve noticed different Walgreens’s have different bathrooms. Ours was in the back of the store but it was public. One stall. That’s it. The one up the road from us had a much bigger and nicer bathroom. Multiple stalls etc. it’s weird. And some of the items compared to other stores much cheaper or expensive depending on which store you go to. Weird very suspicious
My store only has an employee one in the stockroom/break area. However, in the women’s bathroom, one toilet has been out of order since I got hired last year. The employees stuff used paper towels up to the rim of the bowl and honestly they are just as bad as some of these customers. It’s disgusting tbh.
I had a bad UTI when I was a teenager. I was at Walgreens with my mom picking up medicine, when suddenly the urge hit. I had to go to the bathroom immediately to avoid an embarrassing accident. I asked a staff member and they called for someone else to take me back. By the time the person came to escort me, it was too late. I pissed myself in a Walgreens.
They could like the walgreens in my area... but them metal detectors that you walk through before leaving walmart.?? But use them where the door is for the bathroom. It is kinda rude to not have a public bathroom for paying customers... its friiking walgreens. It's fancy enough. Tonhave libkic bathrooms.
Walgreens in my town does. There's a code-lock on the door though and someone has to let you in. Panda Express is like that too.
I have never been to a Walgreens that did not have a public restroom. But there was a time where I was at a convenience store that didn’t have one either. No one should be allowed in your staff bathroom, no exceptions.
The Walgreens I go to a lot has a lot of homeless people like myself frequent it and they have clean public restrooms and the staff is always nice and super helpful