You wanna know what grinds my gears?
Stores that don't allow paying customers to use their restrooms...
This has become something of a personal crusade of mine...
Here in The City That Used To Know How, there is an ordinance
requiring that stores allow paying customers to use their restrooms...
But every now and then I run into some brain dead moron unwilling to extend this simple basic courtesy...(usually in drugstores like a Walgreens, but occasionally also at gas stations, or even in fast food restaurants downtown)
An exchange I had at the checkout counter at a Walgreens on Market Street, not too long ago, during this past holiday season:
Me: I'd like to use your restroom please.
Idiot: We don't have a bathroom
Me: Really? Where do you go? (I'd been down this road before...)
Idiot: Well....uh..we don't have a public bathroom...
Me: Is that a fact? Are you aware of the fact that you are required by law to provide a restroom for paying customers?
Idiot: We don't have a public bathroom.
Me: I guess I didn't speak clearly enough.
YOU ARE REQUIRED BY LAW TO PROVIDE A RESTROOM TO PAYING CUSTOMERS....
Idiot: We don't have a restroom.
Me: Let me speak to the manager.
Idiot Manager: Sir, we don't not have restrooms for the public.
Me; Okay then, (pulling my cell phone out of my pocket) I guess I'll just have to call the police and bring them over here and then let them know that in violation of city law, you are refusing to provide me with a restroom...
Idiot Manager: Okay, okay you can use the bathroom, (he then finally produces a key and hands it to me) but this is the only time.
Me: So you're telling me that you'll follow the law
this time, but if I ask you again another time you won't follow the law?
Idiot Manager: Sir, the bathroom is at the back at the end of aisle 3.
Me: (Taking the key) Thank you. But I want you to know that if I come here again making the same request, I will expect you to extend this basic courtesy and follow the law on that occasion as well. And no one should have to go to the extent I just went to to get you to do what you should have done in the first place.
(And no one in the line complained about what I did; in fact one lady came up to me and told me it was about time somebody responded the way I did)
I have made a personal point of stopping at that Walgreens several time since then when I've been in that part of town, and picking up a couple of things and asking to use the restroom...
On one occasion I went through a similar routine...the other times the original Idiot Manager was on duty, and I was immediately given the key....
Clueless middle-aged woman is waiting in the express line (15 items or less) with a cart full of items. There are other checkers open, but it seems this woman is too gawdammed lazy and inconsiderate and wishes to inconvenience others that are waiting in line behind her. I point this out to her (I was politie and mentioned that if she knew that this line was for 15 items or less?).
She let me go in front of her (GREAT!) and then steps right behind me. I call this to the checker's attention that there is a woman with obviously more than 15 items in the so-called express line and there are now three people behind her.
Been there, done that....
The obnoxious "me first" oaf who figures they'll get behind the person who has the nerve to complain and then take advantage of the other folks who wont speak up...
On those occasions, I've told them, " No, I'm sorry, (ma'am/sir) you have to go to another line"...(and more than once I've helped them guide their basket out of the line...I don't really blame the checkers...they're told to avoid confrontations...it's the managements fault...and I've gone to the managers to complain about it)
It should
not be the case that the only way one can get the decent, civil service I grew up with as a matter of common expectation, is if one is willing to be as obnoxious and determined an asshole as
I am prepared to be....
It should
not be the case that only people who are prepared to stand up aggressively for decent service are the only ones who receive it...
Every person,
every customer, should be entitled to that level of consideration and service; not just those of who are willing to stand up and demand what should be common treatment for everyone.
