Originally Posted by Rodney

It's been a long time since I worked retail -- actually, food service in this case -- but I totally sympathize, LPM. 30 years on, my blood pressure still rises when I remember certain customers.

I do understand some people being upset about there being no restroom. But you're not the one at fault. You just work there. They have to deal.

That said, I perfectly understand why some coffee houses do not have public restrooms. Here in Santa Cruz we have a number of coffee houses and a young and mobile population. A couple of coffee houses have closed their restrooms to all customers because of what goes on in there -- constant damage, shooting up, drug dealing, and so on.

We've got one bookstore owner here in town who lets _anybody- use his restrooms, as a political statement. After a while, he was incurring 1000-2000/month in repairs and maintenance, and the place still stunk. Finally, he spent I-don't-know how much money and had the restroom walls and floors redone in _stone_, migawd, that can't be easily scratched, graffitized, stained, or broken. So yes, I understand why some businesses don't want to bother with that.