It's always a shame when ideologically motivated policy doesn't line up with reality. Bathrooms are closed to non-customers because the burden of dealing with the occasional mentally ill drug addict isn't worth the risk or expense. This was just as true a few years ago when the policy was changed as it is now, when it has been quietly changed back.<p>We can't have nice things because not enough of us are nice people. In places like Japan, where people are fundamentally more well-behaved, they <i>can</i> have nice things. I dare someone to ask why Japan doesn't have a problem with violent, drug-addicted, vagrants.
I got stuck overnight in LA last year. Booked a hotel near the airport. Woke up early the next morning and walked a few blocks to a Starbucks.<p>An old homeless man wandered in, wearing filthy clothing but brand new white sneakers that someone had presumably donated. Speaking loudly to himself about something. Fished around in his jacket for a while and produced some kind of gift card, and ordered a coffee. Then walked to the corner of the store and took a piss on the floor.<p>An unsolvable problem for the most “progressive” state in the richest country in the world, apparently.
As a longtime resident of Tokyo, I commuted through Shinjuku station. The long pedestrian underpass from the station had a strong odor of urine and was filled with people living in cardboard boxes. And it is not just Tokyo. Poverty is everywhere.<p><a href="https://duckduckgo.com/?q=tokyo+homeless&hps=1&iax=images&ia=images" rel="nofollow">https://duckduckgo.com/?q=tokyo+homeless&hps=1&iax=images&ia...</a><p>.
So sad how small segments of our population can ruin good things for others.<p>Wish we as a society could meaningfully discuss these sorts of issues, our inability to tackle reality hurts everyone
That’s so weird to read, in Western Europe you just ask someone working there for a code to open the door and can use Starbucks bathrooms freely (or you get it printed on your bill if you bought something). In some countries you have a small fee to pay if you’re not consuming anything, for example 0.5€ is common in Germany.<p>I couldn’t really imagine to not have access to bathrooms, it’s such a critical thing.
> Schultz has said in the past Starbucks didn’t need unions...<p>Of course not. Unions aren't for the corporation, they're for the masses being screwed by the corporations.
A good lesson to be learned here about public opinion. Bathrooms were reopened after people raised an outcry over a perceived racial injustice. At the height of such outcrys in the USA. Now, that movement has faded, and at the same time, the public is turning against San Francisco's Chelsea Boudin and others who tried to be permissive with the homeless.
This sucks. While traveling across Europe McDonald's and Starbucks's bathrooms have been such a boon to us when we needed one in a pinch and there wasn't a paid for one near by. We've always bought something to thank them for the services but that they're there to use even if we didn't pay them is really, really nice. I can imagine they'd be a horror to clean if abused. I used to clean bathrooms, golf carts, and pick range balls in in high school for a local mid-priced golf range and it was the bathrooms that I always dreaded. They were always disgusting -- and you couldn't use them unless you paid to play nine holes or bought golf balls to hit. Imagine how bad a free toilet might be -- then again, every time I've had to use a Starbucks bathroom they've been immaculate -- likely because some poor employee had to keep them so.
Already done. Long ago.<p>Within two months of Starbucks' big attention-grabbing press release about public bathrooms and charging points, the Starbucks where I lived installed keypad locks on the restrooms and bolted metal covers over all of the power outlets.<p>Recently, the Starbuckses where I live have removed all of the seating, and now refuse to give water to homeless people.<p>Starbucks' increasing hostility toward human beings is the reason I no longer go there for myself. Only when I'm picking up something for my wife.<p>There are even Starbucks locations now that are drive-through only, with the sidewalk-facing side just a door for the employees and a lot of blacked out glass where a cafe should be. Great way to destroy a neighborhood, Starbucks!