Starbucks may close its bathrooms to the public again

It&#x27;s always a shame when ideologically motivated policy doesn&#x27;t line up with reality. Bathrooms are closed to non-customers because the burden of dealing with the occasional mentally ill drug addict isn&#x27;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&#x27;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&#x27;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:&#x2F;&#x2F;duckduckgo.com&#x2F;?q=tokyo+homeless&amp;hps=1&amp;iax=images&amp;ia=images" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;duckduckgo.com&#x2F;?q=tokyo+homeless&amp;hps=1&amp;iax=images&amp;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.

&gt; Schultz has said in the past Starbucks didn’t need unions...<p>Of course not. Unions aren&#x27;t for the corporation, they&#x27;re for the masses being screwed by the corporations.

Text-only version:<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;lite.cnn.com&#x2F;en&#x2F;article&#x2F;h_e596a4452e66f1c24519e7badbfa7fc1" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;lite.cnn.com&#x2F;en&#x2F;article&#x2F;h_e596a4452e66f1c24519e7badb...</a>

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&#x27;s Chelsea Boudin and others who tried to be permissive with the homeless.

This sucks. While traveling across Europe McDonald&#x27;s and Starbucks&#x27;s bathrooms have been such a boon to us when we needed one in a pinch and there wasn&#x27;t a paid for one near by. We&#x27;ve always bought something to thank them for the services but that they&#x27;re there to use even if we didn&#x27;t pay them is really, really nice. I can imagine they&#x27;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&#x27;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&#x27;ve had to use a Starbucks bathroom they&#x27;ve been immaculate -- likely because some poor employee had to keep them so.

Already done. Long ago.<p>Within two months of Starbucks&#x27; 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&#x27; increasing hostility toward human beings is the reason I no longer go there for myself. Only when I&#x27;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!

What is really missing in American cities are public bathrooms, like in Europe. Pay 25 cents and you get 5 min.