I work at a local coffeeshop. For a time, the customer restroom was out of order, and some customers really didn't like to hear that. We have an employee restroom exclusive to the baristas, but some people would barge through to it as if it was a public restroom and ignored the signage. We now block off the entrance to that restroom with a heavy table, which isn't a perfect solution to exclude people from using it, but it works the vast majority of the time. It seems a lot of people think that restrooms should be provided as public goods by private businesses, and now that the customer restroom is fixed, we are noticing many people go back to use it who aren't customers.
It is legal in most states for businesses to exclude people from using their restroom if the person is not a paying customer. Although, exclusion becomes more infeasible depending on how many people frequent a business, and this is a problem where I work. However, public restrooms are rivaled in consumption and access to a restroom could not be a pure public good, even if restricting access was completely illegal. The more people who use a restroom, the worse the experience will be for people trying to use it as time goes on until it is cleaned. There can also be a wait to use it, depending on the place. One survey says that 64% of Americans make the choice to be a patron at a business that provides a cleaner restroom over one that doesn't, and this is only possible by exclusion. Therefore, I personally don't believe that businesses should have to provide restrooms to the general public.
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It is an obvious fact that going to the restroom is one of the most essential necessities for every human being. The government is unable to provide enough public restrooms in city centers which propose an important problem of how to meet this urgent need without interfering the private property rights. The federal law states that all businesses are required to provide restrooms for employees. Also in most states, staff are required to unlock restrooms if any occupant asks.
First of all, I believe that businesses providing public-facing spacing of a certain size should be required by law to provide a restroom for customers. It should be the government’s responsibility to specify this size by taking into consideration both society’s and business owners’ benefits. On the other hand, I don’t believe It would be fair for businesses to provide public bathroom while the cost associated with it greatly exceeds the benefit. To solve this problem, officials in Santa Fe, New Mexico, initiated a program called happy toilet where business owners are voluntarily providing free public bathrooms in exchange for compensation from the city. In addition to the compensation, business owners’ expect more customer traffic, especially from the older population, because they don’t have to worry about finding a restroom anymore and spend as much time as they desire. As a result, this program may be the optimal solution for the restroom problem as it increases both society’s and business owners’ marginal benefit without increasing the cost greatly.
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