To be Angry with b&q

[Pregbabe]

Hi I am 31 weeks pregnant and yesterday was in b&q doing some shopping. I was bursting for a wee so asked the female staff member if there were any toilets, she said staff ones only and I couldn't use them. I had run across to Morrisons on the other side of the retail park.

Even in my high end retail store, our back of house was a mess. Think rails upon rails in the disabled toilets (we had other toilets & no disabled staff though, just used as storage cause it was massive), cans of paint, rails in cable ties, store sinage, boxes and boxes of crap, security tags, ridiculous amount of trash, hanger boxes etc like it wouldn’t be fit for the public but staff wouldn’t really care

They’re not a good establishment, they don’t need to provide toilets.

I’d hate to think what B&Q would have laying around in their back of house, as in faulty saws/potential hazards. Most definitely a potential insurance issue for them. Wouldn’t be surprised if ‘one of those’ customers would happily seize the opportunity to feign illness.

Not a food establishment*

I needed to go and asked in a smallish Waitrose in Kent. The loo was down a steep staircase but a member of staff came with me and was polite and helpful.
On the other hand an Oxfam shop I'd taken a donation to flatly refused and sent me down the road to Sainsbury', I just got there in time.
Worst was the unpleasant and bossy woman at Birmingham Town Hall who had a private function and no compassion at all. The loos are quite near the entrance and normally available, the hall has concerts and people can go in for coffee etc. most days. She said I had to go to the Art Gallery some distance away. She deserved a wet carpet!

Also our staff room, locker room, cash/admin office, managers office & stockrooms among back of house for the entire shopping centre were all accessible by the same corridor as where the toilets are located - it’s just not the place for the public.

It’s not mean it’s risking their job. Do people that work in an office let the public in off the street to use the loo? What about banks? If a pregnant woman knocked on your front door would you just let her use the toilet?

The assistant was clear that she had to escort us to the loos and wait with us. I doubt she was breaking any rules, it wasn't a case of 'i shouldn't really, but I will just this once.' And had she said no to us, we would have understood perfectly.

Of course, they may have had a different policy at OP's B&Q. If I was the customer assistant and I thought someone was desperate, I would ask the supervisor if we can make an exception.

I’d hate to think what B&Q would have laying around in their back of house, as in faulty saws/potential hazards. Most definitely a potential insurance issue for them. Wouldn’t be surprised if ‘one of those’ customers would happily seize the opportunity to feign illness.

Um, no. It was just an empty corridor that led to male and female toilets. The female toilets had 3 cubicles, basins etc etc.

It was all perfectly neat and tidy.

The assistant was clear that she had to escort us to the loos and wait with us. I doubt she was breaking any rules, it wasn't a case of 'i shouldn't really, but I will just this once.' And had she said no to us, we would have understood perfectly.

Perhaps that particular B&Q was set up to have the loos just off the shop floor so taking a customer is not as much of an issue as the OP's situation?

In my current store to get to the staff loos you have to cross the warehouse, along the security corridor, up two flights of stairs, through the break room, through the separate mens/womens locker room and to the loos.

In the branch I worked in before this one (same company, different location) if you walked through the "employee only" doors you would be in a tiny corridor (entirely covered by cameras) with the clocking on machine; a coded door (which lead up stairs to the canteen/offices/locker rooms etc); two separate loos - one male, one female; and the door to the outer warehouse down at the end.

In my current store there's no way in hell I would risk taking a customer to the staff loo under any circumstance because it's not worth the risk, both from the customer getting injured and the security issues. In my old store I wouldn't volunteer to take someone to the staff loos but if there was an emergency situation then to get to the staff loo they would have to take 5/6 steps into the employee area (with zero risk of coming into contact with dangerous machinery, boxes, stock, equipment etc) which is much less of a risk (both from a security standpoint and a H&S standpoint.)

I once let a guy use our toilets in the (very small) shop I worked in. He said he was desperate. He was in there about 20 minutes and the mess he left behind had me gagging. He had got shit up the walls. And we didn’t have cleaners, so that job fell to me.

Not suggesting this was your plan (!) but there’s no chance I’d say yes again after that.

What the hell!

In all the 40+ yrs I have lived in the U.S. I don’t think I have been in one store that didn’t have public restrooms/toilets. Even the little tiny craft shop has 2 little tiny loos for their customers to use.

I can’t imagine a business being so rude as to not let you use their toilets. There seems to be a lot of people defending the business by saying it is an liability issue to have customers go in the back amongst pallets and boxes, but why the hell didn’t the company build a nice facilities such as Lowes, the Home Depot, Walmart etc has here?

The UK pretends to be all about ‘human rights’ at the same time expecting pregnant women, and all the rest of you, to suffer.

While I’m on a rant; in the U.S. every business/public place has to be handicapped accessible and when I have been wheelchair bound I have managed get around with no problem. BUT when I’m in the U.K. I am prevented from going many places because of curbs and stairs/steps. It is shameful. So much for human rights.

I used to get flack from customers when I refused to let them use our toilet and it really annoyed me. Management were clear that due to their being no insurance, no members of the public could use the toilet. When I explained politely why I had to refuse to those who asked, I often got grief I was not going to risk my job by saying yes.

So if you let a pregnant woman in he staff area to use the toilets and at the end of the day someone’s purse was missing from their handbag, or the til was down £10, who would be responsible? The person who escorted them in. They would be sacked for Gross misconduct as their direct actions led to a robbery. The insurance wouldn’t pay out so the poor lass who’s purse is missing would have to pay to replace all her cards, her purse, whatever else she had in there, cancel her credit and debit cards etc. The company won’t pay a penny. Why should they? They had policies and procedures in place and they weren’t followed.

It’s one of the few occasions where the company is prioritising it’s staff over its customer, and you know what? The staff deserve it. Their entire job is the bend over backwards for you in one way, shape or another, just let them keep their toilets and BOH areas safe!

When I worked in retail, it would have taken longer to walk to the staff toilets than it would to go elsewhere tbh.

OliviaStabler

People will always have time to argue the fact, no matter how desperate they are!

Yabu

Staff toilets are just that. I don't want to share them with the public and often they are in a place that is less than ideal. You can't have staff leaving the floor/counter using the toilets all the time.

Customers won't be insured either

And im.sorry but members of the public are revolting and it's bad enough having to deal with needles, shit, sorry underwear and graffiti on the customer toilets without having staff loos soiled too

My local B&Q has a single all-purpose loo 👍🏻, Screwfix let me use the staff loo (no problems/escorts/accidents that weren’t my fault/theft/sodomy/or cruelty to animals happened. I just had a lovely wee, said thank you & left.

Lost jobs? All day escort duty? Accidents with random unplugged in tools? FFS, get a grip!!

charolais wellbit might be something to do with the stupid compensation culture which has spread over here from the UNITED STATES

Also .... the word ‘handicapped’ .... you forward thinking, oh so superior Americans actually still use that word??

FFS, get a grip!!

Its not us that need to get the grip surely

Its the relevant stores

In my shop there is a policy of not letting customers in the toilet...i could get into a lot of trouble (i did it once when i was alone in the store)

Luckily for all our customers there is a public one very near by

A colleague in another store was berated by a customer for not letting them use the toilet. Problem was there wasnt a toilet in the shop, but the customer was still very angry

Funny. OP has only ever posted twice on MN (under that name, at least), both yesterday and both moaning about something. Her other thread is moaning about the dinner lady at her child's school.

Presumably it was another staff member and not that dinner lady who allowed her to use the toilets at the school, otherwise she wouldn't be moaning about her on here.

Angry Americans , human rights, poo trolls, mystic megs guide to genuine wee'ers - this thread is a gift that keeps giving 😂

Yabu op

This thread is an interesting insight in to how retail workers think. I suppose they are good at their jobs because they abide by the rules, which obviously is what the management want.

It’s NO insight into how ‘retail workers think’

Things have changed a lot since I was pg with DS1.

Then I only had to ask to use the loo, people were so nice about it.

Im very at all these people who have a customer base so lovely that they wouldn't think twice.

Where I work customers destroyed one set of loos the other has to be kept locked to try and prevent them from being abused and some places have even gone so far as carpet on the sistern.

The public would not be anywhere near the staff rooms