To expect Mothercare to allow my dd to do a wee in their loo

[snickersnack]

Mothercare, people. Whose mission, apparently, is to "meet the needs and aspirations of parents for their children". Well, today, my need was to find somewhere for dd (4) to do a wee when she announced she needed to do one in the (extremely long and slow moving) queue to pay. My aspiration was for her not to do it on the floor of Mothercare. Would the sour faced misery behind the tills let me use the loo? No - apparently it is "not for customers". Winner of the Tomy Let's Get Baby Friendly Awards my arse.

I feel a stiff letter to customer servicdes coming on. Particularly as the very nice man in Halfords next door let me use the staff loo there instead.

how many members of staff were there by the way? Can you look at it from another customers point of view as well?
The queue is slow moving, you've been waiting a long time with your child/ your bump and soemone asks to use the loo. It is in a secured area off the shop floor- possibly up a double flight fo stairs, which means that a member of staff has to leave the tills- and slow moving queue- to take you and your child off the floor and then wait with you for God only nows how long until your child has finished before escorting you back onto the sales floor. Queue slows down even more and has grown in that time.
What would you be doing, honestly if that was the case?

most mothercares i have been in have had toilets thank goodness for man in halfords i guess

What about pregnant women then? I thought no-one was allowed to refuse a pg woman - does H&S have a clause excluding them?!

YANBU

Mothercare are awful and their customer service is some of the worst I've come across. I asked for help carrying a heavy stairgate to my car when I was approx 35 weeks pg with ds1. They didn't have any working trolleys (lots of battered, defective ones). They refused to do so on health and safety grounds and looked at me like I was a total loon for making this request. Since then I've refused to buy anything there.

It wasn't that they wouldn't let me use the staff loo if it goes against H&S regulations. I understand that. It's the fact that they have set up a store in which 95% of your customers are either pregnant or with small children in tow without an accessible loo. Whether that's on the shop floor and open to everyone without asking, or having the staff loo in a place that can be accessed by customers easily - surely that's just a given. And there were lots of staff around. They were folding stuff and loitering. It's what they do in our local Mothercare. Rather than actually serving customers.

Health and Safety? Really? What part of the Health and Safety Act?

Its insurance actually, members of the public are not covered to be in staff only areas.
We closed our customer toilet 3 years ago and now use it as a stock room. Got sick to the back teeth of members of the public using it to steal stock, take drugs, I had found needles on numerous occasions, leaving dirty nappies open messy side down on the floor and once someone tried to set fire to it, that was the last straw and it got closed.
If we are not busy, ie havent got a slow moving queue then I will escort a desperate toddler and their parent up the 3 flights of stairs and allow them to use the staff toilet, same goes for pregnant women, once they get to the top they tend to regret asking though...