MN High Street Changing Rooms Marking System

[Oxytocindeficient]

As a follow-on from the Matalan changing room post, some thought we could devise some kind of marking system for changing rooms in high street stores.

I have no real idea how best to do so. Here are some thoughts. A marking system from 1-5, with 1 being poor or insufficient and 5 being excellent

1. Sex segregated? 1 for unisex, 5 for sex not gender segregated
2. Design Safety- consider: is there a curtain or door? is the door lockable? Is the door and walls floor to ceiling or are their gaps which could permit predators to film you?
3. Staff Attendance- consider, are staff on-hand to monitor those access changing rooms, are they capable of dealing with predatory people, could they hear you if you were in trouble?
4. Security- follow on from above, does the store have proper security nearby to the changing rooms should they need to apprehend someone misusing the changing facilities or harassing customers
5. Position of Mirrors- consider, do customers need to exit their changing area to check garment in a mirror? Are you observable by others as you check yourself in a mirror?

I’m happy to have anyone suggest better categories or a totally different way of doing it! I thought we could use this thread to share photos and ratings. As the OP I could update regularly with full lists of rated stores?

Any and all suggestions or ideas are welcome

If you could get this widely accepted, it would force stores to up their game or lose customers. Women would head to the shops with properly segregated rooms, with full doors to the floor and ceiling for complete privacy and security. The “gender neutral” woke shops would become a customer free zone, apart from the odd TRA popping in to grandstand in the women’s room.
Personally, I think high street shops are doomed anyway as we will all shop online. Having to share a changing room with men is just the last straw after limited stock, limited sizes, poor choice, parking costs etc.

Has anyone asked the shopworkers' union their view on this?
www.usdaw.org.uk
Bear in mind it's also a haven for shoplifters, who underpaid shop staff are expected to deal with and whose costs affect their jobs directly. (And the police have made it publicly known they won't even attend if the total is under a few hundred quid).
Plus of course not having a changing room attendant means losing a job per store.

I'll just leave this here!

Thanks Sandy!

Regular room checks, for hygiene and cleanliness etc. (The number of wanted on dresses I found while working retail as a student was insane.)
Training of staff on how to spot placed cameras
Room design to discourage camera placement.

Mobility - large cubicles with a bench or somewhere to sit.

I'm thinking a play on the word 'fitting', so, 'Fit for Fitting' or something?
'Fitting Rooms with Fitting Rules'

Can we add accessible for wheelchair users and pushchairs?

Awesome idea.

Oh soz I see that's already been suggested!

I would love this! I have started avoiding he high street completely since the top shop changing rooms thread.

I also don't want to order online due to the amount of plastic I them need to try to get rid of! I've taken to buying online from ethical shops with paper packaging but I still have to return items sometimes so I then worry about the carbon footprint. I'd love to go to the high street and buy what I need there and then but I won't until I know I can try before I buy.

Fit for Purpose

Ooooh, I love that frog.

Frog that is perfect!

Would @MNHQ (is that their @?) get involved, do we think? They have a mumsnet approved stamp for nappies etc.

As in "Matalan score a 1\5 in the Mumsnet 'Fit For Purpose' campaign" sort of thing?

Changing rooms have become such a nightmare now, I only buy online. Or buy and take back what doesn't fit.

'Fitting Rooms with Fitting Rules'

Love it

Mobility - large cubicles with a bench or somewhere to sit.

Good addition, thank you

As in "Matalan score a 1\5 in the Mumsnet 'Fit For Purpose' campaign" sort of thing?

That would be great, but somehow I doubt it

Wanted on? That should say wanked on.

When I was a student I worked retail quite a bit (major UK department store.)

The rooms weren’t permanently staffed and It was not unusual to find dresses and underwear that men had wanked on, nor was it unusual to have shepherd out men who had ‘accidentally’ gone into the women’s. Oh and the classic ‘can you try this on you’re the same size as my girlfriend.’

Luckily management were well aware and supportive. I can’t imagine it’d be the same now.

I love fit for purpose

This isn't a feminist thing, but I want 4 separate sets of hooks.

Set 1 - for my coat, bag, top etc
Set 2 - for items I have yet to try on
Set 3 - for rejected items
Set 4 - for possible/chosen items

This is such a good idea. I wonder whether this work has already been done though? It would be great to refer to accepted guidelines re what constitutes good changing rooms when making complaints etc.

What a great idea, and fit for purpose is great too.

I'm not keen on wandering into a "women's" and discovering it's unisex, but I WILL NOT subject my self conscious daughter to that level of deception and gaslighting.

So, the thing I object to most is the deception / dishonesty. Unisex should be labelled as such, Unisex: feminine and Unisex: masculine if really necessary, though that seems a bit transphobic what with the 70 (?) gender identities. Why fix on only 2? Can we put that in somehow?

Most of the population think womens and mens means segregated by sex, including lots of vulnerable groups and protected characteristics. I really wish someone would sue. But of course vulnerable people are usually focussed on getting away, not getting evidence.

Anyway, I want places like M&S to give people the right to choose whether they're comfortable with and feel safe in unisex (changing rooms or toilets) which they can't at the moment since they have no way of knowing what is unisex if it's labelled as segregated by sex.

The lack of honesty almost makes it seem like there's a hidden agenda. I wonder what that could be? What grim anecdotes Babel - surely that's an actual crime? Seems like self-ID and unisex changing rooms (particularly by stealth) will only make this more likely.

Bowlofbabelfish oh my god!

Ineedacupofteadesperately

Thanks for contributions.

I’m gonna get my daughter to take photos when she’s out. Feel free to add any examples.

The door to the Matalan changing rooms had three separate signs.

Men, women, and mother & baby.
I walk in, and it's just one room. Mother and baby room is like the toilet, as in, behind a real door, but there is NO women's changing, NO men's.

They should bloody put unisex, that's what it is.