Primark - Any Gender changing rooms

[downwiththatsortof]

So I popped into Primark today and went into the changing room and noticed there wasn't any signage and asked for the women's changing room. The Assistant said it was any gender.

So I'm confused having been in Primark elsewhere I was pleased to notice they generally have 'Women' and then 'Any Gender' separately. I then possibly incorrectly assumed after the Supreme Court ruling that they had to provide single sex changing, but speaking to the manager, it seems not for changing rooms in shops.

So, I just think the whole thing is very confusing - ceiling to floor lockable doors, but not in shops. Single sex changing rooms are not a legal requirement. Wth - it's a minefield.

It’s possible to provide unisex facilities, but if labelled single sex they would have to be female only. I guess this is Primark’s way of appeasing genderists.

Female customers need to put pressure on them, if enough do they might think about the bottom line over woke signalling.

Well it will need a court case to see if retailers such as this are discriminating on the grounds of/sex religion/age.

Which will happen eventually. JKR has a funding pot not sure if it covers this issue though.

@Ereshkigalangcleg Yes, I did say that I would be complaining, but I just assumed that it was a legal requirement - obviously not.

What sort of store was it? Large or small?

My local one has women's & any gender, but I think on the menswear floor it's men's & any gender, which makes sense. The children's floor ones are always shut for some reason, but I think they're just any gender. Could it have been that there were women's ones elsewhere? Or a small store with only room for one changing room?

It does surprise me though, as I thought the widely reported instances of men filming in primark changing rooms made them reinstate women only CRs.

Were there definitely no others? I took my 13 year old to Primark a couple of weeks ago and noticed the Any Genders signage. I asked if there were any Women's changing facilities and it turns out that they were on a different floor. DD didn't want to queue again and as I was with her and would wait outside the cubicle we stayed put but I told her that if she's ever on her own or with friends then she MUST use the Women's. Especially as they aren't lockable cubicles, just curtains.

Teenager girls getting undressed behind a flimsy curtain with men allowed the wander around unchallenged. What could possibly go wrong? 🙄

@GrannyAchingsShepherdsHut to be fair - it's a small store and they said something about taking the signage down so it may be just due to some renovations. But if and when I go back, I will check.

@LittleGreenDuck Well the girl on the desk didn't say there were any others when I asked about 'Women's' and it may be that the signage was down due to renovations, but she definitely said it was "any gender". So, I'm hoping it's a temporary measure.🙄

I just did a google search and watched a Tik tok video by the young cambridge girl reported by the BBC.

Two men separately whipping her curtain open, luckily not in a state of undress.

She was crying and i felt bad for her until she said she thought mixed changing was very good and inclusive.

Silly young woman has not developed her synapses enough to make the connections in her brain yet.

Fingers crossed. Our nearest store is huge. Three floors plus a Costa and a Greggs inside so I guess they have more space to cater for all.

I don’t think they have to provide them in shops. It will take women complaining to make them provide them as standard. The primark stores I’ve been in recently have had a women’s section and any gender, which is fine. I was with my DDs and we used the any gender because I was with them, I wouldn’t have been happy with them using it alone though because it just had curtains across the cubicles

'Any gender' but 'single sex', since sex and gender are not the same thing.

So a changing room for biological females who have any 'gender ID', and another changing room for biological males who have any gender ID'.
Sorted.😏
Joking of course!🙂

It's indirect sex discrimination not to provide single sex changing facilities for women due to their increased risk of voyeurism and sexual assault.
Primark are on a sticky wicket if they have gone down the we'll just make.our existing changing facilities all any gender/mixed sex due to the type of facilities ie flimsy curtain that can't be locked or secured in any fashion and the gap.
A valid case could be put forward that they are actively facilitating the sexual predation of their female customers especially after the previous incidents and the reason that they previously reverted to women's and any gender.

@Hoardasurass Thanks. I now think that it may have been due to some renovations as I went to another store when out in a city yesterday to have a look and it was the 'women' and then any gender, but will check in local store in a few weeks.

Shops don't have to provide changing rooms at all. The only thing they aren't allowed to do is label them as single sex while actually allowing them to be mixed sex.

Either shop elsewhere or buy the clothes and take them into a single-sex loo somewhere else and return everything you don't want to keep.

Wrong.
Whilst they don't have to provide changing facilities if they do they must be either single sex or fully inclosed rooms with floor to ceiling walls and lockable doors.
The current set up in Primark with partitioned off "rooms" that have gaps at the top and bottom with only a flimsy curtain that can't be secured falls woefully short of legal requirements for mixed sex/any gender facilities but do meet the single sex requirements

Can you reference the legislation that stipulates this?

accurate though!

It's in the buildings and facilities regulations which sets out the requirements for single and unisex facilities. I don't have time atm to find the exact page but you should be able to find it quite easily

I thought that was for new builds only @Hoardasurass

The building regulations cover rules for toilets and for staff changing rooms that employers must provide if staff need to change clothes at the work place. I have googled and cannot find any legislation governing customer clothing fitting rooms, though found several pages saying "there are no laws concerning customer fitting rooms"

Ours have female, and male and any gender. I often wonder how many women actually use the any gender changing room - I bet it’s less than 0.1% on a good day.

Me neither.

In comparison it takes 2 seconds to find the health and safety at work regs, so I suspect it isn’t that straightforward.

Many clothes shops are small and just have a curtained off corner which anyone can use, but I haven’t found any regulations specifying that this is illegal or illegal in some conditions.

Any Primark I've been in recently are women and any gender. Theres always a worker on the entrance and have no hesitation directing men to the any gender.