i thought it was pretty crazy when jessie sent in this sign from a thrift store in wilmington, north carolina a few months back…
then ashley sent in this eerily similar note from a thrift store in barnegat, new jersey. seriously, what is it about thrift stores that makes people want to shit in the fitting rooms?
adds ashley: “the first time i noticed it,there was only one note. weeks later, when i came back to photograph it, they had added a second note. obviously, just the one note on the door wasn’t getting the point across. i also like how they added the note in spanish. how do they know that the perp doesn’t only speaks french? that could be the reason for the recurring problem.”
related: do the rest of us a favor
105 responses so far ↓
#1
Writerrejected
What could this possibly mean? You go into the fitting room to try on some G-Star Jeans and you take a little emergency dump in the corner under the lights that make you look beyond dead and next to the mirror that makes you look fatter than fat? Now I remember all over again why I hate shopping.
Jan 2, 2008 at 10:47 pm rating: +6
#2
GVI
What if the person is blind and has a serious case of the runs.
I feel for the person who had to clean up the mess though.
Jan 2, 2008 at 10:51 pm rating: 0
#3
anglophile
I’ve heard of this. It seems to happen everywhere. *shudder*
And I don’t think the problem will be solved by putting up a sign in French, Russian, or Croatian, either!
Jan 2, 2008 at 10:57 pm rating: 0
#4
Writerrejected
But wouldn’t the missing toilet be a clue? Even a blind person would know a bathroom from a fitting room, no?
Jan 2, 2008 at 10:58 pm rating: 0
#5
Team Cassandra
Some people are so silly – it’s very easy to see that it’s not a bank! Silly people!
Also, its all well and good that I can’t have an emergency nap in there but then, I don’t usually sleep where I pee…
Jan 2, 2008 at 11:00 pm rating: +2
#6
Staci
I’ve seen similar signs at tanning salons in each room. What’s wrong with people?!
Jan 2, 2008 at 11:07 pm rating: +1
#7
Wade
If you have ever been in thrift store fitting room, you would know why it is easy to mistake it for a restroom.
Jan 2, 2008 at 11:07 pm rating: +5
#8
WanderingPenguin
So….is the first note saying that you can’t use the dressing room as a bathroom… but if it’s a real emergency… you can use a manager? Yikes. Perhaps this thread should be: “this is why your manager is cranky”.
Jan 2, 2008 at 11:08 pm rating: +2
#9
Sloper
Scheisse! Wo gibt’s denn ein Klo in diesem verdammt Saftladen?
Jan 2, 2008 at 11:11 pm rating: +1
#10
WanderingPenguin
Maybe they should be building their fitting rooms out of the same material as this place. Then it wouldn’t be so easy for someone to “drop the kids off at the pool” without anyone hearing them.
Jan 2, 2008 at 11:16 pm rating: +1
#11
morpho aurora
unless you are under the age of 3, you should know you aren’t in a bathroom – i think people who do this are just so disgusting they don’t care.
Jan 2, 2008 at 11:22 pm rating: 0
#12
Wade
Perhaps the mad bomber, driven from public restrooms everywhere, has been reduced to visiting thrift store fitting rooms.
Jan 2, 2008 at 11:28 pm rating: 0
#13
Sunshine
I worked in a thrift store about ten years ago and it’s amazing just how many people will use the fitting room as a bathroom. Our dressing room “doors” were curtains and people would use those as toilet paper. I think my hatred for people developed at this job.
Jan 2, 2008 at 11:31 pm rating: +4
#14
Crash
ehem…MANAGER…!?!
I NEED MORE TOILET PAPER !!!!
Jan 2, 2008 at 11:36 pm rating: +3
#15 The Overnight Broadcast › Question of the day
[...] What is it about thrift stores that makes people want to shit in the fitting rooms? This was written by dan. Posted on Wednesday, January 2, 2008, at 10:37 pm. Filed under Blather. Bookmark the permalink. Follow comments here with the RSS feed. Post a comment or leave a trackback. [...]
Jan 3, 2008 at 12:37 am rating: +1
#16
pickle
Actually, it happens a lot in department stores, too. My mother (who worked at Macy’s) said some people would take in heaps of expensive clothes, pile them up and pee all over them. Maybe it’s some kind of disgusting protest?
Jan 3, 2008 at 1:17 am rating: +1
#17
Ralphy
Well, when I have that kind of an emergency, who has time to ask for a manager. Whats he going to do, cup his hands for me. Anyway, after a good dump, those hand-me-down jeans look sooooo much better.
It seems, with the second sign, our manager has been demoted from toilet to God knows what. No thanks on that job offer!!!
Jan 3, 2008 at 1:34 am rating: 0
#18
Note writer
Hi,
I don’t want to cause offence, but the language of the second notes were both Spanish. I’m sure we neither want to offend our French friends or are Spanish speaking cousins from down south, hmm?
Kthanxbai.
Jan 3, 2008 at 1:59 am rating: 0
#19
Laurie
David Sedaris does a riff on people taking a crap in the middle of displays in the Gap.
Jan 3, 2008 at 3:03 am rating: 0
#20
secondsout
Is it just me, or is the tilda in the word “baño” backwards? What is the explanation behind this?
Jan 3, 2008 at 4:25 am rating: 0
#21
amy d
Tonight on Spike TV: When Bodily Functions Attack
Jan 3, 2008 at 8:21 am rating: +2
#22
Rumblefish
No speakee englash or enspanoli
I geet clep-art virsion, pleaze!
Jan 3, 2008 at 9:06 am rating: +3
#23
leegyrl
Trust me – this really happens. My daughter and I have both worked in retail (she at a major department store and me at a specialty woman’s store) and we’ve both had to deal with this. It is not only a thrift store problem. FYI, the salespeople have to clean it up – not the maintenance staff. So, those of you with urinary problems, please use the toilet before trying on clothes.
Jan 3, 2008 at 9:21 am rating: 0
#24
Danielle
Wow Ashley that is crazy! This does happen! Once I was in a fitting room in a Marshalls in Philly and I heard a lady run by moaning. Seconds later I hear what I think is water pouring onto the floor a few rooms over, not until i see a yellow stream heading my way do I realize its urine. I was in shock!
What is wrong with ppl?
Jan 3, 2008 at 9:42 am rating: 0
#25
Katzndogz
Another neurosis to add to the trauma of trying on clothes: Did someone once take a dump right where you’re standing?
Jan 3, 2008 at 11:18 am rating: 0
#26
Karen
I’ve never heard of this. Now, however, I may never again try on anything to be worn from the waist down. I wouldn’t even be comfortable taking a little whiff before trying on. ewwww
Team Buy It All Online
Jan 3, 2008 at 11:51 am rating: 0
#27
Nicky
It’s not just thrift stores. I used to work at Urban Outfitters and one night when we were closing, one of my co-workers retrieved a bottle from one of the men’s fitting rooms. The bottle was one that could be found in housewares, but we didn’t sell it full of urine – that was added by the phantom pisser. He was kind enough to put the top on the bottle, making for easier cleanup, but wtf???
Jan 3, 2008 at 11:59 am rating: 0
#28
leegyrl
If he went to the trouble of getting a bottle to pee in, why in the world didn’t he just use the bathroom???? Are people so lazy that we have to put bedpans in each dressing room?
Jan 3, 2008 at 12:29 pm rating: 0
#29
Retail4Life
I worked in a pretty pricey clothing store for 5 yrs and people would pee on the carpet AND leave USED tampons or dirty diapers in the fitting rooms. The best part was that we were maybe 50ft from very well-maintained public restrooms.
The biggest lesson I learned from my time in retail was that no matter what your socio-economic background is you are still capable of being totally disgusting.
Jan 3, 2008 at 1:01 pm rating: +1
#30
Canthz_B
The things some women will do to get into a size 4!
Jan 3, 2008 at 2:14 pm rating: +6
#31
Canthz_B
Did the manager in sign one attend the company’s Golden Shower seminar?
Jan 3, 2008 at 2:29 pm rating: +1
#32
WanderingPenguin
All right kiddos – it’s been too long by half.
With the usual apologies…this time to Petula Clark (sorry, it was the best vid I could find…)
You wander around in that thrift store downtown
But you don’t see the men’s or the women’s
You sure have to pee, only all you can see
Are those changerooms tucked back by the linens
You’ve felt this way a million times before
Load up on clothes, march in and close the door
Don’t poop in the changeroom, darlin’
Don’t pee ’cause there ain’t no drain
Don’t poop in the changeroom, darlin’
The manager
Will show you where to “drop
Trou” – don’t make
Us have to mop up again!
You try to be smart, but you can’t even fart
‘Cause it hurts when your colon’s inflated
Your friends recognize that glazed look in your eyes
And you wish that you were constipated
Your bowels direct you to the store’s last row
Good sense means nothing when you’ve got to go
Don’t poop in the changeroom, darlin’
Don’t pee ’cause there ain’t no drain
Don’t poop in the changeroom, darlin’
The manager
Will show you where to “drop
Trou” – don’t make
Us have to mop up again!
(Repeat and fade…)
Jan 3, 2008 at 2:33 pm rating: +7
#33
Shane
Here’s a riddle for you:
What’s the difference between defecating in a thrift store dressing room and a bathroom temper tantrum?
One is a fit in a shitting room and the other is a shit in a fitting room.
*runs cackling back under the troll bridge.
Jan 3, 2008 at 2:35 pm rating: +10
#34
Canthz_B
They could put a beautiful brass cuspidor in each fitting room. “In case of emergency, break sanitary seal!”
That would make clean-up a breeze!
Jan 3, 2008 at 2:39 pm rating: +2
#35
GhostWriter
“I’ll take, ‘Things that some women will do to get into a size 4′ for $200, Alex.”
“OK, and here’s the clue- “You may find this “period piece” on the floor of a vintage clothing store changing room…”
PS: Petula was Priceless, WP!
Jan 3, 2008 at 3:19 pm rating: +6
#36
Laura
From what I have heard this happens all the time – not just in thrift stores! I friend of mine worked in Old Navy (one within a large shopping mall) and about one a week someone would leave droppings in a the fitting rooms.
Jan 3, 2008 at 3:23 pm rating: 0
#37
Dawn
Ew! And there I was blissfully trying on skirts at my favorite local thrift store the other day (can you say, orange pleather?) and was completely unaware of the perils I was facing!
Ew!
Dawn
Jan 3, 2008 at 5:18 pm rating: 0
#38
rrpa
I love that they included sign in Spanish.
Durn those dirty furriners!
Jan 3, 2008 at 5:34 pm rating: 0
#39
GVI
They should treat people like dogs and leave little plastic bags in the fitting rooms, so you can pee and do whatever else in them.
Jan 3, 2008 at 5:48 pm rating: 0
#40
mamason
This shit just pisses me off.
Jan 3, 2008 at 6:19 pm rating: 0
#41
etherealangel
Sadly I can see the reasoning for this sign. I worked in a department store with bathrooms. Yet we found everything from urine, to feces, to used tampons in fitting rooms. People are disgusting pigs.
Jan 3, 2008 at 8:22 pm rating: 0
#42
raiseyourglass
Hey maybe europeean, not spanish…
Hidy ho! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RXSuAy5cwKo
I am noting that no one has said “fucking delicious!”
Jan 3, 2008 at 10:00 pm rating: 0
#43
Carmen
I worked at a Goodwill in high school, and I cannot even tell you how many times people shit in the dressing rooms. It’s as if they assume that because it’s a thrift store, they can do whatever they want. People depress me.
Jan 3, 2008 at 10:03 pm rating: +1
#44
sharon j
I’ve actually been to a dressing room where someone has down this, eck. It was a department store.
I think there’s just really weird people out there. At my old apartment, I was on the balcony and this I saw this other guy on his balcony. I watched this guy go downstairs piss in the bushes then go back upstairs to his apartment. Weird.
Jan 4, 2008 at 3:50 pm rating: 0
#45
PEACHTREE
I used to work at a department store in Wilmington and heard stories of sales people in the Juniors Dept having to RTV white pants (on more than one occasion) that had um… lady stains… on them.
Jan 4, 2008 at 4:20 pm rating: +1
#46 When you gotta go… « Caulk is cheap
[...] 6, 2008 Who would guess this would be a problem? It gives the drop off box a whole new [...]
Jan 5, 2008 at 11:07 pm rating: 0
#47
Lesley
i’ve been in a dressing room when i heard a woman peeing on the carpet a few doors down from me. strangely enough, it was not in wilmington, nc even though i currently live there.
Jan 6, 2008 at 3:54 pm rating: 0
#48
wickedopinion
I know I know I’m late but I am in shock….Has it not dawned on ANYONE else that many times places in the world are frequented by CRAZY PEOPLE??? Crazy people piss and shit in dressing rooms and other inappropriate places. Because they are CRAZY. Unfortunately, there are not enough college students looking for extra beer money to follow all the crazies around for the day and then things like this happen. Also, having worked in a thrift store back in the day, those places are absolute magnets for the crazy. Seriously, even the people who work in them are….wait, I worked in one. Dammit.
Jan 7, 2008 at 4:33 pm rating: +1
#49
Holy Cats!
I work in a thrift store…next to a bus station. It is a buzzing hive of insanity. We have found shit in the drawer of a dresser, piss in a vase and someone keeps dropping their panty liners (in the shoe section) I think some of it is revenge because we don’t let those dirty fuckers use our bathroom.
Jan 7, 2008 at 6:34 pm rating: 0
#50
Rick
Hey there is no toilet paper in here !!!
Jan 8, 2008 at 6:13 am rating: 0
#51 more like hardly working
[...] temperature in january: 12° F/-11° C) says the worst job she’s ever had was at a local thrift store – and not because of the crazy customers and their indiscreet use of the fitting rooms. no, [...]
Jan 9, 2008 at 9:04 pm rating: 0
#52
mmm
I know I’m in the minority here but I’ve been so angry lately that you can’t find a damn bathroom in Chicago. And I think it’s 1/2 (not total) discrimination to women. Men can discretely piss outside but women are screwed. And who wants to “ask for manager” of a place that claims “NO PUBLIC RESTROOM-no exceptions” Sure I wouldn’t take a dump, but I’m thinking more and more about the Urban Outfitters bottle idea!!!
Jan 10, 2008 at 1:51 pm rating: +1
#53
WanderingPenguin
Sorry – once again I had premature postaculation anxiety and put my comment in the wrong place.
Jan 10, 2008 at 2:30 pm rating: +1
#54
freckleface
I’ve heard of this. Speficially I’ve heard of this here:
http://thislife.org/Radio_Episode.aspx?sched=1158
listen to “Act 3–Adventures at Poo Corner”, it’s funny, gross and may actually lend some insight into this phenomenon.
Jan 17, 2008 at 2:14 pm rating: 0
#55
Chantelle
Awwwww, that is disgusting. I thought it was bad when my mum worked in retail, in the women’s section, she went to clean up some of the bras that had been chucked everywhere and someone had taken off their old, manky, dirty, stained bra, swapped it for another and left it on the clothes hanger. Gahhhhhh.
I have seen one guy in the grocery store piss and shit himself, but hey, luckily he was in the aisle that had all the cleaning products!
Jan 21, 2008 at 4:53 am rating: +2
#56
wednesday181
Apparently it happens quite often. I heard something about it on a recent “This American Life” episode. Needless to say, I really try and keep off the changing room floors now. Ew.
http://www.retailhellunderground.com/my_weblog/2008/03/everybody-poops.html
Mar 27, 2008 at 11:36 am rating: 0
#57
fuhuck
Fucking pigs. Surveillance cameras everywhere say I, and ID chip implants.
Sep 3, 2008 at 6:03 pm rating: 0
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