Fun fact: according to a Pew Research report, 30% of young adults have pretended to be using their phone in order to avoid interacting with the people around them.
If you’re one of them, here’s a head’s up: Your awkward penguin moves aren’t gonna help you at Gestalt Haus in San Francisco.
Adds our submitter, Carly: “Even though I bought plenty of beer while I was there, I still felt like I needed to make eye contact with the bartender when coming out of the pisser. And that gets a little awkward after a while.”
related: Drip-dry only, ladies
47 responses so far ↓
#1
shwo!
Making eye contact with the bartender on the way INTO the bathroom carries the potential for much more awkwardness…
May 27, 2012 at 3:35 pm rating: 43
#2
Poltergeist
Insisting people buy something in order to use the restroom is a real dickish move. If I saw this sign, I’d be sure to look the bartender straight in the eye as I walked right out the door, my wallet just as full (or rather, empty) as it was when I walked in there.
May 27, 2012 at 4:01 pm rating: 19
#3
Ashes
Reading PassiveAgressiveNotes has given me real perspective about all the f’ed up places people will take a dump or have a piss. All things considered, PLEASE businesses, let people use your washrooms for free.
May 27, 2012 at 7:42 pm rating: 9
#4
kathryn
I really think that 30% number is way too low.
May 27, 2012 at 7:53 pm rating: 7
#5
zomboid
what is the point of this note? does the bartender particularly enjoy eye contact with strangers as they leave the toilet?
May 27, 2012 at 11:58 pm rating: 15
#6
Sarah
I don’t think the point of the note is to stop people using the toilet without buying a drink, rather to encourage some courtesy. If you’re stuck and need the loo, the only place being the nearest bar, it is just polite to say to the staff ‘please can I just use the toilet?’ and have the manners to say thank you afterwards.
May 28, 2012 at 4:01 am rating: 23
#7
Lil'
For the most part, I only stop at businesses I know keep a clean restroom. I know this because I’m a regular customer. With hundreds of customers streaming through daily, I don’t expect the cashiers to all remember my face. For that reason, I think businesses should be less pissy about what they perceive to be non-paying customers using the restrooom. Just because I didn’t buy something today doesn’t mean I don’t patronize your business. In fact, I stop many more times to buy something than I do to use the restroom. Feel free to disagree, but when I gotta go, I’m gonna go. The bladder is like the heart…it wants what it wants.
May 28, 2012 at 6:40 am rating: 22
#8
Dr.Chalkwitheringlicktacklefeff
Am I the only person who isn’t ashamed of going into a shop or eatery to use the bathroom without buying anything. I don’t even pretend I was going to and that I just changed my mind. If the proprietors are offended it’s not my problem.
May 28, 2012 at 8:20 am rating: 12
#9
Quite Contrary
Dear Note Writer, do you realize all you are asking for people to do is to make eye contact with the bartender? I’m more than happy to not buy anything and look at you on the way out, since that is what you are asking me to do. All the best, A Journalism Major
May 28, 2012 at 12:10 pm rating: 4
#10
TAG
I always at least grab a bottle of water whenever I have to do this; I think it’s only fair.
May 28, 2012 at 12:44 pm rating: 3
#11
cowbert
It is interesting that for more than a century that this is still an “issue”. Remember, when Sigmund Freud visited New York he observed that in order to use a restroom in a restaurant he first had to buy a plate of greens, and that when he went in search of a public restroom: “They escort you along miles of corridors and ultimately you are taken to the very basement where a marble palace awaits you, only just in time.” He wrote that these two experiences informed him much about the American psyche and how it fit into his psychosexual theories (namely, the anal stage).
May 28, 2012 at 1:15 pm rating: 6
#12
Pete
The bartender wants to make sure you’ve washed your hands, he can tell by looking in your eyes.
May 28, 2012 at 1:23 pm rating: 10
#13
Daniel
Somehow, I really want to believe this all goes back to being caused by the freaks who won’t sit all the way down.
May 28, 2012 at 5:37 pm rating: 2
#14
Dane Zeller
To hell with the cell phone trick. As I leave the bar (fast food restaurant, coffee shop) not having purchase anything, I take that embarrassing moment to zip up my pants. Then, everyone thinks I’m crude, not cheap.
May 29, 2012 at 7:39 am rating: 9
#15
jay
just to add to the debate: in my hood, the reason a lot of the business owners have a “bathrooms are for customers only” policy is to keep people from going in there just to drunkenly puke or do drugs or whatever. It’s not so much about making money as it is just trying to get people to go make a mess somewhere else. (Some of our local barbershops, etc. will charge you like $1 to use the bathroom if you’re a non-customer, for the same reason.) If you go in there sober and ask nicely, you’ll almost never get turned down.
May 29, 2012 at 8:11 am rating: 3
#16
davey
I don’t feel any shame for using the restroom without buying anything. I look at it this way: to get in, I probably had to pass by some ads the shop owner has set up (audio or visual). The ads were seen or heard by me and therefore paid for my visit.
Even more compellingly, other potential customers on the street would see me walking in, thinking I was a paying customer. When people see others walking into a shop, they think to themselves “wow, he’s walking in, rather than recoiling in horror. That is one reputable establishment.”
So really, I’m listening to their ads AND doing them the favor of endorsing their shop by passing myself off as someone willingly parting with their hard earned cash. You can’t buy marketing like that.
You know what – I think they owe ME one.
May 29, 2012 at 9:18 am rating: 8
#17
Snoofy
Restaurant bathrooms are not a courtesy for customers, at least not in the U.S. It’s the law. Anyplace that serves food on site has to have a bathroom available and it must be handicap accessible too.
When it gets dicey is when there is no publicly available toilet – such as in a small shop – and the public insists on using it anyway. And then mucks it up.
May 29, 2012 at 12:38 pm rating: 3
#18
rtuko
If you’re in a bar in which the bartender has the leisure to scrutinize every person using the bathroom, there’s something wrong with the bar.
May 29, 2012 at 6:37 pm rating: 11
#19
Jeffbrown
Ok, pretending that I was a bar owner, I would definitely want my restroom to be used by my customers and my staff. I agree with Adriana that restroom maintenance is another expense to the restaurant/bar and why should they let people who don’t use their service to use their restroom.
People can disagree all they want but wait until they have their own business, I bet they will not just let anyone use your restroom. More people using the restroom means extra toilet paper & water that will be used and extra cleaning effort to keep it clean which lead to unnecessary expense that should be prevented.
Jun 7, 2012 at 7:31 am rating: 0
#20
class factotum
I’ve always looked to McDonald’s as a beacon of clean, free toilets when I’ve been traveling. Lately, Starbucks has entered the pantheon: their toilets are clean and their stores are ubiquitous. Plus I’ve spend enough money there over the years not to feel guilty for using their facilities. But in Paris, you have to have a code to use their toilet, a code that appears on your receipt. I really didn’t see the point of spending $7 (bad exchange rate) to reload and face the same problem again: http://class-factotum.blogspot.com/2010/11/paris-14-le-pipi-or-liberte-egalite.html
Jun 7, 2012 at 9:44 am rating: 0
#21
Meatbone
So, I am the creator of that sign. I am a bartender at Gestalt in San Francisco. It was a slow day and after about 10 people in row used the bathroom without buying anything, I thought I would try a sign and see if I got any different results. It’s funny how people feel so embarrassed after they use the bathroom and know they are not going to buy anything. I’ve seen every trick in the book…fake cell phone calls, asking if we sell some obscure item that they know the answer will be “No”…etc. I have never turned down anyone asking to use the restroom. Our location happens to be in a popular spot for people needing to poo and pee. The point is, that if you are polite and just ask, you almost would never be turned down. It is the pretending to be a customer when really you just have to use the toilet that is interesting. Our establishment happens to have one of the only 1 person-locking door bathrooms in the area, so it is popular for people to use it for other ventures…like drugs. This is an issue when actual customers need to pee and are waiting 20 minutes while some asshole shoots himself up with heroin or is passed out in there. We have had to smash down the door 5 times in the last 3 years because someone was unconscious in there. Also, like many people said, it is like a person is normal and calm when they walk in a bathroom, but as soon as the door locks, they turn into a smashing psychopath. The amount of damage done to our bathroom on a weekly basis is mind-boggling!
Anyway, the sign was just meant to be a joke, and was taken down later that day. It was fun watching people pretend to get phone calls on the way out. It just seems ridiculous. Just ask. For the most part, people are friendly and you will get what you want by being polite.
Sep 3, 2012 at 9:46 pm rating: 7
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