Why our washrooms are for everyone

If you visit our store at 390 Osborne, the first thing you will see is our sign on the door reminding people that our washrooms are for everyone.   

Here are the reasons why this is our policy:

• We want people to know that we care about people, not just transactions.
• Our aim is for the first impression on our door to reflect our utmost priority: valuing people above all else.
• We don’t want to put our staff in the uncomfortable position of policing washrooms, instead, we want them to focus on providing great service.
• We’ve experienced the discomfort of needing to use the restroom and encountering the “restrooms for customers only” sign, and we empathize with how that feels. We are committed to ensuring no one has to experience that in our store.
• We don’t want our staff and customers having to touch a disgusting washroom key dripping from the last person who used it.
• We work hard to keep our washrooms clean, and we are proud for everyone to see that.

We recently huddled with a few of the staff after a person experiencing homelessness made a bit of a mess in the washrooms. How did they feel about cleaning up the mess? We all agreed that cleaning up a bit of a mess in the service of another human being was a far better way to be than playing bathroom cop all the time.

We think that the typical “washrooms are for customers only” signs we see all over town might as well say. “Our sole concern is your money, anything else is secondary.”  We think local businesses should encompass more than just financial transactions.