Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Starbucks Restrooms

The New York Post is reporting today that Starbucks is going to close its restrooms in New York City because employees have to compete with customers to use the restrooms and it's taking them away from their jobs for too long. When I read the headline, I was surprised that was the reason -- thought it was going to be that people were doing nasty things in the restrooms.

A few years back, I was in a Starbucks near me waiting outside the (locked) door to use the restroom. The person inside was taking a long time, and so I knocked, got a response of "just a minute" or something and continued to wait. Luckily my need was not too great so I waited and waited... finally got impatient and knocked again.

After a few more minutes, the door opened and two schoolgirls came out -- and I use that word in that these girls were like 7th or 8th grade girls, in their school uniforms, looking sort of sheepish and I knew something fishy was up. Of course, I thought they were smoking (old-fashioned me) but there was no smoke and I wondered about drugs, and then something caught my eye.

Sitting on top of the open trash can was a box from a pregnancy kit. I have to say my mood instantly changed from snoopy annoyance to compassion for the stupidity of kids. These were "good" girls by their appearance and I can only imagine the backstory to this one. It made me sad.

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