Discussion Groups / English Usage / January 2009

From my memory of them, Borders primarily sells books for the Great
Unwashed and almost never for the Saints and Scholars:

http://www.borders.com/online/store/Landing?kids=false&nav=5185&type=1

I've been assuming that these toilets are locked because as
single-occupancy rooms they would be better locations for taking
drugs.  (On a related note, some city-centre toilets have bluish
lighting that is supposed to make it harder to spot your veins.)

Nor does our Co-op. They rebuilt the store several years ago and included a
facility for washing your hands (literally, washing your hands) *in the
middle of the store*. Presumably for those who got a little gritty from
fondling the fruit and veg (literally, fruit and veg).
Our Somerfield has a handy little bog, though, and it is placed so far back
and is unsignposted that only hardy regulars know how to get to it, thereby
reducing potential queues.
And now, of course, Somerfield has been sold to the Co-op and we are waiting
with various bits bated (predominantly breath) and crossed (legs and fingers
in the main) to see which WC policy will survive the acquisition.
And our City Council are already discussing toilet closure and use of
private toilets as public:

http://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/news/headlines/3957295.Toilet_closures_investigated/
http://tinyurl.com/6l469h

"Cash-strapped Oxford City Council has a report which highlights a saving of
£50,000 a year for three years if it closed 11 suburban toilets ... The
council is also considering introducing charges at toilets and asking pubs
and restaurants to open up their loos to the public."

I've missed some of this thread; if there were mentions of "lavs" or
"restrooms" in US stores, I haven't seen them.

Nowadays, there are public restrooms (or "rest rooms," two words) in
just about all retail outlets, including grocery stores and gas
stations. There are signs pointing the way to them.

But in the past (say 30-40 years ago and beyond) public restrooms did
not exist in most US stores, especially smaller ones; large department
stores were the exception.[1]

Most, if not all, small stores had restrooms/toilets on the premises,
but they were marked "Employees Only." Since employees often used that
room for storing their purses, coats, etc., there was no way they were
going to let a customer use it. (It was kept locked.)

Gas stations had public toilets, but they were reached via outside
entrances only; sometimes they were simple "outhouses." Now you enter
gas station restrooms them from inside the "store."[2] In my own
experience, I'd say they're nice and clean at least 50% of the time.

Restrooms were almost always available in restaurants. (I'd say "always"
but there were surely some exceptions somewhere.)

Also: What BrE posters call a "disabled" toilet would be a
"handicap[ped] accessible" toilet (or simply the "handicapped") in the
US. (I've heard some call it the "paraplegic" toilet or even the
"handycrapper.") A "disabled toilet" would indicate, to many Americans,
that the toilet is not working.

[1] And they were "pay" toilets. When empty, a little slide panel by the
lock said "Vacant"; when they were in use, the little panel said
"Occupied." You inserted a coin to get into a vacant stall. (A coin
would not allow access to an Occupied stall.) When you slid the lock
closed from inside, the "little panel" changed from "Vacant" to
"Occupied." When the facility was crowded, women exiting a stall usually
held the door open for the next woman in line so that she needed no
coin. I may be forgetting a detail or two, but that's the way it all
worked.

[2] A store inside a gas station is of the class called "convenience
stores" (also known as "C-stores") among certain vendors.