With the new bathroom rules at Starbucks, what is one to do when they need to go?
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When one door closes, it is said that another opens, but what about when almost 17,000 doors close?
Specifically bathroom doors, as Starbucks has recently announced that their previously open-door policy on free bathroom use is now officially flushed.
This reversal began on January 27, and now requires all that seek the potty to first pay up and make a purchase. According to the press release, this decision was made to increase sales. The official code of conduct on their site reads, “Starbucks spaces are for use by our partners and customers–this includes our cafes, patios and restrooms.”
It goes on to list all of the other infractions other than peeing without paying, which includes “misuse or disruption of our spaces,” panhandling and discrimination and harassment.
Sam Jefferies, a representative from Starbucks media relations, also added some more color to the posted statement via email.
“Our Back to Starbucks strategy starts with delivering a great partner and customer experience,” said Jefferies. “To accomplish this, we have been listening to partners and customers to understand what the company can do to keep customers coming back time and again and make partners feel as though they have the best job in retail. It starts with the coffeehouse experience— creating and maintaining a warm, welcoming and inclusive place where customers can comfortably gather and partners are empowered to focus on providing exceptional service.”
For those that are patrons, Jefferies also stated that, “customers are invited to visit, stay as long as they’d like, use the restroom, work and meet friends, all for the price of a single cup of coffee—with free refills.” The new free refill policy, outlined here includes a hot or brewed coffee or tea while in the coffee shop.
Restroom door with keypad lock and unisex accessibility signage, as well as signage indicating that the restroom is for customers only, inside a Starbucks in Pleasant Hill Plaza, Pleasant Hill, California, February 18, 2025.
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However, other experts in the customer experience space don’t think this is the best idea for community building and may instead have negative consequences.
“My immediate thought was that this change by itself could undermine all of the positive, customer friendly changes that Brian Niccol had set in motion since becoming CEO at Starbucks,” said Marbue Brown, author of “Blueprint for Customer Obsession” and customer experience expert.
“Imagine if a regular customer who frequently visits the store sits in it for a ‘prolonged’ period of time without buying anything then is approached by an associate that they need to purchase something or else they will have to leave. There are so many ways a scenario like that could go wrong and wind up with a reputation-crushing viral post on TikTok or Reddit. Starbucks would be right back where it started before it implemented the open-door policy,” Brown continued.
He is alluding to the first bout of bad PR that forced the bathroom doors open in the first place—a video of two Black men being arrested in a Starbucks went viral in 2018. They were waiting on a business meeting and asked to use the restroom, without having first paid for a drink. This resulted in massive public outcry and then the start of the Starbucks open-to-all bathroom policy.
Now that this is reversed and almost 17,000 Starbucks locations in the U.S. are no longer a safe haven for public bathroom use, what is the general public to do? In New York City, at least, there is a local sanitation saint doing the dirty work.
Got2GoNYC is an initiative started by 25-year-old Teddy Siegel. Living in New York City, she was very much familiar with the struggle to find a public restroom in the bustling city that is open, clean and free to use, so she sought a solution via a popular app.
The interactive bathroom map includes all the must-know information and spans all five boroughs of NYC.
Got2GoNYC.com
“In the middle of Times Square in July 2021, I sipped the last of my iced coffee and realized I had to go,” Siegel recounted. “After being turned away from several businesses, I burst into a McDonald’s in tears only to be told the bathroom was for ‘customers only’. I paid three dollars for a bottle of water, ran up a flight of stairs and found the door unlocked. I thought to myself, if only I had a resource that showed me where the closest bathroom was, I could’ve just gone in and used the toilet, saving my time, money and anxiety.”
She then posted a video to TikTok under the new handle Got2GoNYC and also created a Google Maps downloadable map of all of the free-to-use restrooms in the city. This also includes information like bathroom codes, cleanliness updates and directions if in a more hidden location in the store.
“As of today, my bathroom map is Google’s largest and most frequently used map in the world and my community has grown to over a half a million people across my platforms,” Siegel said. “Every single person who’s either lived in or traveled to New York City for the most part has had a negative experience surrounding New York City’s lack of bathrooms. Because of this unspoken universal experience, my content resonates with so many individuals—even people who have never traveled to New York City.”
As for the Starbucks rule reversal, both Brown and Siegel think its a bad idea, not only for the general public but also for the workers having to enforce the new mandate.
“While I understand the operational challenges of maintaining accessible restrooms, Starbucks’ decision to reverse their open door policy places an undue burden on employees to act as gatekeepers, potentially opening the door to subjective and discriminatory practices,” said Siegel.
Teddy Siegel, in orange, uses her platform to advocate for inclusive bathroom access for all New York City residents.
Reuben Torres
Brown agreed and thinks it may end up hurting them in the long run.
“Long-term, this will alter the public’s perception of Starbucks as a gathering place and they will begin to seek other alternatives for activities such as sports club meetings, homework study groups, tutoring, neighborhood Bible studies and more,” said Brown. “These activities bring groups of people into Starbucks, but not all participants are paying customers and that could be an impediment to them using the facilities. Meanwhile, these activities also bring in paying customers who might not have otherwise visited the store at those times. Loss of business from these groups meeting elsewhere could eventually have impacts to the Starbucks’ bottom line.”
So what should we do about this cultural shift? Aside from moving our coffee house meetings to more inclusive spots, Siegel has also started lobbying for bathroom bills with local government officials, and you can too.
“As my platform has grown, so has my advocacy—I now frequently work with Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine, as well as other members of City Council, on the campaigns for bathroom bills, aiming at increasing restroom accessibility and maintenance throughout New York City,” she said.
Siegel can be found outside City Hall, advocating for bathroom bills and inclusive legislation.
Reuben Torres
“I wouldn’t direct my advice to companies but rather to the city, urging them to implement a policy similar to London’s Community Toilet Scheme. This initiative incentivizes businesses to open their restrooms to the public by offering tax benefits, making better use of existing infrastructure while ensuring equitable access. A policy like this would relieve private businesses of the burden of handling restroom access individually while maximizing the facilities already in place. It’s a practical and compassionate solution to a pressing public and equity health issue,” Siegel continued.
This London plan even has a public toilet map of their own, found here, supported by the city instead of the individual burden of the NYC map that Siegel and her followers maintain. In the meantime, a combination of lobbying for inclusive bathroom bills and supporting the crowdsourced map is the way to go, should you “got to go” in the city.
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