Paying to Use the Toilet

[aussieinbg]

This is causing quite a stir in Australia, a MacDonalds there making people buy something before giving them the code to enter a toilet:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-06-0...toilet/9848692

It had been a bit of a culture shock for me as an Australian when I went to Europe the very first time to have to pay each time I used a toilet. It still feels a bit weird having to pay something like 50 Stotinki (about 25c Euro) to enter a toilet there.

Question is, should we have to pay for something like that which is an absolutely necessity for "civilised" people? For what reasons, if any?

What are the traditions in your part of the world regarding paying to use the toilet? How much are you paying, if anything at all?

Do you have to pay regardless of whether you are someone eating at a restaurant or not? Are public toilets free or not?

Does paying for a toilet actually guarantee that you get clean facilities?

[Suna123]

It is pretty normal here in Germany to pay for public toilets. It is not normal to pay in restaurants......what proves another time that McDonalds is no restaurant.
Quite often there is no fix price and you pay what you want. At autobahn parking areas it is 0,70€.

But the most expensive toilet I've ever used was in Turkey. As a tourist they ask crazy amounts of money from you for everything in general. But this one was absolutely impressing. Don't remember it exactly but it was something between 2-5€ and an older man of our group even paid 10€ because he noticed too late and did not protest. It is one of the reasons not to visit again.

[Sancta_Lux]

Depend... We have some public toilets that are not free here but I never used it. I suppose people who do it have absolutely no choice or find them cleaner.
That being said I would never pay a Mc Donald to go to the toilets, I would rather move to a Carrefour or another shop/restaurant where they are free or, if ever toilets were not free, I would adopt the Indian style and poop in the street, no way I pay to pee or poop.

[RogerCarmel]

Public toilets are free in both Canada and the USA. Even restaurants in these two countries will let someone use their toilet without insisting something be bought. Every other country I’ve visited had pay-as-you go public toilets.

European toilets are clean. Latin American toilets are yucky.

[dmitri11]

... Every other country I’ve visited had pay-as-you go public toilets ...

There's no one to make a poo under the town hall door.

Where have all the good men gone
And where are all the gods?
Where's the street-wise Hercules
To fight the rising odds?

https://www.amalgama-lab.com/songs/b...or_a_hero.html

[Snailmailfriend]

Question is, should we have to pay for something like that which is an absolutely necessity for "civilised" people? For what reasons, if any?

Well, eating is a necessity, too, yet grocery stores don't give away their products for free. Someone running a public toilet has expenses such as water, electricity, paper... the same applies for restaurants. Especially in places where there are many tourists that use their toilets frequently without ever even buying a drink their expenses would increase. Energy and water are expensive in Europe, this might be different in other countries. I've seen papers on the door of restaurant toilets saying, "Free for our guests. € 0.50 for others." And last but not least... we're talking about ridiculously low prices like € 0.50 in Germany, for example. For comparison: one scoop of ice-cream costs between € 1.00 and € 1.50, so what are we talking about? You do find free toilets also in Europe and I'm happy when I find one, but I understand the point in paying for the toilet. I think it's just a different attitude. If I wasn't used to it I might find it strange, too.

[Tux1]

Well, eating is a necessity, too, yet grocery stores don't give away their products for free. Someone running a public toilet has expenses such as water, electricity, paper... the same applies for restaurants. Especially in places where there are many tourists that use their toilets frequently without ever even buying a drink their expenses would increase. Energy and water are expensive in Europe, this might be different in other countries. And last but not least... we're talking about ridiculously low prices like € 0.70 in Germany, for example. For comparison: one scoop of ice-cream costs between € 1.00 and € 1.50, so what are we talking about? You do find free toilets also in Europe and I'm happy when I find one, but I understand the point in paying for the toilet. I think it's just a different attitude. If I wasn't used to it I might find it strange, too.

LOL! What cuck nonsense. European countries have high taxes, both income tax but especially on goods. You might have heard of the VAT? Why would they need to charge to use bathroom facilities? I suspect it's because most European countries are running out of money (revenues) and they can't print their Euros any more - to the extent they have....it's already reduced so much in value. So, they need to find ways to raise $$ and this is one they chose (notice how the claim that public places are all charging to use washrooms - no one has disputed this assertion).

[Sancta_Lux]

Well, eating is a necessity, too, yet grocery stores don't give away their products for free. Someone running a public toilet has expenses such as water, electricity, paper... the same applies for restaurants. Especially in places where there are many tourists that use their toilets frequently without ever even buying a drink their expenses would increase. Energy and water are expensive in Europe, this might be different in other countries. I've seen papers on the door of restaurant toilets saying, "Free for our guests. € 0.50 for others." And last but not least... we're talking about ridiculously low prices like € 0.50 in Germany, for example. For comparison: one scoop of ice-cream costs between € 1.00 and € 1.50, so what are we talking about? You do find free toilets also in Europe and I'm happy when I find one, but I understand the point in paying for the toilet. I think it's just a different attitude. If I wasn't used to it I might find it strange, too.

You don't need paper when you go to pee as a man (and some people bring toilet paper with them, just in case, because there are not always paper in toilets of the restaurants or any places)... The electiricity is rarely necessary when you have something called a window too, as for the water, it's way less expensive than many other things, actually it's cheap.

Moreover if water might be a little bit more expensive than in other places, it's mostly because we don't live in trashland with our poop all around us, we do have efficient wastewater treatment plants, skilled scientists and a good distribution of water, which result in the fact that you could even drink the water you put your peach in (well, before you do it, obviously).

In addition, you already pay taxes and when you pay your taxes, you have the right to expect free public toilets/ free toilet in public buildings because you pay for the water, you pay for the electricity, you pay for the paper they put there, you pay for the guys cleaning those toilets and you pay the state to build them as well. You paid and you pay everything.
Your reasonning is a little bit like "meh, it's ok to pay for elementary school because there are teachers and electricity and food"... No it's not, you already pay for these "privileges", if you want to pay more, you pay for private toilets or private schools, not the public ones.

[dmitri11]

There were no paid toilets in the USSR. It is useless to discuss this topic if the government came to rob the common people. There are no free toilets now.

Pecunia non olet.

[john_in_bkk]

It's normal to see toilets you have to pay to use in different places in Thailand. The fee is usually minimal, something like 3 to 5 baht (10 to 15 cents US).

At the same time most restaurants, malls, schools, office buildings, gas stations, and so on will not charge for toilet use. I'm sure it wouldn't be a problem to walk into a McDonald's just to use their toilet. It works out that places you do pay are rare, like in a public park facility, or at some rest areas, or in a bus station.

We did just visit Russia and paid to use toilets in one popular mall, but few malls or other places there charged for that. It's inconsistent across the rest of Asia but rare for pay toilets to come up, but they do, here or there. I remember a funny sign in Indonesia charging by what you planned to do in the restroom, adding extra cost if you wanted to wash yourself or defecate instead of just urinate. In the US they never charge, and I don't remember running across that in Australia.

As far as the other question, if that seems to ensure better facilities, they seem to generally be worse than those that are free, because they're in places like public parks and bus stations.

[dmitri11]

It's normal to see toilets you have to pay to use in different places in Thailand. The fee is usually minimal, something like 3 to 5 baht (10 to 15 cents US).

At the same time most restaurants, malls, schools, office buildings, gas stations, and so on will not charge for toilet use. I'm sure it wouldn't be a problem to walk into a McDonald's just to use their toilet. It works out that places you do pay are rare, like in a public park facility, or at some rest areas, or in a bus station.

We did just visit Russia and paid to use toilets in one popular mall, but few malls or other places there charged for that. It's inconsistent across the rest of Asia but rare for pay toilets to come up, but they do, here or there. I remember a funny sign in Indonesia charging by what you planned to do in the restroom, adding extra cost if you wanted to wash yourself or defecate instead of just urinate. In the US they never charge, and I don't remember running across that in Australia.

As far as the other question, if that seems to ensure better facilities, they seem to generally be worse than those that are free, because they're in places like public parks and bus stations.

What to do if the money ran out?

[VaselineBasket]

We did just visit Russia and paid to use toilets in one popular mall, but few malls or other places there charged for that.

All toilets in large and medium-sized shopping centers are free. There are free-toilets in the parks too. For the rest of the places are McDonald's and KFS.

The only place, where I pay for a toilet in Russia, it`s a cafe on Federal highways.

[dmitri11]

All toilets in large and medium-sized shopping centers are free. There are free-toilets in the parks too. For the rest of the places are McDonald's and KFS.

The only place, where I pay for a toilet in Russia, it`s a cafe on Federal highways.

Putin made free toilets in Moscow so people do not shit under the Kremlin.

[VaselineBasket]

Putin made free toilets in Moscow so people do not shit under the Kremlin.

I saw the same in Tula, Voronezh, Volgograd, Sochi, Rostov-on-Don, Krasnodar and of course St. Petersburg.

I won't lie, but I don't remember the toilets in Yaroslavl.

Putin made free toilets in Moscow so people do not shit under the Kremlin.

By the way, the places around the Kremlin will have more paid toilets, because it are tourist places.

[dmitri11]

I saw the same in Tula, Voronezh, Volgograd, Sochi, Rostov-on-Don, Krasnodar and of course St. Petersburg.

I won't lie, but I don't remember the toilets in Yaroslavl.

By the way, the places around the Kremlin will have more paid toilets, because it are tourist places.

In Crimea buried billions of rubles, but I didn't see any free toilet. Crooks and thieves don't need free toilets.

Putin's thieves are making new roads for cars, but they do not make sidewalks for ordinary people. They are not interested in Cycling tracks. The Putin system is capable only to parasitize on national resources, just like the American system. ....genocide and degradation.