Branching out from the age-old adage that you can tell a lot about someone by their friends, I’d like to postulate that you can tell a lot about an establishment by their bathrooms. From the quality (or lack thereof) in their toilet paper, the cleanliness, the absorbency of the hand towels (or perhaps they use hand dryers), and even whether the trash is emptied often or spills over towards the end of every day.
In one restaurant I visited I found that even though it was a “one-at-a-time” style bathroom, with a single sink, they had 3 different soap dispensers. I didn’t think to test if they filled them with three different kinds of soap, but if I ever go back I will update this post. I can tell you that they weren’t labeled to indicate different soap types.
Other than having three different types of soap, why else could they need three dispensers?
Yes– i would have to agree. When Meaghan and I go out, we comment on the quality (or lack thereof) of the establishments. For example, you may go to a nice restaurant and it has a terrible bathroom. On the other hand, you may visit a hole in the wall place and the bathroom is immaculate. I have a great respect for places (and people for that matter) that maintain a quality bathroom. my top 5 bathrooms in the milwaukee area are as follows:
BW3(s) — wauwatosa
food court bathroom at the wauwatosa mall
macy’s department store bathroom
safe house restaurant
c-terminal bathroom near the security station at the milwaukee airport
Since you did not test them all, how do you know that the other two were even in use? May be they have been left there so that the whole loo did not need redecorating just because the dispensed liquid soap supplier changed. In other words: this is what we call a ‘legacy problem in the IT industry. 😉
no question in my mind:
soap
lotion
hand sanitizer
From looking at the photo, it looks like the white dispenser on the far right has pink soap in it. The dark dispenser on the left also seems to have pink soap in it. Do you think the loo owners were trying to accommodate both left and right handers?
I realise this doesn’t explain the middle option, but from the streaks on the wall, that dispenser leaks – and so may be no longer in active use.
@ Pat Cleaver – What are your local McDonald’s? Say what you want about the food, but McD’s has a global reputation for cleans toilets. You gotta respect that, I guess.
Was this picture taken before or after use of the facilities? My guess is after as most folks may not notice the dispensers upon entry. I hope you washed your hands prior to handling the camera.
@ Steve – You raising an interesting point. Why do so many guys NOT wash their hands after going to the loo? What’s up with that? Do women have a better track record with hand sanitation in public toilets?
Oh, I am not suggesting that Conall doesn’t wash his hands. I’ll leave him to answer that directly.
What a great set of commentary! Thanks everyone for contributing. Please see my responses.
@ Pat
I was truly impressed that you knew immediately the top 5 best bathrooms in the Milwaukee area!
@ Shefaly
Couldn’t they just refill the soap instead of adding an entirely new dispenser? Or would that just be too logical?
@ Mom
Sure, those all make sense as options, but without labels how would you know which you were getting?
@ Liam
I dig the ambidextrous interpretation. Still waiting on a clever reason behind the center dispenser. It is pretty cool that McDonald’s has a corporate initiative to keep the bathroom’s clean. I guess we’re not the only folks who think it’s important.
@ Steve
Thanks for bringing this up. I actually was hesitant to post the picture because I figured SOMEBODY would take that point of view. That said, it definitely was AFTER washing my hands that I took the picture, because, as you astutely suggested, I didn’t even notice the multiple dispensers until I was already washing my hands.
Just to put my two cents worth in —
I was surprised that Pat did not list McDonald’s in his Top 5, as that is usually where he takes me on “date night” — he should know about McD’s for sure!
As to why the three dispensers — perhaps the rationale is akin to why we will have different flooring in our home — maybe the makers of the first dispenser stopped making that style, and when it broke, it was more convenient to simply buy the new style and leave the old one up!
@ Conall, my friend, you asketh profound questions and you answereth them too 😉
This is the most interesting commentary on bathroom soap dispensers I have ever read. I was surprised that no one mentioned either of my first two conclusions, after viewing the photo in question. One, if the soap dispensers are seriously attached to the wall, they may have simply replaced a broken dispenser with a new one, and not bothered taking the old one off because of the necessary repairs to the wall after its removal. Two, they run out of soap often, or its just a pain to refill, so they have THREE of them! Then they have to painstakingly refill less often. I work in the service industry…stinkin soap dispensers!
@ Marci
Thanks for visiting and for the comments! Good insights into the world of soap dispensing hospitality.
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