From the WTF files: Lotion in restaurant bathrooms - Why?

This annoying and relatively new practice has pissed me off from Day 1. There's absolutely no good reason that restaurant bathrooms should be stocked with unnecessary lotion. So many bathrooms are dark and often it's just hard to tell the difference between the soap and lotion dispensers.

Having thought about it, here are some possible reasons the practice persists:

1) To trick someone into accidentally not using soap when washing their hands.
2) In case someone wants to 'rub one out' while in the bathroom.
3) Gives customers an additional item to steal or vandalize.
4) Add additional strong floral scent to diners' hands in case the food served at a given establishment is really bad and needs masking.

</rant>

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My biggest issue in many private business establishments bathroom is the built in soap dispensers that are over the floor and not above the sink. So what happens is many patrons just let the soap fall on the floor which from a sanitary and customer perspective is bad overall!

I see this so many times with the soap dispensers not over the sink and dont understand how the owners of such places dont see the design flaw when building out there bathrooms.

Couldn't agree more Ronnie. I have been actively playing defense against the indistinguishable lotion and soap bottles at Avec for years. I think they should add a third bottle for antilotion liquid since it seems soap is powerless against the mighty lotion.

Funny, I was just thinking about this last night when dining at Libertad in Skokie. The soap and lotion containers are next to each other and the labels are very difficult to read in the dim lighting of their restrooms.*

I personally like when lotion is offered (dry hands!) but dislike strongly scented lotion or soap. I was surprised at one restaurant where they had such a soap/lotion because the scent totally messed with my enjoyment of the food and drink. I remember thinking that they should know better given the caliber of restaurant. Of course, I don't recall where this was...

* The scent was a non-factor last night because I used it when we were leaving so it didn't hinder the enjoyment of my meal.

turkob wrote:I think they should add a third bottle for antilotion liquid since it seems soap is powerless against the mighty lotion.

This. So much. Hahahaha

I am totally in your camp on this, Ronnie.

An industry dining companion mused that this is to disincentivize strongly-scented BYO hand lotion at the table (pine, lavender, berry, whatever), the thinking being that most folks visit the facilities early in a dining window, make use of it, and then don't add stray scents to the dining environment, giving the restaurant more control.

However, I've seen lotion at mid-rent chains (alongside truly horrifyingly-scented industrial soaps), so I don't believe this applies there. Just give us the soap, IMO.

I find my hands are often dry so I don't hate lotion in restaurant bathrooms.

However, there is no point in offering things without labels. Customers get to make choices. No one is coming to your restaurant to get lotion Rick Rolled in the lav.

I do agree with some of the above, though. Strongly scented lotions with aromas turned up to 11 have no place in a restaurant bathroom. And this is completely avoidable as there are many options, not just the business end of a sandalwood beatdown - which is the omniprescent more often than not.

Well, that or lavender.

I think that whoever sold restaurants on thick disposable towels also sweet-talked them into this lotion business.

Count me in the camp for thick disposable towels and lotion in the loo.

I can't help noticing that, from what I can tell, men are so far 100% against lotion in the loo and women are 100% for it.

When I saw the title of this post, I thought for a nano-second that this was a post I put up long ago. It wasn't, obviously, but this topic has been on my mind for years, and I am fully behind Mr. Suburban's invective, though I might feel more accepting of lotion in public washrooms if my eyes were sharp enough to discern the lotion bottle, under low-light conditions, from the soap bottle.

David Hammond wrote:When I saw the title of this post, I thought for a nano-second that this was a post I put up long ago. It wasn't, obviously, but this topic has been on my mind for years, and I am fully behind Mr. Suburban's invective, though I might feel more accepting of lotion in public washrooms if my eyes were sharp enough to discern the lotion bottle, under low-light conditions, from the soap bottle.

LOL - I kind of felt like I was channeling you when this post leapt from my fingertips.

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Katie wrote:I can't help noticing that, from what I can tell, men are so far 100% against lotion in the loo and women are 100% for it.

I'm a man who doesn't mind it and wrote so above. So nope.

I don't think there is a lot of value in making this a reductive gender thing. But if there is some reason that you as a woman appreciate lotion in the bathroom that you think folks here are overlooking, then feel free to share.

Reading a few of the responses, I'm now curious about dry hand sufferers and if their condition is so chronic and/or so critical that restroom lotion dispensers actually fulfill a necessary and urgent need to cure. If so, what was the course of action in the decades before these nuisances were foisted upon us? I also wonder what percentage of people actually use the lotion in public restrooms. I'm guessing it's very low (though, I'll bet many have used it, thinking it was actually soap). I'm also curious how many lotion users have enjoyed a bathroom lotion so much that they've actually sought to purchase it at some point after leaving the restaurant.

At times, I too suffer from dry and cracking hands but cannot imagine that condition ever driving me to lotion them up before returning to my meal. Yuck. I'll 'do my business' and wash my hands in the bathroom, and save the lotion stages of my day for home. They're never so dry that applying lotion cannot wait until I get home. It requires no restraint whatsoever on my part to bypass a bathroom lotion dispenser (though, as this thread suggests, I do have trouble ignoring them ). It's simply a natural reaction. But hey, that's just me and maybe I'm just lucky that way.

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I like lotions, and will use them if available (though if scented usually not until I'm about to leave, since I don't like smelling lotion while I am eating). My hands get very dry in the winter, and after washing them is the best time to moisturize, but I don't always carry my own lotion around. Probably I should.

To your question, yes, I have been interested in purchasing a particular lotion (or soap, for that matter) after using it in a restaurant washroom. AND was bitterly disappointed once at Avec - having noticed a nice lotion, I went back to the washroom before we left solely to use it and the bottle had been stolen.

So. There.

I've been out in front of this one for fifty years. I never leave the house without pocketing a stoppered test tube of Palmolive Dishwashing Liquid.

leek wrote:To your question, yes, I have been interested in purchasing a particular lotion (or soap, for that matter) after using it in a restaurant washroom. AND was bitterly disappointed once at Avec - having noticed a nice lotion, I went back to the washroom before we left solely to use it and the bottle had been stolen.

So. There.

All One Off places use Malin+Goetz hand soap and lotions (most often the rum ones), so feel free to treat yo self next time you need to splurge on lotion.

I don't object to lotions in bathrooms per se as some people may need them for dry skin.

However, I do object strongly to overpoweringly scented lotions (same for soap) and to dim lighting making it difficult to distinguish between lotion and soap.

If restaurants can't get it right (it doesn't take a lot) they shouldn't do it at all.

gnarchief wrote:

leek wrote:To your question, yes, I have been interested in purchasing a particular lotion (or soap, for that matter) after using it in a restaurant washroom. AND was bitterly disappointed once at Avec - having noticed a nice lotion, I went back to the washroom before we left solely to use it and the bottle had been stolen.

So. There.

All One Off places use Malin+Goetz hand soap and lotions (most often the rum ones), so feel free to treat yo self next time you need to splurge on lotion.

Not sure if you're recommending what to buy or petty larceny