On a long drive home, the passengers in the car asked for a bathroom stop. The first stop we were able to make was at a shopping center with many restaurants and stores. One of the passengers said, “We can go to Best Buy. They have bathrooms for their customers.”
After the five of us had all used the bathrooms at Best Buy, there was a feeling of guilt that lingered. After having used their facilities, their water, their paper towels, should we buy something in return? Was what we just did considered wrong? Or was it perfectly OK?
If you are unable to resolve this guilt, a bathroom stop like this can slowly eat you alive, and even morph into something more detrimental to your practice. In this particular case, there wasn’t a sign posted that read, “Restroom for customers only,” like at other businesses. And if the restroom was only for customers, at least two of the people who used the restroom were regular customers who had racked up enough points to have Elite membership status.
Even for someone who has never shopped at Best Buy, you should be able to resolve this guilt. If you ask me, did I feel guilty? I felt like they are doing business, and if possible we would buy something. But we walked around and couldn’t find anything to buy. Plus this bathroom break was an emergency.
As an ex-business owner who put up signs that said “Restroom for customers only” there were times we allowed non-customers to use the restroom if the circumstances allowed. If a non-customer were to ask to use our bathroom on a night with a full house when we only had one restroom we might not allow it.
Don’t let it become a burden for you. After all these are issues are in your own mind. It is good to have courtesy, but when that courtesy becomes a burden, you’re doing something wrong.
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