If you’ve never been in a Lowe’s…maybe you just prefer mom-and-pop hardware stores. I can’t fault ya for that. Maybe you don’t own a home (doesn’t seem so silly paying rent instead of a credit score-crushing mortgage anymore, huh?)…or maybe you just prefer one of the other corporate home-improvement stores. I’m not brand-specific when it comes to my choice of a hardware store, Lowe’s is closer to Waffle Farm.

If you’ve already seen the pictures, you’re probably wondering “What’s the deal with picture number four?!?” or “Why would he post that?”—fear not, I briefly entertained the same thoughts. Then…enlightenment…I re-read the brand of toilet seat cover dispenser…and started laughing again. Puns may suck, and puns as brand names might not work so great, but if you make toilet seat cover holders what are you gonna do? Can you imagine the group naming sessions for toilet seat cover dispensers? “Rest Assured” seems like a much better idea than anything I would come up with (I don’t think you could print—or sell—anything I’d come up with). The bathroom is decorated in tans and browns (with blue notices in-line with the Lowe’s brand), and they have two kidney-shaped sinks that I think are pretty cool…complete with sensors for saving water. For a clean bathroom with a few cool aspects, I give ‘em three-and-a-half rolls.

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Shop Smart. Shop S-mart. Oops, wrong tagline. The weird thing about this bathroom was…I wasn’t even shopping for pets (or pet supplies). So maybe I was in a Sam Raimi movie…I was gonna say “complete with Sumatran rat-monkey” but that was Peter Jackson, not Sam Raimi. I always get their earlier work confused…

Oh well. Random movie references aside, this was a pretty average bathroom. Clean (and—thankfully—free of rat-monkeys). I’ve noticed what seems to me to be an odd trend, of providing toilet paper for the baby-changing tables. Sure, it beats using paper towels; I always thought baby skin a little too sensitive for toilet paper (especially that found in public bathrooms—although I’ve also noticed that really improving—again, thankfully). In picture four you might also notice the “Employees Must Wash Hands” sign—appreciated since using the bathroom pretty much requires you to wash your hands (come on people, you miss sometimes) this seems like an odd place to find that request. Basic restroom, clean and relatively standard design (more than just let’s throw something up and call it a bathroom though). Three rolls.

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At least it’s not all-white…but it’s not very exciting, either. On the up-side, the bathroom was clean and well-kept up on my visit on 9/16/09 (don’t worry, I never tell anyone when I’m coming, so if it’s clean, it’s clean…if not, well, you’ll see it here first…unless you happen to be in the bathroom at the same time I am…or before I post it…which lately has been about a week later lol).

So I’m not sure what the deal is in picture four, apparently the soap dispenser broke and they decided to attempt a repair with what looks like clear packing tape. Here’s where I’m confused…Staples.com sells soap dispensers ranging from $7.29 for a GOJO® manual dispenser (or $9.49 for a Softsoap® manual dispenser) up to $59.99 for a fully-automated dispenser. Why didn’t they just pop a new dispenser on there?!?!? Let’s suppose they have a sanitation/cleaning material contract with a third party for just a sec…as that third party I sure as heck wouldn’t want people to go into a public restroom and see my product falling apart…that just doesn’t make sense from any angle…it’s a quick fix (I know because when I lived in an apartment I installed one in my kitchen—and I’m certainly no handyman). I really loved the vanilla ice cream cone on the vanilla-scented aerosol in picture five…I always see vanilla flowers or sticks (or both) on vanilla-scented (or flavored) stuff—this was so much better! Three rolls for a clean bathroom, minus half for the inexcusable soap dispenser issue (quick fix shouldn’t have to last more than a couple days at most…I’ll go back in later this week or next to see what’s up), plus half for the vanilla ice cream cone on the aerosol can…which brings us back to Do (oops, wrong song…brings us back to three).

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If you’re familiar with Long’s or CVS, you can probably guess that they keep their bathrooms clean—and you’d be right. Come to think of it, I don’t ever recall a dirty Long’s or CVS bathroom (if you have, please share…the only way to achieve social change is through action, and outing dirty bathrooms is a good start!). I visited this bathroom on 9/15/09.

I’ve decided to add a couple pictures to my standard three, if you go through older posts you’ll see that I do it from time to time, but I’m working to grab any interesting or “They did what?!?” moment I can. I found it particularly interesting, if you notice in the fourth picture, that’s a list of procedures for cleaning up biohazards. Long’s/CVS keeps them all over the store, and it makes total sense to have a copy in the bathroom. Then you notice the paper towel roll sitting on top of the paper towel roll holder…and I dunno about you, but I immediately go back to that list and think “hmm…if you want to decrease the spread of disease, and make sure biohazards are properly handled, you might want to keep the paper towel roll inside the roll holder…” Just a thought. Three  rolls for a clean bathroom; plus half a roll for the biohazard document (I think it’s something more employees need to be aware of, especially in bathrooms/restrooms), and minus half a roll for being too lazy to put the paper towels back or repair/replace the roll holder if that were the issue.

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