My wife and I travel to Maine often to visit friends and family. There is a chain of gas stations called Blue Canoe (how cute) that are run by the Irving company up there. We almost always (99% of the time) stop at a Blue canoe in Falmouth to gas up, get soft-drinks, and do our business. Why? Immaculate rest-rooms.
How many public restrooms have you been in that were a disaster? And don’t they give you a horrible impression of the establishment?
I can tell you that one of the swankiest malls in Boston has filthy, foul-smelling bathrooms. It’s one of those places that you need a second mortgage to buy a pair of shoes. You can’t tell me that the can’t afford an extra few hundred dollars a week to keep their bathrooms spotless. It’s simply laziness and a lack of appreciation for the fact that every shopper – even the wealthy ones – have to pee.
As a marketing tool, a gas station with an sparkling rest-room is a huge differentiator. I can tell you that there are frequently lines to use the rest room at this gas station, and everybody is getting gas and snacks while they are there anyway. I have never seen anything like...