Convenient Stores Gas Stations: Is there a correlation between sales and clean bathrooms?

               For most contractors and service providers who travel to other people’s properties to execute their work, they become heavily dependent on conveniences such as restaurants, gas stations, and even supply stores. The most essential thing traveling contractors need is a nice, clean bathroom. Unfortunately, this is one of the most overlooked items by some large and small chains that cater to such individuals. There is nothing worse than having to use the restroom away from home and stumbling into a bathroom with a dirty toilet, a dated atmosphere, a lock requiring employee access, and a single gender nuetral toilet.

              You're driving down the road when you realize you need gas, you’re hungry, and you have to go to the bathroom. The common trifecta for traveling workers. Unfortunately, you are in a new neighborhood, so you can’t pick a place on personal experience. If there are chain gas stations, you can go by your overall past experience, or you must play rush-and-roulette with the unknown mom-and-pop shop. You pull into a place and rush to the restroom only to find hair and pee all over the toilet seat. So, you do your business, making sure you don’t touch that nasty toilet seat. While some may try to clean the toilet, dirty environments don’t encourage clean habits. Meaning, with every use, the funk compounds. Once you do your business, you’re happy to have relieved your bladder. You buy your gas and some snacks, and as you walk to your truck, you take a mental note to never stop at that place again.

           Even if a bathroom is clean, dated finishes can make it look dirty and depressing. There is nothing more depressing than stepping into a bathroom with dingy lighting, a loud exhaust fan, and dated fixtures. Our daily atmospheres dictate our moods. For contractors and service providers, this includes their daily stops outside properties they are working on. This means that even a bathroom break can influence whether they become repeat customers.

          Another annoying instance is when you're knocking on a bathroom door because you have been patiently waiting your turn, only to realize the door is locked, with no signage telling you to use the bathroom; you need an employee to open the door. Once you realize you have been standing at the bathroom door for no reason, you have to wait in line to have the door opened. Most people find this very inconvenient.

          For ladies, there is nothing worse than having to use a gender-shared restroom. The musky smell of men's urine fills the air, and having to maneuver around pee-sprinkled floors and navigate putting the toilet seat down is simply repulsive. After all, most biological women wipe after using the restroom, meaning everything they have to touch is a potential source of exposure to the most intimate parts of their body. This by itself can cause gas station owners to lose repeat business.

         On the flip side, some chains recognized the value of restroom accommodations. If you walk into a Buc-ee’s (Home - Buc-ees) gas station, you will find unlocked, updated, clean, and gender assigned restrooms. Buc-ee’s literally has bathroom attendants at their Royse City, Texas location. Obviously, the model of more is better is customer-approved through sales and volume. By having many gas pumps and excellent restrooms, they are literally catching more food and snack sales, because people enjoy quality environments. Just like QuikTrip, they offer cheap fountain drinks, but people pay more for quality. Meaning that if your gas station bathroom is subpar, you may be losing out to chains that prioritize all their customers' needs over just prioritizing what a customer might purchase.

          Of course, not all gas station owners have the space or budget to build out larger or separate restrooms. For these smaller stations, there are still ways to improve the customer experience. Owners can post a clearly visible cleaning schedule and ensure staff clean single restrooms frequently throughout the day. Signs indicating when the bathroom was last cleaned or providing sanitizing wipes can show a commitment to cleanliness, even if there is only one shared restroom. These small steps can make a big difference in keeping customers coming back.

       In conclusion, the quality of a gas station's bathroom could be helping or hurting their sales. Gas stations with updated, clean, high-capacity bathrooms are becoming prime examples for the industry. With growing competition in metropolitan areas, city-based gas stations that consider the little things could cash in on strong returns from customers who have the funds to pay a little extra for a bag of chips.