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I think from Starbucks's perspective (and any other store's perspective), they hate having to expend resources on people who don't actually buy anything from them. There were rumors several years ago that Starbucks wanted to close off bathrooms to the public because they were becoming the de facto public bathroom in NY.

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This would be a very short-sighted thinking. ROI of making your toilets public feels like it would be much bigger than of any money spent on advertising. Here you have potential customers actually present in your store.

Also, for example I remember exactly where every McDonald's and KFC in my town's centre is only because I sometimes need them as an emergency toilet and/or free Wi-Fi provider. Guess what places come to my mind first when I'm hungry and in the area?

A starbucks in Madrid has a scanner that validates your purchase ticket in order to access the bathroom.

Lucky for me, the door was half open already.

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