Starbucks - Granville and W Georgia

2 out of 5 Toilets

The Starbucks on Granville and W Georgia in downtown Vancouver is one of two at the intersection. This Starbucks directly faces another Starbucks across the street in the Sears department store. This allows you to sit at the window of one and wink and wave at patrons in the other. Its all fun and games. But, what happens if this is your location where your bladder just can't go any farther. Well, its unfortunate. You would be better going across the street into the Sears or the Bay for your deposit needs.

The immediate problem with using the washroom at this Starbucks is that the area that they have put it is so small. Not uncommon to Starbucks washrooms, there are no male/female separate rooms. Instead, these are shared communal toilets, with the exception that one is labelled for handicapped.


While standing in line with everyone else, you are conscious of how long each person is taking in the washroom, and how long it is going to take you. You don't want to hold up the line, and then have to walk past everyone hanging your head in shame. Luckily for me, I hadn't had my Venti coffee yet, so I was in and out in a jiffy.


The Good:

It smelled good, and there was lots of paper towel and toilet paper on hand.
Seat covers provided.
Baby Changer

The Bad:

Whenever you walk into a washroom, and the first thing you see is a dirty floor, instantly you think the place is unsanitary. As shown here with paper towel on the floor as well as pieces of toilet paper. Clearly staff have not been in the washroom recently to see this, or they decided to ignore it. Either way, gross. Be especially careful in this situation, you don't want to be that person who walks out the door with tp sticking to the bottom of your shoe. Notice that that toilet seat is up. This is the problem with unisex washrooms. If you're a female walking in here, and seeing all the garbage on the floor, plus the seat is up, are you really going to want to touch the seat to put it down and then sit on it? Probably not. Most likely you will also be grumbling something about men and how messy they are.

You may want to double up on those seat covers.....

In this photo, if you look at the mirror, you can see the dried water splatter. I have mentioned this in previous reviews, and most of you probably skipped over it or didn't think about it. But when you see it here, you can see why I mention it. I don't like looking at a mirror and seeing dried soap and water all over it. Again, it makes me wonder what exactly people are doing in this washroom. Especially because this is located downtown and probably sees high use. The garbage can is also in an awkward location, sitting directly beside the toilet. If I had to go #2, I would probably move the garbage can first before going. Again, having the garbage by the door gives the user the most sanitary exit option.

Overall:


In the end this washroom fails for a few reasons. It is too small, as seen in the photo above, with the baby changer down, the garbage where it as and the toilet and sink, there is not much room left to even stand. The floor is dirty, showing that the staff don't take the washroom as a priority. Also, if you have to do anything of emergency importance, chances are you will be stuck waiting in line for 3-5 minutes so plan ahead. Remember that if you are going to be in the washroom for 5 minutes, you will be facing a bunch of unhappy customers waiting and glaring at you as you come out.

My suggestion, don't use it. Go across the street to one of the big department stores where you have multiple floors of washrooms, which you can use at your leisure and comfort.