7 ms·
Rent-a-Potties, paired with some kind of mobile app, make good business sense to me. Especially if you can get some kind of network effect / critical density ma
by hiAndrewQuinn 2y ago
Rent-a-Potties, paired with some kind of mobile app, make good business sense to me. Especially if you can get some kind of network effect / critical density mass going in a given area.
A person is out and about town, and suddenly has to go, bad. They pull out the app and find their closest Rent-a-Potty. It appears on their map with a green dot - that means the last person to use it considered it reasonably clean, a good sign. (Everyone knows that people whose usage of the Rent-a-Potty is, ahem, strongly correlated with the state transition to an orange or red dot face price hikes, or possibly even expulsion from the app as a whole, so there's good reason to leave it at least as good as you found it.)
They tap the dot, hit "Reserve", and the timer begins. A 4 digit PIN code appears on the screen, your secret incantation to the hall of the porcelain throne. These things are not cheap - $1 per minute for the first 10 minutes of reservation, $2 past that. But they're emptied every night, the sink always has hot water, and the soap is always refilled.
Some people have tried to game the system by {your deviancy here}; the company has responded with {countermeasures you're smart enough to think of here}. Some enterprising souls could theoretically {countercountermeasure}, but honestly, implementing {countercountercountermeasure} isn't a huge concern for Rent-a-Potty's C-suite, compared to the recent competition from new market entrants like Loolurker, AirPnP, and Pouber.
- lobochrome 2y agoWe all pee and poop. Every. Single. Human. There is no place for “business”. It’s the literal definition of a public good and such the role of the government.
- CrazyStat 2y agoWe all eat too. Is there no place for “business” in eating? Should all restaurants be nationalized?
- citizenkeen 2y agoNo, but we try to guarantee that you have food.
- didgeoridoo 2y agoThere’s a substantial difference between governments trying to provide a service (which they are generally terrible at) and paying for a service on behalf of those who cannot afford it (which they tend to be reasonably competent at). EBT is a pretty good program. Government grocery stores would almost certainly be an abomination (just ask your local public school cafeteria or military base mess hall). Edit: adgjlsfhk1 is correct that “generally terrible” is overstated and simplistic. Hopefully better take downthread.
- mistersquid 2y ago> Government grocery stores would almost certainly be an abomination (just ask your local public school cafeteria or military base mess hall). Military bases run PXs and commissaries and these stores have reasonable (mid to high mid) quality goods.
- freedomben 2y ago> Military bases run PXs and commissaries and these stores have reasonable (mid to high mid) quality goods. The PXs are pretty good but are priced comparably or higher than free-market stores off-base, and even still are subsidized by base funds. The Class Six is very well done and potentially profitable, though that's just a guess. The commissaries are much more expensive than off-base stores and likewise are subsidized by base funds. For the most part only the officer's and senior NCO's families can afford to shop at the Commissary. Disclaimer: I left active duty in the late 00s so things might have changed since then
- adgjlsfhk1 2y agothe idea that the government is inherently bad at providing services is just very silly. roads, postal service, and national parks are all really great services that the government provides. the idea that the government only does things well by paying private companies to do them just doesn't have basis in reality.
- 2y ago
- haliskerbas 2y agoDeleted
- didgeoridoo 2y agoThis rant is in such poor faith. Flagged.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- MOARDONGZPLZ 2y agoYes, completely agree here. But that’s not mutually exclusive with the rent a potty idea. Public bathrooms in parks and such are often, by necessity, quite spartan. They have no toilet stall doors, don’t have the soap filled as often as necessary, have those weird metal mirrors rather than more useful mirrors. I would honestly pay for rent a potty even if public toilets were (and they should be!) available and convenient.
- kevinmchugh 2y agoI'm not very well traveled, but I think I've used a pay toilet in every country I've been to other than the US (and the little bit of Canada I've seen) They're illegal in many US cities (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Committee_to_End_Pay_Toilets_in_America https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Committee_to_End_Pay_Toilets...), and American taxpayers don't like footing the bill. So we end up with Starbucks and Dunkin as de facto pay toilets, where you have to buy a pastry or drink to take a pee. I don't really understand why it should be illegal to pay someone for a vital human need
- didgeoridoo 2y agoClassic first order thinking. Forcing someone to pay directly to access a toilet is yucky. Voting against pay toilets makes you a good person. Second order effects? Please. Those aren’t on the ballot, and are hard to stuff into a sound bite.
- baggy_trough 2y ago> Voting against pay toilets makes you a good person. Voting against pay toilets makes you a foolish and counterproductive person that thinks you're a good person.
- RobinL 2y agoA public good is a commodity or service that is non-excludable (no one can be effectively excluded from using it) and non-rivalrous (one person's use of the good does not reduce its availability to others) Examples include clean air, national defense, and public parks. This isn't to say they shouldn't be provided by the government, but they're definitely not a public good
- rightbyte 2y agoHow can you list parks but not toilettes? If anything, pooping is as neccessary as breathing.
- didgeoridoo 2y agoIs there no room for grocery stores and restaurants too, since all humans need food? If you’re looking for a role for government here, I could see budgeting in some tax breaks for local businesses that make their restrooms publicly accessible. The infrastructure is already there, no need for a complicated business model.
- trogdor 2y ago> I could see budgeting in some tax breaks for local businesses that make their restrooms publicly accessible. People significantly underestimate the cost of maintaining clean public restrooms in urban areas. When restrooms are used properly, maintenance costs are reasonable and predictable. But that is not what happens. Restrooms contain private areas, and that reality invites other uses, like drug use, prostitution, and sleeping. And those uses come at a steep cost. Separately, in my experience, many businesses do make their restrooms available to people who look presentable and who ask politely. They just don’t advertise it, and they may even advertise the opposite.
- smcleod 2y agoThis. Absolutely spot on. The profitisation common services is absolutely disgusting. It is literally the reason we have governments to build and make available for the people.
- TeaBrain 2y agoThat might be ideal, but we don't live in an ideal world. The public government isn't providing this in nearly any large US city. A few that have tried have ended their attempts due to the cost. CTA provided restrooms at the stations till the 1970s, but ended access to those due to the costs and safety concerns. Having pay restrooms would be an alternative to have no option at all.
- dawnerd 2y agoThis is already a thing in Europe and it’s awful. Paying a euro or two just to go sucks.
- hiAndrewQuinn 2y agoI'm in Europe, and I think it's great. :)
- lazide 2y agoAlternate take - the toilets in Europe, while a euro or two, are actually nice and relatively well maintained. And relatively common. So while you do have to keep a few coins on you, unlike cities like NYC or SF you can actually go to the toilet when you want and it isn’t a stress inducing nightmare wondering what sort of hell you are going to run across if you do actually find a toilet. Places with ‘free water’ almost always have terrible water availability and quality. Same problem.
- dawnerd 2y agoThe ones I used in Paris recently were no better, one worse, than any other free public toilet. IMO tourist taxes should be the thing paying for it.
- briHass 2y agoIf that got me a reasonably clean and reasonably available location, that's money well spent. Cleaning and maintaining a restroom isn't free, and something needs to pay for it. Highway rest stops are usually pretty clean, but they are paid for with tolls/very high gas taxes.
- saturn8601 2y agoThis is anecdotal but in my experience the restrooms still suck and are poorly maintained (This was my experience in Hamburg and Amsterdam in 2023). What is even worse is that there seems to be a little recourse to correct it in the short term. There isn't a "Free market" of toilet companies because the same firm seems to capture all the toilets in a given area. So you have the worst of all worlds, you have to pay to use a poorly maintained restroom and there is little you can do about it...at least as a traveler not familiar with the local customs. Maybe locals can enact some improvement.
- hypeatei 2y agoI think this model could benefit from dynamic pricing - higher demand equals higher prices.
- screamingninja 2y agoOr perhaps higher demand can be a signal to increase supply instead of price gouging. Why incentivize anyone to limit supply?
- hypeatei 2y agoSorry, my comment was a joke, I wasn't being serious.
- didgeoridoo 2y agoI think we should charge by the pound. Not because it makes any actual sense, but because it would be hilarious.
- SoftTalker 2y agoCombine it with AI video recognition. If you walk up calmly its $1, if you're dancing around and crossing your legs it's $5.
- johnisgood 2y agoMakes sense, they are probably more likely to pay the price. Good for business.
- citizenkeen 2y agoThis is so disgusting. The idea of milking maximum profit from such a basic human function really highlights the way extreme capitalism trends toward evil.
- Arnt 2y agoI know sometime who ran a gas station. They had to clean their toilet after every fifth customer on average. That's a real cost. Explain what's evil, please.
- baggy_trough 2y agoEvil is apparently when people who don't know what it costs to provide a service think they should get it for free.
- freedomben 2y agoI agree very much in principle, but pragamatically (i.e. in the real world) this strikes me as utopian and impossible, at least until human nature changes. Toilets are a scarce resource (economically speaking), and thus there must be some rationing method in place. If it's not monetary, it will be something else. In a perfect world there would be plentiful bathrooms and everyone would diligently clean up after themselves and take the trash out when full, so operating costs would be minimal (power and water bill and occassional maintenance). In the real world though, people don't do that, meaning you have to hire people to clean. Some people will also vandalize, which gets expensive in a hurry. Public (government-run) restrooms tend to be even worse because they aren't actively monitored, and for whatever reason people like to trash them.
- 01HNNWZ0MV43FF 2y agoThe idea that giving up all your privacy isn't worse than spending a dollar really highlights something
- jtsiskin 2y agoWait until you hear about the cost of food, shelter, and healthcare…
- lwhi 2y agoWhere do you go if you don't have any money?
- hypeatei 2y agoAnd you don't even have to be poor, what if you just aren't carrying your wallet/phone?
- Zambyte 2y agoMy wallet feels as essential as my keys when leaving my home. Are you just making the point for people who forget their wallet, or do you think there is good reason to intentionally not carry your wallet?
- hypeatei 2y agoNo, I just think we should resist the notion we need to carry things on us at all times to exist as a human being.
- ghaff 2y agoI can exist without carrying things. Practically, if I'm walking around a city, I probably want to have ID and some way of paying for things (and to get back into my home which is presumably locked). If I just take a stroll on the river path from my house I often don't carry anything but mostly I do.
- ghaff 2y agoSome people these days just carry a couple cards with their phone but that's still functionally a wallet. And a lot of things are headed towards contactless payment with phones or smart watches though I'd have trouble wanting to depend on that.
- astura 2y agoI don't ever carry my wallet or keys when I go for a walk, which is usually once a week when it's nice out. I do carry my phone, for podcasts. My door has a keypad to get in.
- 38 2y agoDisgusting. What about people that can't afford it? Should they just shit on the sidewalk?
- Ekaros 2y agoI was thinking, Uber of toilets. You can order mobile toilet driven to you and then you are charged reasonable rate for distance and travel time it did. Plus ofc, standard fee. And time you spend inside.
- twelve40 2y agodriven is so 2023, airlifted by an electric drone
- tzs 2y agoI've wondered if it would make sense for hotel/motel chains to offer a paid toilet service. Their locations already have a bunch of toilets (one in each guest room plus ones for the lobby and for meeting rooms) and already have cleaning people there to keep those clean. Sell day passes that give you 24 hours access. If I were, say, going to drive from Seattle to Los Angeles I'd pay $20 to buy a pass that would let me pull into any Motel 6 along the way to use a clean bathroom.
- lotsofpulp 2y ago95%+ of hotels/motels do not have 24 hour cleaning staff, and the guest service agents working the computer are not going to be wanting to clean bathrooms. All those branded 80 to 120 room hotel/motels are trying to reduce the staffing outside of 7AM to 4PM, even to the point of having check in kiosks that video call you to someone in South Asia/Phillipines/South America.
- trogdor 2y agoSomeone who can afford to pay $20/day for a bathroom pass is probably presentable enough that they can walk in and get permission to use the bathroom for free.
- p51-remorse 2y agoAnd if you’re driving, you can always stop at any gas station. Top off your tank if it makes you feel better, but realistically no one there is getting paid enough to cross reference gas buyers with poopers.
- Cerium 2y agoThat use case is already covered by costco membership. Costco locations are nicely distributed near freeway exits across the nation. Plenty of parking, decent bathrooms, and you can get food of you need it.
- reverius42 2y agoAlso cheap gas!
- underseacables 2y agoIt appears to be called Flush! https://techcrunch.com/2024/01/05/this-app-lets-cafes-and-coffee-shops-charge-to-use-the-bathroom/#:~:text=Flush%20is%20a%20double%2Dsided,taking%20—%20a%20cut%20of%20reservations https://techcrunch.com/2024/01/05/this-app-lets-cafes-and-co....
- 01HNNWZ0MV43FF 2y agoPlease no more fucking apps. If I have to tell someone my legal name to shit I'm gonna shoot myself Just take quarters and give poor people some cash so they can shit too. Please please please
- bombcar 2y agoApple Maps already shows restrooms available publicly - search "restroom" and you'll see. But it finds things like mall bathrooms and park bathrooms but not gas station bathrooms, at least the first time I tried it. The real problem is when you're in an unfamiliar area and don't know the local secrets about where restrooms can be found.
- JadeNB 2y ago> Everyone knows that people whose usage of the Rent-a-Potty is, ahem, strongly correlated with the state transition to an orange or red dot face price hikes, or possibly even expulsion from the app as a whole, so there's good reason to leave it at least as good as you found it. This seems very susceptible to abuse. You (not you personally, but someone malicious) go into the restroom, mark it in a poor state, do whatever awful thing people do to get restrooms in the state in which they're so often found, and leave. Now it's the last person, who left it in a perfectly good state, who gets the blame.
- twelve40 2y agoyou could have customer profile rating like uber does, manual or algorithmic ones (based on what happened after you went). Then, if you get framed by a weirdo like that once or twice, it will be compensated for by the majority of your good behavior. this is so dumb lol likely will just continue with starbucks and gas stations
- hiAndrewQuinn 2y agoThe kind of person who would do that once would probably be the kind of person who would do that many times, thinking it's a clever way to bypass the system. However, being the operation who marks every toilet they see as red 100% of the time is just as if not more suspicious as the person who other people mark red after the fact 100% of the time. If we really want to take it up a notch, we have ways to do so. Deviancy, countermeasure, arms race all over again - but few such arms races are actually worth the hassle.