design:retail - February 2018 - 28

shopping with paco

028

A Golden
Opportunity

PACO UNDERHILL
CEO & FOUNDER
ENVIROSELL

p.underhill@envirosell.com

I

N 1978, I PUBLISHED my first

column in a design magazine.
The piece was called "Viva La
Difference" and talked about
the lines at Lincoln Center on
a Saturday night. Forty years
later, I am threading the same needle.
Legend has it that the first women's
public restrooms were installed in the
1830s in a Philadelphia dry goods store.
It was the first admission that women
might need to pee outside the home. It
was a scandal even in a city known as a
bastion of liberal thought.
We'd like to think that catering to
women's need for absolution might
have progressed in 175 years, but I am
sad to report that the evolution is still
in progress. Go to a Broadway show,
a popular concert or a train station,
and there is always a line at the ladies'
room. I had a girlfriend in college who
as a matter of course would invade the
men's room in movie theaters to get
to an unused stall. She was captain of
the field hockey team and a fearless
six-footer. I have met few women since
with the same kind of courage.
The Australian Government reports that roughly 13 percent of the
country's population has some form
of incontinence trouble. Pregnant
and aging women lead the list. We
know the adult diaper section is real
and merchants are just learning that
merchandising baby diapers and adult diapers in
the same section may be logical to those without
a problem, but to those with, and those caring for
adults with it, it is at best insensitive, and at worst
counterproductive.
If you look at historical blueprints of stadiums,

FEBRUARY 2018

DESIGNRETAILONLINE.COM

airports, shopping malls, movie theaters and other public buildings, the square footage allocated
to the men's and women's restrooms tends to be
identical. Architects believe in symmetry. Yet in a
men's room, you can fit roughly twice the number
of "positions" between stalls and urinals. From our

GLOBALSHOP.ORG

database in movie theaters, the average
amount of time spent in the women's
restroom is twice the average time spent
in a men's room-even when there isn't
a line. The Envirosell basic playbook is
that if you are designing a facility where
half your customers are female, the
women's restroom needs to be at least
twice the size of the men's room.
This gets back to a very basic premise. Is providing public facilities an
amenity or cost? Or in our 21st century
parlance, could it be a guerilla marketing opportunity? P&G brand Charmin
has run public bathrooms as a publicity stunt in New York's Time Square
(each stall reportedly is cleaned after
each user). I applaud their effort, since
remarkable bathroom experiences get
remarked about. From restaurants to
New York's Bryant Park, particularly
women both appreciate and recognize
the effort.
I wonder-whether at airports or
home improvement centers-if bathrooms, particularly women's rooms,
could not be a concession? Rent
the bathroom rights out to P&G; ask
Kimberly-Clark or bathroom fixture
manufacturers to showcase their
wares. Washlets, Japanese-style bidets, contoured toilet seats, fancy toilet
paper and more are only bought
after trial. Transform the dreary public
restroom experience into a golden
sales opportunity.
PACO UNDERHILL IS THE FOUNDER OF ENVIROSELL AND AUTHOR OF
THE BOOKS "WHY WE BUY" AND "WHAT WOMEN WANT." HE SHARES
HIS RETAIL AND CONSUMER INSIGHTS WITH DESIGN:RETAIL IN THIS
BI-ISSUE COLUMN.

Illustration by GST/SHUTTERSTOCK
http://www.DESIGNRETAILONLINE.COM http://www.GLOBALSHOP.ORG
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of design:retail - February 2018
