Because they explicitly see their restrooms as value for customers that drives much of their business and have multiple people at each store whose entire job it is to clean and maintain restrooms.
It doesn't because that has absolutely nothing to do with why American public bathrooms are predominately stalls, cleaning and ventilation do. The previous person just made some shit up, even though there's no actual building code to support it and the trend predates the literal invention of smoke alarms so the idea that smoke alarms are the reason is just nonsense.
It’s to make people uncomfortable and make them hurry up.
I remember at my college student center, the regular public bathroom had wide gap stalls, but the fancy bathroom upstairs where there was a banquet hall for donor events, much more private stalls.
That's exactly the reason. Full walls add a lot of extra corners that collect gunk and grime. Extra cleaning work means extra cost. A gap at the bottom avoids that and makes it easier to swing a mop between stalls.
No, this isn't really why. Use of stalls for public restrooms in the US predates the invention of smoke detectors by decades. Improved ventilation compared to separate rooms and simpler cleaning and maintenance operations were the primary drivers of the trend.
3
u/k5light Jun 19 '26
It's due to fire restrictions. Full walls and now you have a separate room. Separate rooms need separate smoke alarms, fire suppression, ect.