So today on my trip to Aldi…
I arrived seriously clenching and praying to make it to the restroom before I lost control. Sometimes when you gotta go…you really gotta go! Anyway…guess what?
The bathroom was barricaded with a giant box cart, a wet floor sign, and a mop bucket that looked recently used. But as a man who desperately had to go, I moved the cart and slipped into the restroom, locking the door behind me. Not a moment too soon!
The problem comes about 5-10 minutes later as I’m washing my hands, I can hear outside two of the Aldi workers talking, “He pushed the cart out of the way,” was the only line I heard. But upon exiting the bathroom I was confronted by one of the female workers, she was maybe 20 years old and looked irritated. “Please don’t push the cart out of the way, that was extremely rude!” She said.
I being slightly embarrassed grew irritated as well at her tone. “ It shouldn’t be blocked” I stated. She replied that the bathroom was blocked for cleaning. I then told her that it was urgent and I would’ve had an accident all over the floor. “That’s your problem” she said. “No, it would’ve been our problem, it’s better to clean a toilet than a floor”…I wasn’t shouting, quite the opposite, trying to keep my voice down out of embarrassment, but I wasn’t happy either.
I asked if she understood my problem, but apparently she had never had such an emergency before and stalked off. So I went about my shopping.
Later as I approached the checkout she was cashiering but as she saw me come up she walked off to organize shelves and another lady took her place. I suppose she had worked this out earlier with her coworker. After I checked out I decided to walk up to her…” I’m sorry for earlier, you were right, it was rude of me. After I walked around a bit I realized this, I hope you have a good evening” I told her. She smiled slightly and said “it’s okay, you too.”
I’m posting this mainly because it bothered me, being confronted after such an emergency. I guess they had blocked the area off so the floor could dry, as it was noticeably wet when I entered. I felt guilty for being angry, and angry because I wasn’t understood, or that she didn’t care about my problem.
I guess I’m asking everyone, was I wrong to push past the barrier to enter the men’s bathroom before it was too late? No one was actively cleaning, if they had been I would’ve begged…and my mind was only on one thing so I couldn’t spare another second to find a worker to ask permission. But…maybe I should’ve. Was the worker wrong to have confronted me? Or was all of this just an unfortunate turn of events for which there is no clear answer.
What would you have done differently?