In an extraordinary display of empathized forward thinking, Kroger Store, the grocery retail chain, installed a unisex bathroom in one of its Athens, Georgia outlet.
The thought behind this noteworthy initiative is that the store felt that sometimes gender-specific restrooms put certain groups of people in an awkward situation.
For instance, fathers with daughters or mothers with sons and of course the LGBTQ community may feel uncomfortable or confused on whether to use the Men's room or the Women's. In such cases and for the public in general, a gender-neutral restroom works both ways and caters to everyone on an unbiased level!
At the store, a bathroom sign or a notice per se has been pasted on the bathroom door under a large "Unisex" banner. The notice goes on to describe the initiative and lists the different groups of people who might benefit from using a unisex bathroom.
A customer, Tonya Owens, a resident of Athens, who recently visited this particular outlet, was impressed with the initiative, took a pic of the bathroom sign and posted it on his Facebook page. It went viral with several people supporting the idea, commenting on it and sharing it. The post received over 2,300 comments and 62,000 likes, and was shared more than 85,000 times on Facebook.
The printed-out notice pasted on the door reads like this, "We have a UNISEX bathroom because sometimes gender specific toilets put others into uncomfortable situations. And since we have a lot of our friends coming to see us, we want to provide a place for our friends who are: Dads with daughters, Moms with sons, Parents with disabled children, LGBTQ community, Adults with aging parents who may be mentally or physically disabled. THANK YOU for helping us provide a safe environment for EVERYONE!"
This bold new step by the store chain has been lauded across Social Media. While there were those who were skeptical about the whole initiative and disapproved it, the post, however, garnered more positive attention than negative.
