code locks

Hello, reader.  How are you doing?  How do you feel when you need to use the bathroom at a grocery store, but there are code locks blocking your way?

That happened to me recently.  Wow, I was upset.  As you know, I am disabled–depending on whether you know what to look for, my disabilities may or may not be invisible.  And I had already blown my spoons for the day.  I was livid that I needed to walk back to another part of the store and ask a worker for the code.  It’s hard to interrupt someone, and it’s hard to add another step of pain.  When you gotta go, you gotta go!

Mostly I was livid thinking of the people more disabled than me.  Disability is no joke.  Feels so wrong that stores do this to people, to the people they’re making tons of money off.

Regular grocery stores are multi-horrible.  I don’t go to them, which is a gift from Ming.

upset

I was so upset I wrote a letter to the grocery store chain, then looked up online where to mail it.  Also I called the disabled complaint line.  I had never done the phone call part before.  I was scared to call, but it was an appropriate thing to do with my upset emotions.  Anger gives me energy, and I need to use the energy in a helpful way.  Might as well do some disability justice.

Below is the letter I wrote.  Please feel free to use it as a template, if you ever want to do direct action like this.  My activism is open source!

Probably it will produce no good.  Probably they will not remove the code locks.  Sadly it might even backfire–what if they take out the bathrooms entirely?  But I needed to say something.

letter

Dear ________,

Today I went to your store on ______ Rd to buy frozen meals for my disabled friend who was out of food. I am disabled also and don’t usually enter grocery stores because they are overwhelming for people like me who have sensory processing differences.

But I needed to pick out the meals. I was depleted by the harsh lighting, the noise of music and advertisements over your loudspeaker, and confusing information-overloading price signs on the freezer shelves.

My spouse paid for our purchases. I needed to use the bathroom but had no energy left for the day. Thinking of my health and how my body is negatively impacted by holding in my urine, I forced myself to find and walk to the bathroom in your store. I was extremely upset a code lock blocked my entry.

I was in a bad position now of needing to find an employee to ask for the code, but I had used all my energy already. It hurt that I needed to sacrifice my well-being because of the code lock on your bathroom door. My guess is that you use code locks in order to prevent homeless people from using the bathroom, and maybe also in an attempt to curtail theft.

more difficult

I would like to remind you that buying food is something we almost all need to do. Buying food is not a luxury, and for many people, it’s not a pleasure. People come to your store from the hospital, from jail, from living on the street, from the funeral, from the nursing home– from all kinds of exhausting work.

Making it more difficult for disabled people to use the bathroom is cruel. Requiring us to find an employee to ask is wrong. Many people have memory and cognition problems who could not remember the code also.

Please support the communities where your stores are located. Please have the basic respect of allowing us to the use the bathroom without added energy expenditure and pain.

I would be happy to talk with you more about how to be respectful to your customers. Disabled people, elderly people, parents of young children, pregnant people, and other marginalized people deserve to use the toilet.

Good wishes,

Laura-Marie

questions for discussion

How disabled are you?

How do you feel when you have a bodily need like to pee, and you are thwarted?

Which kinds of injustice will you speak up about?

Is there any kind of shopping you enjoy?

What would your ideal grocery store look like?  Sound like?  Feel like?

How do you like to get food to eat, besides grocery stores?

If you had more energy, what would you do differently?

If you had less energy, what would you do differently?