There are approximately 11 million public urinals in the United States and most of them contain a urinal screen that has a high load of fragrance, offering a pleasant scent throughout the entire restroom. But what about odor control in the women’s restroom? 89% of people believe that a restroom is dirty if it has an odor and 47% of people say an unclean restroom shows a company doesn’t care about its customers (Newburger, 2020). Women’s restrooms seem to get overlooked when it comes to providing a pleasant experience, but for Regional Distributors, they have been able to tackle this issue by being a woman-owned business and selling an easy, but effective, product that eliminates odors.

Regional Distributors, a division of Imperial Dade, is a family and women-owned business located in northeast United States who sells food service, laundry, ware washing, and commercial cleaning products. They started out with one truck, one driver, and one small warehouse and are now a multi-million dollar business. They are also extremely effective at selling odor control products in women’s public restrooms, which is a major challenge that a lot of distributors face. This case study further researches why odor control is overlooked in the women’s restrooms and how Regional Distributors overcomes this.

When people smell an odor, they are breathing in lots of small molecules that stimulate specialized nerve cells called olfactory sensory neurons inside the nose (How the nose decodes complex odors 2020). Studies suggest that when we smell something, a certain combination of neurons are activated, and this activity forms a coded message that is sent to the brain to be perceived as a particular odor (How the nose decodes complex odors 2020).

These coded messages can help you assess and make decisions about your surroundings. For example, a smell can alert you when something could make you sick (What makes something smell good or bad? – UMBC: University of Maryland, Baltimore County 2022). A quote from an article by The University of Maryland, Baltimore County states “When eggs rot, bacteria multiply like crazy inside them, breaking down proteins that release a toxic chemical called hydrogen sulfide. This produces a stench that makes you want to stay far away, stopping you from eating the egg and becoming ill” (What makes something smell good or bad? – UMBC: University of Maryland, Baltimore County 2022).  A similar effect happens when we walk into a foul-smelling restroom; we perceive that it’s dirty and then immediately walk away.

In general, women spend more time in the restroom than men, spending 50% longer going to the bathroom (Do guys actually spend more time on the toilet than girls? 2019). Women are also much more likely to change their babies’ diapers and help their children in the restroom than men. According to a study, only 11.7% of restaurants in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania have changing tables in their men’s restrooms (Pandya et al., 2021). In addition, 81% of women describe themselves are “very clean” than just “clean” and are more likely to consider hygiene habits very important (Hygiene and cleanliness in the U.S. | ipsos 2018). Given this data, it makes sense that facilities would want to make women’s restrooms a pleasant place since they spend much more time in restrooms than men do and they are significantly more critical of cleanliness, but it’s often overlooked.

A second reason is that the monetary opportunity for distributors to focus on air care products in women’s restrooms isn’t understood. Below is an example of how much money 1 janitorial distributor sales representative can make if they sell 10,000 Eco Bowl Clips per year.

• Commission for each Eco Bowl Clip sold: $0.50
• Total commission: 10,000 x $0.50 = $5,000 per year

A third reason why there isn’t enough odor control in women’s restrooms is that the janitorial industry is mostly dominated by men. Nearly 67% of janitors and cleaners are men (Janitors & building cleaners 2024) and when selling janitorial products, its typically man selling to man, so the women’s room is often overlooked and not thought about.

30-day passive air fresheners, such as the Eco Bowl Clip by Fresh Products, are a great odor control option for women’s restrooms as they don’t require any batteries or electricity. Regional Distributors sells 15 times more Eco Bowl Clips than urinal screens. By being a woman-owned business, they focus on targeting and selling to the women’s restroom.

References:

DUDE Wipes. (2019, November 4). Do guys actually spend more time on the toilet than girls?. DUDE Wipes. https://dudewipes.com/blogs/dude-blog/time-on-toilet

Hygiene and cleanliness in the U.S. | ipsos. (2018, September 4). https://www.ipsos.com/en-us/news-polls/Hygiene-and-Cleanliness

Janitors & building cleaners. Data USA. (2024). https://datausa.io/profile/soc/janitors-building-cleaners#:~:text=The%20workforce%20of%20Janitors%20%26%20building,Janitors%20%26%20building%20cleaners%20is%20White

Newburger, B. (2020, November 6). Perception of smelly odors in the restroom. MicroShield360. https://microshield360.com/perception-of-smelly-odors-in-the-restroom/#:~:text=Survey%20shows%2089%25%20of%20people,return%20to%20the%20restaurant%20again

Pandya, N., Granberg, R., & McIntire, R. K. (2021, October 15). A method for investigating access to diaper changing stations in restaurants. Cureus. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8592796/#:~:text=Each%20interview%20was%20followed%20by,for%20all%20who%20need%20them.

Regional Distributors. Regional Distributors, Inc. | Rochester, NY. (n.d.). https://www.regdist.com/

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (2020, May 19). How the nose decodes complex odors. National Institutes of Health. https://www.nih.gov/news-events/nih-research-matters/how-nose-decodes-complex-odors#:~:text=These%20molecules%20stimulate%20specialized%20nerve,specific%20set%20of%20odor%20molecules

What makes something smell good or bad? – UMBC: University of Maryland, Baltimore County. UMBC. (2022, May 19). https://umbc.edu/stories/what-makes-something-smell-good-or-bad/