Could Germany's Portable Woman's Toilet Expand Plumbing Product Offerings?

Photo: KETS

I don't make this stuff up. I'm not that imaginative. I just pass it along. According to a story from Germany's Spiegel...

A German company says it has designed the world's first pocket urinal for women and claims it will put an end to nightmare encounters with filthy public toilets, time-consuming queuing and having to relieve oneself into yoghurt cups during car journeys.

The disposable Ladybag is a plastic bag fitted with absorbent polymers that turn urine into a gel. It's the size of a chocolate bar when folded. It has a wide opening and can be used squatting, sitting or standing. Its gel can absorb half a liter -- enough to process the average amount of urine per sitting -- but the bag itself can hold a whole liter in an emergency.

Yogurt cups during car journeys? Maybe the Germans are a little too efficient.

A package of three Ladybags costs a little more than $16 in Germany ($13 without the German value-added tax). Over 20 thousand have sold in the first year. A similar product for men, called the Roadbag, sells at the rate of 200 thousand a year.

I don't know whether anyone is planning on importing these into North America, though this seems like the type of product Shubee or M.A.R.S. might carry. If so, it might lead to add-on sales during calls.

Personally, I'll never be able to drive the Autobahn again without wondering... Nah. I'm not going there.

A Sticky Situation Could Be A Plumber's Opportunity

A 58 year old man got stuck in an Australian public bathroom. He got literally stuck. Someone applied a powerful adhesive to public toilet seats and this guy sat on it.

It's one of those things that's sorta funny unless you're the guy who had to go to the emergency room with a toilet seat glued to your posterior. The Australian police are not amused.

"I'm disgusted that a gentleman has had to go through that because someone thinks it's funny -- it's a sick joke," one official told the Australian Associated Press.

Probably not as disgusted as the hospital staff, who were tasked with deseating the victim. Fortunately industrial strength solvents solved the problem.

All of this raises the question, "Don't public bathrooms down under have the sanitary toilet seat covers?"

Guess not. Or, this particular shopping center in Cairns lacked them. But then, so do a lot of public restrooms, all over the world.

This seems to me to be the perfect opportunity for private labeling travel packs of toilet seat covers to use as a great ad premium. Leave them with customers after service calls or scheduled maintenance. Heck, sell them!

Branded travel toilet seat covers should be a perfect product for Mars or Shubee to offer plumbers. That's a hint guys.

And for the Australian plumbers reading this, take advantage of the Cairns incident to issue a press release to the local media announcing your offer of free disposable travel toilet seat covers with every service call.