in through the other door

February 3, 2016 6:49 PM

Why do retail establishments that have two swinging doors (that you have to pull to open) usually have one locked?

For example, this restaurant has a set of really nice doors and the one on the right is always locked. A few months after they opened, they even added a very ugly permanent sign that says "<--- Use other door". Is this a safety thing? Or a security issue? I live in Tennessee but I've seen it all over the south and southwest. Do they do this in other countries? Hope me solve this mystery!

posted by dawkins_7 to Grab Bag (11 answers total)

I think it's partly a security thing, partly a laziness thing. There are extra steps when you want to lock the doors; you have to bolt one of the doors back into the floor, and it's easy to forget to do.
posted by Dr. Zira at 6:55 PM on February 3, 2016 [1 favorite]

Best answer: Two doors = double the amount of expensive, climate controlled air getting lost to the world. = double the amount of wind rushing in to disrupt the customers' nice meals. = double the amount of doors you have to remember to lock at the end of the day. = double the amount of hinged liabilities for idiot children to pinch their fingers in. = double the amount of broken door parts you have to replace when they inevitability wear out.
posted by phunniemee at 6:57 PM on February 3, 2016 [6 favorites]

Best answer: Loss (shrink) control. As in stealing. The two retail companies I worked for explicitly kept one shut because it A) slowed people down coming in and B) slowed people down going out.
posted by oflinkey at 7:07 PM on February 3, 2016 [2 favorites]

Sometimes it's a wind issue.. a door that opens and catches the wind can break or be a hazard... But, I suspect there are a number of reasons for this, depends on the situation.
posted by HuronBob at 7:12 PM on February 3, 2016 [1 favorite]

In that specific case, if you open the right door, you block the stairs on the right. My guess is that the establishment wants to avoid that or has even been told by the city they cannot use that door.
posted by AugustWest at 8:21 PM on February 3, 2016 [2 favorites]

One of the retail establishments I worked had double doors like this so large, wide items could be carried out to the customers' cars, but it as still a smaller door for security reasons.
posted by nicebookrack at 8:48 PM on February 3, 2016

So you walk up to the doors, reach out and firmly grab the door handle with your right hand, and at that exact moment someone quickly exits the building using the other door which smacks you in the face.

You then sue the restaurant for the cost of fixing your broken nose.

This is one reason why revolving doors were invented which have their own problems, primarily a slow rate of exit in an emergency, and also why shop doors tend to be made of glass.
posted by Lanark at 4:43 AM on February 4, 2016 [3 favorites]

Best answer: Life safety code calculates required egress widths for the total occupiable space, plus yadayadastuffcalcs.... I am always side-eyeing establishments that do this because it's most likely a lazy/stupid theft control idea and in case of an emergency that locked door may cause death or injury.

As an architectural person who does this type code research often, I'd look into several possibilities for why one leaf of a double door is allowed to be locked:
1. It's a strip center that was spec built and the extra door is based on worst case (highest occupancy load) scenario. It's a bad idea to leave the double door in when upfitting a space, but budget often wins.
2. It's extra just because the facility may need to haul in large items which is not an ordinary thing to have in a building, but it happens. Usually, this is at a loading dock and not somewhere that would appear to be an exit in an emergency situation.
3. Other esoteric code clauses in specific situations.

An inquiry to the Fire Marshall or local authority having jurisdiction will clarify about a specific establishment if you're interested in pursuing the issue. We
posted by mightshould at 7:10 AM on February 4, 2016 [1 favorite]

I bet that second door is only locked from the outside, and has a push bar that enables it to be opened easily from the inside.

There are very firm rules about egress in case of fire from public establishments. My bet is that they need the two doors (or, more specifically, the width of the two doors) as an emergency egress to confirm to fire code, but only want people coming in one door for reasons cited above (cold, traffic flow, etc.).
posted by anastasiav at 7:11 AM on February 4, 2016

I own a retail business in Tennessee. We have a traditional double glass door setup in our shop (photo with both doors open). For what it's worth, the fire inspector has never instructed us that we have to unlock both halves during business hours. We do, because it's super-annoying to pull on a locked door, but we don't have to.

I mention this simply because it fell under the "Huh, I didn't know that" heading for me: the largest maker of commercial doors and windows is YKK, the same company that makes the zipper holding your pants closed. We discovered this in trying to locate spare parts for our YKK doors.
posted by workerant at 8:36 AM on February 4, 2016 [1 favorite]

Best answer: I own a retail business in Tennessee. We have a traditional double glass door setup in our shop (photo with both doors open). For what it's worth, the fire inspector has never instructed us that we have to unlock both halves during business hours. We do, because it's super-annoying to pull on a locked door, but we don't have to.

Cute dog needs to lie in the sun. That requires both doors open.
posted by AugustWest at 10:26 AM on February 4, 2016 [2 favorites]