You can walk into almost any place where you get food in the US to use a toilet.
Last time I was in EU was 10 years ago but tried to use a toilet in a bar and got yelled at unless I bought something first.
Last time I was in EU was 10 years ago but tried to use a toilet in a bar and got yelled at unless I bought something first.
Even in the US you cannot just walk into every bars and restaurants and use their toilets for free...
Take another extreme - allowing people in only if they will definitely buy something in the store. It reduces shoplifting and traffic that doesn't buy anything! Except that would drastically reduce sales from lack of people who haven't already decided in addition to being put off by it. The "buy something" policies strike me as similarly pennywise and pound foolish.
If you're in a place with tons of mentally disabled folk or other type of people that don't respect public areas, then it's going to cost you more than it helps you.
Also, it could be more headache than its worth if you're at a big tourist spot where the probability of someone buying something is not high enough compared to the enormous amount of people who will want to use a bathroom.