I have no issue with forced dress codes. In many jobs, employees are required to purchase their own uniforms. I am sure however, Macy's could afford to give them free clothes to start and therefore should morally.

No, educated and empowered employees improve my shopping experience.

Yes. If you can't see the educated and empowered employees, why have them at all?

For Macy's, black attire would be a good, clean, professional "uniform" while still allowing everyone to not be identical.

Ohay goth convention!

Why was the poll deleted?

Yes, all employees should wear black turtle necks and blue jeans.

I once worked a summer at the Sharper Image, where we had to wear all black. One day a customer was browsing around and asked me if black was my favorite color. Without skipping a beat, I replied, "Black is the favorite color of all Sharper Image employees." He chuckled and mentioned something about working in media.

It makes for a lame story, but it was probably the wittiest moment I will ever have.

Flourescent yellow jump suits would be better. If they are all dressed in "covert" black, they will be invisible in their poorly lit and cluttered stores.

See, Canada thought this problem through before it came up. While you can charge an employee a deposit to ensure the return of uniforms, you cannot actually require them to PAY for uniforms in Canada. In the case of requirements such as specific color, if it is of a style, color, or design the employee would not wear outside of work, the employer must provide it free (deposit allowed) to the employee. IE, Black dress or casual pants can be required, and the employee must pay for them, but something fugly like red shirts or gray pants the employer must cover the cost of.

So in the case of Maceys, if it's just open-ended black casual or dress, staff pay for it.

I voted YES, not because _I_ need (or want) for employees to have a uniform, but because I think Macy's is perfectly within its right as an employer to require a uniform or enforce a dress code.

Could be a lot worse than "all black". When my wife worked retail (several big-name clothing stores), she was always "expected" to be in the current fashion, and whenever possible in the actual lines on sale that season. She spent THOUSANDS keeping her wardrobe up to date for those jobs, even with the employee discount.

She's since moved on to a professional position, and while she still dresses appropriately for office work, she finds it easy (and relatively inexpensive) to meet the dress code.

There are plenty of jobs with looser dress codes (usually defined as "Appropriate and Professional"), but an unskilled laborer (such as someone selling clothes) will probably find more jobs that _DO_ have a uniform or dress code than those that don't.

The last few times I've been in Macy's, I haven't been able to find anybody who works there. Sometimes when I'm able to track down someone (and identify them as an employee by their nametag, I swear I can almost hear them say "D'oh!" in their heads because they have to help a damn customer.

Meh, I don't think it's a terrible idea, but I've always thought the brightly colored vest or apron was more practical.

First of all, I wear black a lot of the time, and if I go into a Macys (note, this very rarely occurs) I don't want to be asked where whatever the fuck is. I'm never going to come into a store wearing a day-glo orange apron.

Second, it would just be EASIER. They have a pile of vests and aprons next to the time clock. Employee comes in wearing whatever they want that is within a more permissive dress code, puts on the identifying garment, goes to work.

There is a catch.....

My girlfriend used to work at Macy's here in NYC. She works in cosmetics and was hired by a company that sold its products in Macys, but she didn't actually work for Macys.

This happens a lot there. Companies rent out the space at Macys and do their own hiring/firing/promotion and payroll. So you are going to have a good amount of sales personnel that will still be able to dress as they please.

All black? You know they're just asking for a visit by Improv Everywhere (ala Best Buy last year).

All retail and service companies with a mandatory dress code should supply employees with either the actual uniform or an allowance to buy it. Period. Macy's pays crap. Their employees are often on or near their first jobs, or have been unemployed so long they're desperate for cash. Forcing them to purchase specific clothing can be a legitimate hardship.

Around here (Houston) the poor have enough trouble buying school uniforms. They don't also need to worry about being fired because they have to choose between clothes for the kids and clothes for themselves.

@acambras:

That said, everyone I've seen on the sales floor at Macy's is dressed nicely (usually more nicely than I am on any given Saturday). I haven't seen any problems with slovenly appearance or anything -- just trying to find someone to help me.

It'll help the employees look less obese so I am all for it.

@sleze69: A mandatory uniform policy also has the inintended effect of making the company refuse employment to people who don't fit in the mandatory uniform. Since you undoubtedly love to think about fat people on welfare, this should come as a delightful surprise to you.

I agree with technodestructo. Maybe not an apron (screams of Home Depot and Walmart) but an arm band or something would be okay, and you can see it from the front or back, and wear what you want to work.

I agree that Macy's should provide at least one "starter" uniform - one or two shirts and a pair of pants - but otherwise I see no problem. Technically, the majority of employers already dictate the dress of their employees simply by saying they can't wear blue jeans, tank tops, or open toed shoes on the job. So no, I don't think there's anything wrong with this, but when the employer dictates a specific style of clothing that must be worn on the job, I think they need to come part of the way by getting everybody started.

If Wal-Mart can pony up and provide its employees with both a pair of dress code compliant shirts *and* a $15 clothing allowance for the pants or skirt to go with it, there's no reason a high end retailer can't do at least as well.

So now every shopper who may or may not be a business women wearing black will be harassed as they walk through Macy's...BRILLIANT!

Uniforms are fine, but defining them by nothing more then a color is a bad idea.

Incoming story...

When I was 15 my 1st job was at The Big Party (now iparty). We wore purple shirts and dress pants. I went into a BK for lunch one day and was yelled at by a Manager there because I refused to mop the floor.

Point of my story is, if a manager cant tell some normal person from someone who works there...how is a shopper suppose to?

On a break from my job at Yankee Candle (where we had to wear bland olive aprons), I went downstairs in the mall to Express where all the employees wear Express or Express-like clothes.

Another customer asked me if I worked there. Uniforms don't matter to boneheads. Or it might be because I'm black.

Kidding.

If the sales associates are elusive why not pay them a commission instead of or in addition to their hourly wages. I bet that this would make them visible to customers very quickly.

I worked for Macy's East for three years. I was there when the Estee Lauder countergirls were told by Estee Lauder that they had to start wearing all black. They were going insane, trying to find anything black in Macy's that fit the new dress code, as they wanted to get their discount, if they had to buy their own uniform. They were rather pissed off that they could only find black pants, no black longsleeved shirts. They all ended up elsewhere to shop for these clothes.

Macy's does pay shit. Starting pay isn't anything anyone can live on, unless someone else is paying their bills. I was there for three years and when I left, I was making more than people who had been there years longer. Why? I was good at my job and I kept threatening to quit and therefore, I got raises no one else was getting. When raises came around, they would use every little excuse during evaluations to not give anyone more than ten cents an hour. I was told at evaluations that I should be wearing clothes they sold, not shopping at sales at Talbot's. But most people can make more over time at McDonald's and have more room to advance.

Macy's has been on the downslide. I quit to go back to school right before they announced they were going to put a McDonald's in the children's department. Management wasn't happy when they were asked when they were going to put little smiley faces on the sale signs and install shopping carts at all entrances. That was almost a decade ago.

I was in a Macy's last week. I was looking for black clothes. That and the Style & Co. no-wrinkle twills, which were the best piece of merchandise they ever carried. I couldn't find either.

After I quit and was back in school, for the flexibility of hours, I took a part-time job at a supermarket. I was issued two white shirts, two ties and two aprons when I started. I was told black slacks or jeans were my own responsibility. The starting pay there was more than Macy's.

Is it an actual uniform?
Or is it a black top with black pants?
Who doesn't own a black top and black pants? Especially someone working at Macy's.
I'm sure their discount is substantial if they don't own black clothes.

This will help in stores where the employees are unhelpful and try to hide from the customers when their help is needed.

I think the unions will hate it because it will increase the likelihood that employees will have to actually work.

I think the customers will love it because they are more likely to be able to flag someone down when they need help trying to decide what to lay their cash down for.

Macy's has a union? Is there anywhere I can shop that isn't controlled by a glorified mob?

You know...besides Wal Mart.

You know, I could care less if they made their employees wear uniforms. I worked for a store that had a dress code, but we were allowed to wear colors *other* than black on days that there weren't corporate visits. I have never had good experiences at Macy's - and perhaps if they specify what they employees wear, they'll look less like they just rolled out of bed. They're a mess. It could only be an improvement.

Back in my youth, some 20+ years ago, I worked as a Macy's sales associate. At the time, the dress code was fairly upscale - I remember getting in trouble because my corduroy slacks were too casual a style. I've noticed in the past few years that the Macy's sales associates have been wearing more and more casual-looking clothing, meaning that they blend in with us shoppers. In the "old days" you could tell the staff because we were better dressed than anyone else - and that was made affordable by a %15 discount on the clothing, plus first dibs on items on the sale and clearance racks.

The trouble with mandating a specific color clothing is that it can be hard to find items that look good and fit well, particularly if that color isn't in fashion (yes, I know, basic black, etc, but still the options are limited). It can also look "uniformy" - more like Target than a nice department store. Why not just revamp the dress code?

@MikeHerbst:
@speedwell:
that would be why i left retail. pay me enough to stay current, rent me the current or deal with what I already own & can afford.

@ExVee: exactly. but will it be likely to happen, doubt it.

@d0x: I would have stared at him and said "Give me the phone number for corporate RIGHT NOW. I am filing a complaint against you. This is NOT how you treat customers." and see how fast he scrambled to comp your food.

I am all for a uniform standard for retail and public businesses.

Uniform does not mean a "uniform", rather that each employee of a certain class each wears similar easily identifable garment.

Nurses and staff at the local hospital wear specific uniforms. It is easy to ID a RN from a tech (if you need to know the difference).

The McD manager has a different color shirt from the line employee, and the line employees wear uniforms to distinguish them from customers.

HD has their little orange apron thingy.

OD, CC, BB etc all have uniforms or distinctive dress codes. Sure makes my life easier.

Run into most clothing & department stores and it is hard to distinguished the help from the customers. Oh sure, name tags help, but it is not enough.

I say Two Thumbs UP to Macy's.

bloomingdales in nyc also did this a few years back. the employees just have to wear a black top and black pants. they also gave huge discounts to employees on black colored clothing before the dress code was put in place so they would be able to stock up.

Great. So now whenever I'm in Macy's people are going to ask me for help. What a stupid idea.

On the plus side, this means goth girls can work somewhere other than Hot Topic without having to buy all new clothes.

On the minus side, I still have flashbacks to the ugly clothes I had to buy to work in a movie theater in 1985. Do you think anyone really cared whether the popcorn girl was perfectly color-coordinated? No, but I had to wear khaki pants (10 years before they were ever in style) with a maroon top and a navy vest. 20 year later, those colors STILL aren't in my wardrobe.

Yeah they should have to buy uniforms simply because I am still bitter about all the Khaki pants and red shirts that I own thanks to my stint at Target. Talk about an ugly color combination.

All the sales staffers at Century 21 in New York wear jackets, color-coded depending on position in the sales heirarchy. No reason why Macy's shouldn't do the same.

In New York at least, I think all-black but not all-uniform could be *very* confusing, considering how many people wear all-black all the time.

I actually like Target's idea of polo shirt + slacks. It looks crisp and snappy, IMO, flattering to all ages, and with slight variations (sleeve length or skirt v. slacks) covers all gender, size, style, and modesty requirements. Definitely should be supplied by employer.

If Macy's won't pay for the clothes, and they are mandated by the company, can't the employees write it off as a business expense?
when friendly's restaurants' waitresses wore skirts, one of my friends worked there and she could write off her pantyhose, which she only wore when working.

@SadFootSign:

LOL, I promise it was just coincidence that my comment came in right after yours! Maybe you'll feel better knowing that some people actually like how you all look in those uniforms.

I wasn't thinking specifically of the colors. Just remembered how I always like how all the employees always look at Target, from teenagers to senior citizens. But I think the red shirts are great, because they brighten up everyone's complexion under the store's flourescent lights.

Hmph. I hear three variations on a basic story from retail workers and the like all the time:

1) Customer in Wal-Mart asks for assistance from person who is wearing ripped jeans and band T-shirt, and refuses to believe person is not Wal-Mart employee;

2) Customer in Wal-Mart asks for assistance from person who is wearing Target polo, and refuses to believe person is not Wal-Mart employee;

3) Customer in Wal-Mart walks up to person wearing Wal-Mart blue polo, name tag, lanyard, and radio, who is restocking shelves, and asks "Do you work here?"

It seems to me, based on the frequency and universality of these accounts, that nobody in America has any clue how to tell whether or not someone works somewhere, even if that person is wearing a giant blinking sign, and therefore we might as well not have uniforms at all.

i think the all black looks nice. they do that in victoria's secret, right? i feel like all the employees are wearing black...or maybe they're just told to wear something nice and black happens to be a professional color

I think that the biggest problem here is that it's a common color, in black. Not a specific tint of Red (Target) or Blue (Best Buy), or some sort of distinctive apron.

Lots of people wear black.

So those of us that wear a black T-shirt and black pants, while walking through the store, get to be accosted by other customers who want us to help them find something then get pissy when we tell them we don't work here.

Fun.

@cozygal36: Macy's Owns Bloomies, after all. (Formerly Federated Department Stores)

@OlsonsTwin: When was that? They had us hang up our aprons before we went on break (at least during my one-month stint in 2003), which is probably for the best, seeing as playing Contra on one of the pirate NES consoles at the kiosks while wearing that apron? Not a good look.

whenever i shop at a department store, may it be Eddie Bauer, Macy's, JC Penny's... etc. I am *always* without fail confused with store staff.

Does Macy's (and other department stores) need their staff to wear an identifying set of clothes? YES

does it need to be all black? not necessarily, but I'm sure it makes it easier to spot employees.

"...And according to recent news, Marilyn Manson is the new face of the Macy*s chain of stores. When asked to comment, Manson said, '[unearthly screech] AND THE BLOOD OF THE INNOCENT SHALL FLOW THROUGHT THE LAND [something in ancient aramaic]'..."

That would make me chuckle to myself all day...
heh

I currently work at a Macy's with the dress code. Men are supposed to wear an all black suit (it can have pin stripes), and you're allowed to wear any color shirt/tie. Alternatively, you can also wear a black dress shirt with black pants and a tie.

Womens outfits are more difficult because their black selection is typically limited and it's harder to incorporate color into the outfit. All employees are supposed to be wearing clothing that is considered "fashion forward".

I think the all black is definitely the way to go. It looks sharp, and it makes the employees more visible. When our store first switched over, employees got 50% off black suits (not sure what the women got). Plus it saves people money because you only have to buy two or three different outfits since black clothing all looks the same and no one notices.

BTW- Many Macy's employees who itemize their tax returns do write off the "uniform" since it is a required dress code.

If Macy's can magically infuse the uniforms with good customer service and a desire to actually help out customers, then I'm all for a dress code. A trip to Macy's usually sucks up twice as much time as going into any other store because I have to spend at least 15 to 20 minutes hunting down someone who will ring up my purchase. I'm sure that if I tried just walking out of the store with the unpaid merchandise it would speed up that process, but the possible jail time makes that a much less appealing option for me. As it is, I avoid the store if I can help it.