To wish supermarket staff were a bit more glamorous.

[SurferJet]

Obviously this is lighthearted - but strolling through Tesco earlier I thought how much nicer it would be if the staff had a touch of glamour about them - supermarket shopping is such a boring drudge isn't it, & I for one would be so cheered up if the staff were a bit more 'Hollywood' - obviously it doesn't have to be the full Audrey Hepburn or James Bond - but maybe a step up from dowdy overalls.

Anyone else?

I'm going to work tonight OP, what do you suggest? I normally wear makeup, hair clean and blow dried, perfume, everything freshly laundered. What else can I do? An Amy winehouse beehive perhaps? Red lipstick? I can't really wear heels what with being on my feet for 10 hrs overnight. Suggestions welcome. I do agree that myself and colleagues tend to look a whole lot better than our customers coming in at that time apart from the dreadful uniform.

In my local Asda one of the checkout women is in her 50's and dresses in a rockabilly style with short platinum hair in a quiff and full sleeve tattoos. She looks awesome even in her Asda uniform

Wtf? 'Wouldn't touch with a bargepole" (I think that's what you meant)

It's not down the fucking mines.

YABU. I'd rather have prices lower on food, than have the company spending on glitzy outfits for their staff.

Anyway, as a lot of retail staff are women, isn't this just sexism in disguise? Women should be decorative and all that?

Yes its not that bad! Just physically demanding, luckily I only have to deal with customers for an hour or two until store closes. I get a bit more than minimum wage too.

Well they probably are glamerous, aren't they. When they're not at work. I mean who on earth is going to look glamerous in a tescos uniform

Me too, ain'tnothing. And I have my hair expensively cut and coloured and only wear make up I buy mainly in Space NK. That's about how I've always looked and my personal standards. Never a good idea to generalise.

I'm one, it's not my story.

"Wouldn't touch with a bargepole"

And of course you only hear the worst of the worst customer stories on here, so of course it will cloud judgement.

The bargepole comment was weird.

My mother used to get an allowance foe weekly hairdressing, manicure and clothes allowance plus wages in one job.
I've never understood why uniforms have to be polyester and ugly. Why not issue your staff with cotton uniforms? A simple black shift dress or suit?

I suppose it must be to stop staff wearing uniforms outside of working hours - but that strikes me as a bit mean.

It would be nice to see them given nicer uniforms (The Waitrose uniforms are simple, but lovely) but few of them are going to be affording Hollywood glam with a random 16 hours or whatever they're given that week at minimum wage.

Nobody thinks I am The Staff, because I don't treat them like The Annoying Customer Who Is In My Way. you get what you give out.

I guess the companies pay for the uniform so they won't want to be shelling out £££££'s.

But yes the Sainsbros uniform is pretty depressing.

And they also are gracious enough to recognise that most of us could touch other things with a bargepole but this fits quite nicely into our lives, thankyouverymuch.

And, yes, I think this thread was intended as lighthearted. It could have gone the way of suggesting possible designers - Victoria Beecham, for example, now that she has embraced low heels - but no. In the world of present-day mn, it's turned into some kind of arse-clenching, mouth-pursing angriness: bitching about shop-workers and also deliberately misconstruing the OP as an attack on the low-paid.

I'm an ex-shop-worker but I can still read that this thread wS an invitation to a bit of jollity.

Supermarket uniforms are grim in style and practicality. I don't see why they have to be like that, given the amount of profits the employers expect to make and the care they take in displaying other aspects of their business.

I strongly suspect that many customers don't want the supermarket staff to look nice because that would make them feel inadequate and the supermarkets know this.

I went into our Tescos today and the security guard (who looks a bit like the Mitchell brother's even harder cousin) was dressed as a giant pink fluffy rabbit. At least I think it was a rabbit costume, but giant pink and fluffy he certainly was.

Certainly cheered my day.