Work expect us to look like models

[Coldpop]

I've started a job in a clothing store where staff wear their own clothes.. or so I thought. No. We have to wear the clothes that work sell and we only get 70% discount. We have to have everything from work, top bottoms and shoes. We also have to wear stuff from the current season, so every 3 months we are expected to buy more tops bottoms shoes as we can no longer wear what isn't being sold in store. I'm on a 18 hour contract, barely over minimum wage. I can't afford this! I'm a mum with a mortgage. Clothes in my family have to last us till they need replacing. I also think it's very wasteful to have to constantly buy clothing. At the least to be able to buy the cheapest stuff from work it will cost me about £80- 100 every 3 months. It's not exactly a cheap store. There's posters up all over the staff room telling us to inspire customers with our outfit choices, that we have to be stylish at all times!. Im used to dressing smart for work.. but Im going to feel mugged every 3 months that I have to part with my wages to be an advert for my employer. I've just started, I've had no wages but I've been asked to sort my outfit choices as soon as possible. Don't know what to do. Is this the norm in retail now?

I worked at Next and it depended on your contract as to how much you could "spend" on uniform. So say I had an 8 hour contract, I think I would get £75 for uniform, so I would select say 2 tops and trousers that would equate to £75 full cost and only pay 25% for them. A bigger contract = more shifts = more uniform.
Was completely normal, you're showing the clothes on a range of humans in different styles. You did have to have your uniform choices approved by management, though.

It's a ridiculous policy in terms of financial implications alone, but it's also incredibly sizephobic. I worked in Next in the early noughties as a chubby teenager and absolutely dreaded buying clothes from there. None of the work appropriate options were flattering and it genuinely caused me so much anxiety around my body at the time. Also many shops still don't do plus size ranges, so I assume they just don't employ size 18 and over?

People in the UK have an aversion to being seen as 'difficult' to the point of being unwilling to advocate for their own basic legal rights and tending to make excuses for those who exploit them.

if it became normal to have to go to the pub on a Friday and but the boss a drink - then mumsnet would say - ah but it’s fine everyone does it, if you don’t like it get another job

It’s not very ethical or sustainable is it? We should all be buying less, fast fashion is terrible for our planet. I don’t know what store it is but they’re probably guilty of greenwashing while encouraging over-consumption.

This is such a tone deaf comment.

That’s different because

• you can chose where to but your suit/work clothes so can go for the least expensive stuff or even second hand
• You dint have to renew your work wardrobe every 3 months.

Years ago a friend of mine used to work in a fancy Kensington store on a Saturday: they had to wear current stock so all just took the stuff off the rails then hung it back up at the end of the day!

Are you sure you don’t get a uniform allowance?

I work in retail and was given £150 every 6 months and then I got discount. That was for a 16 hour contract. I managed to get 2 tops and a pair of jeans. Try to pick standard bottoms that can restyled and also don’t look last season.

You claim it back on your income tax, it's counted as work clothes. You can also claim back the laundering of work clothes too. Talk to HMRC for advice, they're very helpful.

People who have experienced this - what happens if you are too large to fit in the store's clothing? I get that they might not hire you in that case, but supposing you gain weight after starting?

To be honest you only have to see the comments here - it's normal, leave and get another job if you don't like it, etc

Indeed. I find it deranged that, in the current climate, anyone would say this is a reasonable way to treat a minimum wage employee- let alone a perk of the job.

I earn a lot more than minimum wage and the energy price rises alone are making hard to make end meet. For some they will mean genuine desperate poverty.

The countries with better worker protections have higher productivity than us for a reason- treating people with basic decency is more efficient than squeezing them for all you can get.

I'd love that job with 75% discount on current seasons clothes and so would lots of people.
Off you pop & apply then @DenholmElliot1

And best of luck to you, buying brand new clothes every season, out of the 18 hour a week minimum wage pay.

£80 every three months updating your wardrobe isn't excessive
Could you be any more dismissive & patronising?
Beside the fact that it will cost more than £80 to buy enough clothes to wear in rotation - from earnings of only about £180 a week it certainly is.
Did you not read the OP? She clearly states: Clothes in my family have to last us till they need replacing.

Things like this have been around forever - I was on a government training scheme at New Look in the early 90s as a teenager, haven't seen if you've named the shop but am suspecting New Look as it was exactly the same. All I got for working there was an extra £10 a week on top of my benefits amd still had to buy new uniform as soon as my current things went into the sale. They were actually making a profit out of me working there!

they had to wear current stock so all just took the stuff off the rails then hung it back up at the end of the day! 😳,

If it’s somewhere like Hollister I’d get one pair of plain black jeans and 2 black tops/t-shirts/vests. That would come to about £80 so with discount that would be about £26. I’d also buy a lot more of the nicest things in the shop with the 70% discount and sell them on Vinted - new with tags attached. Could be a nice little earner.

It's wrong and sadly nothing I say will change it.

Check if there are tax benefits, speak to your manager about your concerns.

Tbh I have been frequenting clothing stores all my life and couldn’t tell you what employees wear

I am surprised that they wear the same stuff as they sell in the store.

It's awful. But if needs must I agree with pp about black jeans and a top. Most clothes shops don't seem to change their jeans for years, so might only have to buy tops.

Some retail companies give you a staff allowance of free clothes, but it is usually quite small and you top up with the 70% off. I would buy some basics like jeans, then you only need to buy tops. You could come in at under £80 every 3 months. If you sell on your old uniform you might even be in profit.

You are joking!!!!!

I know someone who worked in one of the very upmarket designer stores in London and he would buy stuff with his employee discount and after wearing it once would sell it on eBay and it was a very nice supplement to his salary.
The company I think would have sacked him for selling on something he hadn’t worn. They were very hot on looking at who was selling their brand on line.
He only applied for the job at this particular designer brand for the employee discount and how much money he would save.😁

This!

I have never noticed that staff is wearing whatever there is on display in the shop. I dont look at them that way and dont look at all items at the store. I mean, I cant imagine how this would actually work.
I certainly dont buy clothes that often and find this policy very cheaky and stupid. Why do they think they can force people to buy clothes or even worse shoes that dont fit or suit them?

You can't necessarily claim anything as it's not branded uniform - you can wear it everyday without being identified as an employee of X store.

Accessorise used to do this but it was breaking the law because it meant the staff were earning less than min wage. Talk to citizen advice but I doubt one person can do much about it.