Some Baristas Starbucks are not satisfied with the new chain dress code – or the management of the company’s recovery plans so far.
Three employees of Starbucks Store with whom Business Insider spoke said that the dress code, which takes effect on May 12, will probably result in feet if they want to have enough work clothes to spend the week without having to do additional laundry.
They also said they thought Starbucks focus too much on what they are carrying and if they should honor free water customers’ requests, and not enough on basic operational problems, such as long waiting times in certain stores.
From May 12, Starbucks Store employees, which the company calls “partners”, will have to wear shirts and low in solid black which are either black, denim blue or khaki.
The objective, according to Starbucks, is to highlight the green aprons that store partners wear.
“How will the color of our shirts drink faster?” An employee of a store in North Carolina told Bi. The employee asked not to be appointed to this story, but BI has verified their identity and employment with Starbucks.
Reactions to the dress code and the broader recovery effort of Starbucks occur seven months after Brian Niccol became the CEO of the channel. Under Niccol, Starbucks has made several changes to its stores so far, from reducing the number of menu items to the requirement that customers make a purchase or accompany someone who must spend time at the coffee.
Neha Cremin, a barista in a Starbucks near the famous “gayborhood” of Oklahoma City, said that it feared that the new dress code prevents employees from carrying many pride or LGBTQ +shirts, including some that Starbucks produced in the past, because they are not solid black.
Meanwhile, long waiting times for customers and lack of staff are unresolved problems in her store, she told Bi.
“I don’t see anything that workers run with two or three people who run full and complete coffee,” she said.
Starbucks, which gives employees two free shirts as part of the change, said that it will also offer a variety of black shirts to choose from, including those that promoted groups of employees for minorities.
“We understand the importance that our partners are their authentic self, and we want them to feel comfortable to express it,” said a spokesperson.
The chain also continues to consider operational changes in its stores, added the spokesperson.
“We continue to test and learn to make sure that we make the right investments in the staffing and deployment, in process and algorithm technology to improve the experience of partner and customers,” the spokesman for BI told BI.
Jasmine Leli, a barista in a Starbucks store in Buffalo, New York, told BI that many Starbucks employees work more than two quarters of work per week and do not have time or money to do the laundry several times a week.
Leli, who is also a negotiation delegate for Starbucks Workers United, the union representing Starbucks employees, said that it expects many employees to choose to spend additional clothes that correspond to the dress code.
“You can turn milk on your shirt,” said Leli. “And we expect us to wash our clothes after each quarter of work? It is not durable.”
On a Reddit page for Starbucks Store Partners, some posters said they were planning to revise their working outfits. They also said they decided to throw Starbucks shirts that are not solid black.
“It is not as if I would never like to wear them outside of work, so I guess I just wasted my money because they are essentially useless for me now?” A comment on a wire reads.
Starbucks spokesman underlined some testimonies from the store employees who said they had greeted the change in dress code.
“We will spend less time focusing on what we wear and more time on our job,” said Starbucks a store director in Minnesota as saying the new dress code.
The new clothing code is the last change under Niccol while seeking to make Starbucks cafes “inviting places to linger” with more connection between customers and baristas.
In February, the CEO said that Starbucks could modify elements of the Starbucks digital ordering process, such as asking customers to select a specific pickup time.
So far, many of the changes to Starbucks have focused on other aspects of its stores.
Cremin, barista in Oklahoma City, said that many customers of its store have started conversations with clothing workers on clothing and style because of what they wear.
“This removes human connections that make Starbucks a pleasant place to go,” she said about the new dress code.
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