Whole Foods' customers, employees unhappy with strict new dress code
The new dress code will go into effect on Nov. 2
Whole Foods is implementing a new dress code for employees, but both customers and workers think the idea is half-baked.
A Whole Foods spokesperson told FOXBusiness that the new dress code -- set to go into effect on Nov. 2 -- is a way to keep stores focused on the Amazon-owned chain's main goals.
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“This updated company dress code provides our Team Members with one simplified and unified policy to follow when working in our stores,” the spokesperson said in an emailed statement.
The new rules will forbid shirts with visible messages, logos or flags.
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“Like many of our policies, our dress code is in place to ensure that we are prioritizing operational safety and serving our customers by keeping the focus in our stores on selling the highest quality food," the spokesperson added.
Many customers however took to social media to lash out at the new plan. One shopper said the new code was "hideous" and would stop shopping there.
Another customer tweeted the change would send her to a nearby soon-to-open Trader Joe's store.
Business Insider first reported the change in dress code as well as employee unhappiness over the decision that they will not be allowed to wear buttons or pins on their aprons, “busy patterns” on their clothing or face masks and hats and shirts from Whole Foods vendors.
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"When a lot of us started working at Whole Foods back in the day, it was a place where you could wholly be yourself and express your personality while still working your job," an employee at a Whole Foods in Portland, Oregon, told the web site.
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"We understand that some parts of that have to go away,” the employee added. “But we're worried that it's leaning toward a more super-corporate, you're-just-another-cog-in-the-machine kind of employee situation."
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Another employee, who works at a Whole Foods in the Philadelphia said that morale is taking a hit, “getting lower and lower and lower” every month.
"It feels like they're cracking down on overall enjoyment,” the employee said.
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Whole Foods faced backlash over the summer for banning employees from wearing Black Lives Matter masks. Several employees even filed a discrimination lawsuit against the company in July.