Starbucks’ Unusual Move to Change Its Barista Dress Code Could Help Regain Lost Mojo

Since becoming CEO in September, Brian Niccol has focused on addressing a core list of complaints customers have had with Starbucks, which posted its fifth consecutive quarter of same-store sales declines in its Q1 earnings announced on April 29.

As Niccol himself has summed up the gripes, a trip to Starbucks these days “can feel transactional. Menus can feel overwhelming, product is inconsistent, the wait too long [and] the handoff too hectic.”

One thing that customers don’t seem very rankled by is how the baristas are dressed.

And why would they be? The Covid years have chased off the last vestiges of workplace formality and, according to a recent Gallup poll, nearly a third of Americans (31%) just throw on street clothes when they head off to work.

Nevertheless, Niccol’s strategy to revive Starbucks’ fortunes includes a provision announced earlier this month that didn’t get a mention in this week’s earnings call—a dress code.

Beginning on May 12, baristas will be required to wear a solid black top (a short or long sleeved crewneck or a buttoned-up shirt with a collar) and bottoms in khaki or black. Jeans are also acceptable.

One risk of the new dress code policy is that employees generally don’t like being told what to wear.

A survey conducted by outerwear brand Stormline several years ago revealed that eight in 10 workers don’t think dress codes are useful, and 61% reported they’d be happier and more productive if their employers just let them wear whatever they wanted.

At a company like Starbucks—still at an impasse over pay raises at its 530 unionized locations—this may not be the time to be chancing with employee morale.

The move has not gone down well with union workers. “Workers United has written to Starbucks demanding no dress code change be implemented at union-represented stores until bargaining concludes,” according to The Independent.

The dress code policy does come with one sweetener, at least. A new line of Starbucks-branded t-shirts has just arrived from the factory, and each employee will get two of them for free.