Wow, the retail world is turning upside down.   First Walmart gives back a lot of their tax break money to the employees in the form of pay increases, and CVS has now done the same thing.

Now, Walmart is doing something else to keep and attract new employees–revamping their dress code.  Employees are now free to wear jeans of any color, shirts of their choice and even the managers are going to be allowed to wear sneakers.

How times have changed.  When I first started in retail, the managers wore dress shirts and ties, nice slacks and dress shoes.  In fact, ALL of the male employees did.  Females were not allowed to wear slacks, everyone’s hair had to be clean-cut, normal colors and you could forget about it if you had a visible tattoo or piercing.   The theme was “You’re in the health care business, so dress as if you are working in a doctor’s office.”

Over the years, the ties went away, females started wearing pants, later on the dress shirts were replaced with company polo shirts and all sorts of hair styles, piercings and tattoos showed up.   Now, we’re evolving to the point of “You’re in retail and we need someone to work here, so dress as if you are sitting in your living room.”

From Drug Store News.

Walmart kicked off its 48th annual shareholder’s meeting on Wednesday with an announcement that drew cheers from the audience, which included thousands of associates from around the globe.

     Under new guidelines that go into effect on June 4, the retailer’s employees across all 4,700 stores in the U.S. are now free to wear jeans — of any color — along with shirts of any color or pattern. In another change, management is now free to join hourly employees and wear sneakers at work. (The chain’s iconic vest and name badge will remain as is.) Walmart also is removing most restrictions on hairstyles, tattoos and piercings.

“We want you to wear what makes you feel good,” Todd Harbaugh, executive VP of Walmart Neighborhood Markets, said at the meeting, which was held in the Bud Walton Arena in Fayetteville, Ark. “ And we want you to be yourself at Walmart.”