Kilt Shop Employee Not Allowed to Wear Kilt to Work

[cessna152towser]

In one of the more upmarket kilt shops on Edinburgh's Royal Mile I got talking to one of the young male sales assistants and I asked him why none of the staff, himself included, were wearing kilts. He said that he had wanted to wear a kilt to work but his boss had told him that he was already Scottish so there was no need to emphasise the fact by wearing a kilt, and that the company wanted its staff to wear trousers to work as they did not wish to be identified with the "tackier" kilt shops further up the street where many of the staff do wear kilts at work.

[pugcasso]

That's very odd logic (or rather, not logic).

[LANCER1562]

That is extremely...illogical.

[KenB]

Very Interesting! I'm not one to rain on their parade, but if the store owners feel that strongly about having staff NOT wear a kilt due to the influx of tackier businesses in the area, maybe the store should supply the best, highest quality kilt they make to employees - after all, quality will out and the class of the staff outfits will certainly standout above the more poorly made kilts in the area. Stand-up and beat them at their own game. Be proud to display "the real deal". Oh well, that's my 2 cents.

[mookien]

He sounds like the boss in the movie "Office Space", ... after he got advice from the two Bobs.

[Jock Scot]

Makes perfect sense to me as, at a guess, most people shopping in the Royal Mile would not know a decent kilt, even if they were wearing it!

[robthehiker]

Makes perfect sense to me as, at a guess, most people shopping in the Royal Mile would not know a decent kilt, even if they were wearing it!

Perhaps the high quality shops would be better situated elsewhere.

[davidg]

Makes perfect sense to me as, at a guess, most people shopping in the Royal Mile would not know a decent kilt, even if they were wearing it!

I'm almost tending to agree with Jock. I can only think of one shop in that area where kilts are not worn by the staff and their quality is high. I have shopped there without giving a thought to their lack of kilt wearing whereas in the other shops I tend to be a little disconcerted by the theatricality of it all

My experience of smaller, local kilt makers and highland outfitters in places other than Edinburgh is is that they usually do NOT wear kilts to work and I do not find that particularly unusual. The stock is plainly visible to see and feel the quality without necessarily there being a need for it to be worn. Similar, surely, to high fashion stores who may have models at the occasional fashion show in store but do not kit out their staff in all the expensive goods for everyday wear

[Phil]

The (very) few quality highlandwear shops don't have their staff wearing kilts. When I enter a fishing shop I don't expect to see the staff wearing waders and holding fishing rods so why should a clothing shop be any different? It seems to me that a substantial proportion of the staff you see in Royal Mile "kilt" shops are wearing turbans anyway.

[Riverkilt]

Amazing - quite the marketing oversite.

I believe the difference between a hand sewn wool kilt and the lower priced kilts is most evident.

The sales staff would be wearing a perfect example of the goods they were marketing and could clearly show prospective buyers the difference between the inexpensive kilts and their wares.

I'm a strong believer in the Peter Principle (people rise to their level of incompetence) and would suggest this is probably an excellent example of that theory.