Kilt Shop Employee Not Allowed to Wear Kilt to Work

[pugcasso]

I wonder if the owner also has a trousers store....he must make the employees wear kilts there

[brewerpaul]

To me this would be like going into an outdoor retail store and not seeing any of the performance clothing on the sales staff. If you dont use it how can you know to sell it properly.

[chrisupyonder]

It could be down to cost. If the store had to have several made to measure for different size staff then it would be expensive and what happens when staff leave and new staff are employed. A new kilt every time?

Chris.

[CopperNGold]

I just don't understand how the owner would think it was good business to have his employees wear his product. Truly defies logic and any business model I've read. It almost makes him appear to be ashamed of his own stock!

Maybe somebody will email him this thread.

[jhockin]

recalls to mind one of those wall posters, from the '60's, about how "you don't have to be a brain, to be the boss, just an as______!"

[CopperNGold]

*Not* Sorry!

[Nighthawk]

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.

I agree! I wear my own leather goods to shows and such in order to educate people. I show them the edges, the finish, the different aspects of quality, and I tell them to go look at the other sellers of leather goods to see if their merchandise holds up to the standards that I set. I use the quality of my work as a means of education. The overwhelming majority of people whom I send to other vendors come back and buy from me, and they get an education in the process. They learn how to tell the good product from the mediocre.

[pascs]

I think wearing the kilt everyday would give the sales staff a huge amount of knowledge and experience which you'd never get from just wearing the kilt on special occasions etc

I for one always tend towards the older sales staff in a kilt shop or a sales person well dressed in a kilt because I feel they are more likely to have greater knowledge of kilts.

[McClef]

You couldn't make it up!

If, like Hamish, I am right as to whom this shop is, I cannot understand why wearing trousers as a protest against the tat shop kilts is a positive step. Mutual dislike is NOT an excuse.

It's like cutting off your nose to spite your face.

But if even Ham cannot persuade them, I do not know who can.

[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