Coffee shop uniforms have swept the podium in the UK Uniform Report, a study of 2,000 UK adults by custom branded workwear supplier Clothes2order, while the nation’s two biggest burger chains finished in a virtual dead heat at the bottom of the table.
Caffè Nero was named Britain’s best coffee shop or fast food uniform, placed in the top three by 34.0% of respondents, ahead of Costa Coffee (27.7%) and Starbucks (25.4%). Pret a Manger (20.9%) and KFC (19.6%) completed the top five, making KFC the only fast food chain to break the coffee shops’ dominance.
At the other end of the table, McDonald’s (30.5%) and Burger King (30.2%) were separated by just seven votes out of 2,000. Respondents’ explanations were consistent and notably measured: the uniforms are among the most recognisable in the country, but seen as due an update. As one respondent put it: “While recognisable, I feel the uniforms are too basic and outdated, especially compared to more modern fast food brands.”
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The pattern holds across every sector the study covered. Asked what matters most in a staff uniform, the public chose professionalism (25.5%) and comfort (25.1%), with a designer name last at 2.3%, and named “looks cheap or dated” the single biggest turn-off (21.4%).
Michael Conway, founder of Clothes2order, said: “The coffee shops have quietly become the best-dressed corner of the British high street, and they have done it without leaning on designer labels, which our survey found matter least of all to the public. A barista apron does everything the public told us a good uniform should do. It is simple, it is comfortable for a long shift, and the colours belong unmistakably to the brand.”
“What struck me about the bottom of the table is how generous the public was. The word the public reached for was not ‘ugly’, it was ‘dated’. And dated is fixable. These are some of the most recognisable uniforms in the world, and recognition is the hard part. A refresh does the rest.”
Other findings from the survey:
- KFC emerged as fast food’s best-dressed, the only such chain in the top five for best uniform (19.6%) and among the lowest for worst (11.2%). One respondent described its uniforms as “presentable and aesthetic”.
- The generation gap is stark. Burger King’s worst-uniform vote doubles from 21.9% among 55- to 64-year-olds to 45.0% among 18- to 24-year-olds, while Starbucks’ best-uniform vote doubles the other way, from 18.0% to 36.7%.
- Greggs divides opinion by age (29.2% of 18- to 24-year-olds placed it in their bottom three, against 14.6% of over-55s) but not by geography: its strongest rating in the country comes from North East England, its home region, where 27.6% placed it in their top three.
Image and graphics: CaffèNero.co.uk
