This post has been updated.
Wal-Mart had some good sartorial news today for workers at its 4,555 US locations: As of July 1, they will finally be allowed to wear jeans, sort of. According to Reuters, denim pants in black and khaki are now permissible, in addition to non-denim trousers, presumably of the chino variety.
“Workers with physically demanding jobs” will be also allowed to wear blue denim pants, more commonly known as blue jeans. Those workers will also be allowed to pair said jeans with a t-shirt, but everyone still has to wear the controversial vest the company brought back last year.
Additionally, Wal-Mart spokesman Kory Lundberg told Quartz that employees will enjoy “retail-tainment” days, where they will be allowed to express themselves with garments such as sport jerseys and ugly Christmas sweaters.
“They’ll love it,” said Lundberg.
Wal-Mart employees are required to provide their own pants and shirt. Asked whether the company provided specific guidelines for permissible tones of khaki, Lundberg said it did not.
“Everybody has a good sense of what khaki is,” he said.
Beyond vests (every day) and ugly Christmas sweaters (on retail-tainment days), there were no outer layer specifications. That may be because Wal-Mart will be making stores warmer, after employees complained they were too cold during work. Oddly, it turns out that the internal temperature of every US Wal-Mart outlet is centrally controlled from the company’s headquarters in Bentonville, Arkansas.