Barely-dressed baristas go too far

I love the fact that we live in a community where you can find an espresso stand on every corner. What I don’t like is when I pull up to one of the stands with my children to find a bikini-clad girl on a raised up floor trying to serve me my coffee and my children chocolate milk.

When did a bikini or lingerie become acceptable, if not required, work attire for some of the stands? I understand that these girls rely mostly on tips for their wages, which should be based on service (like any other food service career) not on the amount of clothing they do or do not have on.

I am just confused how we are so strict about zoning of strip clubs, but yet there seems to be no rules or guidelines for these stands. In an effort to compete with the many other stands in a small radius, one stand last year advertised that its baristas would be wearing Halloween costumes. These “costumes” consisted of tape over their nipples, their barista apron and little boy shorts. Needless to say when I pulled in (with my two young children) to order by coffee I did not stop at the window. Instead, I did a U-turn and found another stand where the barista was wearing an actual shirt.

I guess I’m just disgusted how far the girls have been allowed to go in public. I mean, what’s next? Instead of a tip jar will customers be allowed to slip the tip into the bikini bottoms or visible g-string underwear that most of the girls come to work dressed in?

Rachel Cross