THE BEST CUSTOMERS IN THE BEST STORES.

Daily News Record, September, 2000 by DODD, ANNMARIE; LOHRER, ROBERT; PALMIERI, JEAN E.

David Lawrence, Bellevue, Wash.

Customer: Chad Royal

Job: systems engineer, Microsoft Corp.

Chad Royal doesn't have to dress up for work. But he does. And he wants to.

At least once a week Royal proudly wears a suit to -- gasp! -- Microsoft's uber-campus in Redmond, just east of Seattle. Being suited, Royal said, makes him an anomaly among his casual computer brethren.

"I like being different from everyone else," said Royal, who is 36. "I don't feel inspired from the shorts and T-shirts in my closet. You can wear whatever you want at Microsoft. The push here is for anything that promotes comfort and creativity: T-shirts, Birkenstocks, jeans. It's really an atmosphere of professional tastes, or professional apathy."...