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Hooters.....

I found this article interesting...Hooters is in the top 15 of all chain resturants ??? Check out the rest of the facts in here, not bad for selling chicken wings.....oh yeah there those waitresses, too.....:001_tt1:

Despite controversy, Hooters prospers

By DANIEL YEE, Associated Press WriterThu Dec 14, 6:40 PM ET


Retired from a long career in medical sales, Roger Toy can be found most days doing the daily crossword puzzle at his local Hooters, the restaurant chain known for its scantily clad waitresses and, oh yes, buffalo wings.
At the same restaurant where Toy hangs out, a trio of telecommunications managers dine as often as three times a day.
"The girls are really the reason," confesses Toy, 54, who has never been married. "If you come up here a lot, you get to know them. I like coming here because everybody knows me."

These "girls" are the Hooters Girls, a cadre of more than 17,000 women who work at the Atlanta-based chain's 438 restaurants across the U.S. and in 20 countries. Besides their revealing attire of low-cut, tight tank tops and short orange shorts circa the 1980s, these waitresses are known for their playful banter and friendly smiles.

"It's the girls. The girls are what we're all about," admits Coby Brooks, the company's president and CEO, before adding, "Although we have great food."

Having a brand image focused on staffers wearing less has meant more for the privately held company, which started in 1983. It's blossomed into a chain that brings in $900 million in yearly sales and is expected to cross the $1 billion mark for the first time next year.

Although Hooters executives declined to disclose the company's profits, business is booming enough for it to make over some of its oldest restaurants this year for the first time, including adding more seating and plasma TVs and remodeling with higher ceilings and restroom upgrades. Fifteen restaurants have the new look and most others will be remodeled in the next couple years. Brooks said the Hooters Girls' uniforms will stay the same.

Hooters ranks 15th among U.S. full-service restaurant chains — behind industry leader Applebee's but ahead of other popular eateries like Romano's Macaroni Grill and Ryan's, according to Restaurants and Institutions magazine.

The company is also into sports, such as the Hooters Tour with the National Golf Association and the Hooters Pro Cup auto racing series with the United Speed Alliance, sponsorships that are owned by Hooters of America.

There's even a Hooters Casino Hotel in Las Vegas, which opened in February just off the glittering Strip. It lost $16.1 million in its first eight months of operation, which Hooters of America VP Mike McNeil said was due to pre-opening expenses and other costs. He said all involved are pleased with its results. The property, run by a company partly owned by a handful of original Hooters founders, kicked up nearly $1 million in trademark royalty fees to Hooters of America.

Brooks' father and former CEO, Robert, also tried to parlay the chain's success into an airline in 2003. At its peak, Myrtle Beach, S.C.-based Hooters Air flew to 15 destinations, ranging from small airports in Pennsylvania to Nassau, Bahamas.

However, the company stopped commercial flights earlier this year because of problems that Coby Brooks partially attributed to rising fuel costs. Robert Brooks died in July at age 69.
Hooters still raises eyebrows and draws criticism from community activists and local officials. The controversy begins with the very mention of the name Hooters, slang for a portion of the female anatomy.

McNeil is the first to acknowledge the double meaning.
"The essential ingredient what makes Hooters different from every other restaurant out there is the Hooters girls and the element of socially acceptable sex appeal," McNeil said. "Beyond the connotations of the name, we hope when people think of the name 'Hooters,' we hope they think of a great place for food and fun."

However, women's rights groups argue the chain is disrespectful to women and irresponsible to build its brand on sex appeal.

"The most concerning part of a restaurant like Hooters is it's been normalized — you even see sometimes families go in ... and this is a place where a woman's body is really the object of the restaurant," said Taina Bien-Aime of the New York-based Equality Now.

For 26-year-old Tesha Allen, working at Hooters helped pay her way through college at West Georgia University in Carrollton. As an eight-year employee of the company, she now trains wait staff in Atlanta.

"A lot of people, when they first think of Hooters, they have a negative outlook," she said just after customers popped balloons at their tables in search of a door prize hidden inside one. "It is a fun place — we come here to serve food and when we do, we have fun while we do it."
The chain's brand image has prompted some cities to protest when Hooters tries to open restaurants.

In early November, the chain filed a $1 million lawsuit in federal court against the city of Troy, Mich., after it refused to allow a decade-old Hooters restaurant to transfer its liquor license to a new location. The lawsuit is still pending.

Likewise, Arlington, Texas denied Hooters a beer license when it opened there few years ago. It is seeking a liquor license instead.
"It's the uniforms and the merchandise they sell, it's all very sexually suggestive. It's inconsistent with the standard of decency in this community," said Mayor Pro Tem Ron Wright.

The Equal Employment Opportunities Commission investigated Hooters in 1991, saying that it believed men were discriminated against in hiring. In 1996, the EEOC told news agencies it would not pursue litigation.
On its Web site, the company describes itself as "a neighborhood place, not a typical family restaurant," noting that 68 percent of its customers are men ages 25 to 54.
Spencer Teague, a 39-year-old customer services manager for a telecommunications company in Marietta who regularly eats at a Hooters with his co-workers said his wife "would always think we were here picking up girls" until he brought her to the eatery. "Women liken it to a strip club," he said. "It's a restaurant like any other place."
 
I love their wings (three mile, all drums, with blue cheese) and their Buffalo Chicken Sandwich. Like I tell folks all the time, I'd go there even if the waiters were hairy fat guys...
 
I love their wings (three mile, all drums, with blue cheese) and their Buffalo Chicken Sandwich. Like I tell folks all the time, I'd go there even if the waiters were hairy fat guys...

Glad to hear it.

I am not about to criticize anyone else for going. Especially for going for the food.

But for me, something rubs me the wrong way, and I would not feel very good about going to one.....

-Mo
 
I don't frequent the place, but I certainly have no problem with it. I've been a few times to the ones in Greenville, Anderson (SC) and Gwinnett (Atlanta area). Sure, it's *wink, wink* suggestive, but compared to so much really negative stuff that pervades our culture, Hooters is tame by comparison.

The girls seem to have fun, the customers certainly have fun. The times I was in there, I never saw any behavior that you wouldn't see in any other sports bar. It's not like they're a bunch of strippers.

Plus, Mr. Brooks (Robert) was a Clemson grad. :thumbup1:
 
Glad to hear it.

I am not about to criticize anyone else for going. Especially for going for the food.

But for me, something rubs me the wrong way, and I would not feel very good about going to one.....

-Mo

Just curious: Have you been to one? A lot of folks (the one's that have never been) seem to equate the place to a strip club and it is nothing like that.
 
Just curious: Have you been to one? A lot of folks (the one's that have never been) seem to equate the place to a strip club and it is nothing like that.

Nope. I have not, it is true. And, no, I don't expect anything like a strip club. Although I've not been to one of those either. Just count me in the prude camp with Timmy and Rik. :smile:

-Mo
 
I love their wings (three mile, all drums, with blue cheese) and their Buffalo Chicken Sandwich. Like I tell folks all the time, I'd go there even if the waiters were hairy fat guys...

Agreed.

I find the waitstaff really friendly too, skimpy outfits notwithstanding. Although I know they're just fishing for tips, I really appreciate the attentive, friendly service.
 

ouch

Stjynnkii membörd dummpsjterd
I love their wings (three mile, all drums, with blue cheese) and their Buffalo Chicken Sandwich. Like I tell folks all the time, I'd go there even if the waiters were hairy fat guys...

I can only imagine the other establishments that you frequent.:tongue_sm

I'm with Moses on this one, although probably for different reasons. If I'm interested in "that type of entertainment", then Hooters doesn't cut it, so to speak. And if they're a toned down, Disneyfied idea of cutesy, tee-hee family fare, they send the wrong message. "Hey girls! Why go to med school? You can look like us!"
 
I'm with Moses on this one, although probably for different reasons. If I'm interested in "that type of entertainment", then Hooters doesn't cut it, so to speak.

:thumbdown

But that's just it, it isn't about THAT type of entertainment... It's not about entertainment at all as far as I'm concerned.
 
:thumbdown

But that's just it, it isn't about THAT type of entertainment... It's not about entertainment at all as far as I'm concerned.

Perhaps not for you, since you go for the food.

But entertainment is clearly what the concept is about, in large part. And it is clearly about skimpily dressed women. Like I say, I am sure it is nothing like a strip club, but if it was not about sex, why would they be so insistent on young, attractive, scantily clad, large chested women servers?

-Mo
 
It's a shame to damn something based on your pre-conceived notions.

The food is great.

The girls are just background. It's not like they are out dancing around or something. You don't have to watch the waitresses, there are tvs all over the place with sports to watch.

The girls are Hooters marketing ploy, and it doesn't look it has hurt them any.
 

ouch

Stjynnkii membörd dummpsjterd
Whatever.

You can all bring your daughters there. I won't be bringing mine.
 

ouch

Stjynnkii membörd dummpsjterd
Actually that would probably be very funny to hear about, what your firecracker thinks of the girls running around dressed like that.

At our swim club last summer, my little angel and her friends discovered that if they blew into the seam of their bathing suit, it would inflate. They were all running around yelling "Look at me! I've got boobs!"

Between this, the impending onslaught of boys, learning how to hunt (or any other pursuit equally scary to potential suitors), and drinking heavily, my schedule's full. I'll have to pass on the Hooters.
 
I've never liked their wings.

Any mom and pop place has better wings than these guys.

I don't like the waitresses much either.

My waitress should be named Shirley or Shirl and call me hunny or hun. :thumbup:
 

ouch

Stjynnkii membörd dummpsjterd
I've never liked their wings.

Any mom and pop place has better wings than these guys.

I don't like the waitresses much either.

My waitress should be named Shirley or Shirl and call me hunny or hun. :thumbup:

I'm from NYC. All of the waitresses are named "Surly".

I'd kill for a "hun", rather than the ubiquitous "whad'll it be?"
 
I'd kill for a "hun", rather than the ubiquitous "whad'll it be?"

There's a lot to be said for the Carolinas (and the rest of the South). I did not notice growing up. But then I spent my first year of law school in Berkeley. Came back to visit, and right after getting off the plane grabbed dinner with my mother at a Ruby Tuesdays (or Friday's or one of those other day of the week type places - there must be a dozen chains that are all basically the same). Anyway, I was FLOORED by the waitress being so friendly and sweet. And it was nothing special, most of them are back home, male and female, just so must more nice and polite and helpful and friendly and patient. It happens in NYC every now and then, but....

-Mo
 
I have nothing against Hooters, but I have never been. I tried to go to one, once, but I couldn't even find a place to park, so I didn't make it. :001_huh:

Tim
 
The Hooters in my town started off as a franchise. The food was really good. My understanding is that somewhere down the line, Hooter's corporate starting buying back the franchises. The one near me sold and went down hill pretty quickly after that. I haven't back been in years. They have since built a whole new building next door to the original. It seems to do quite well. My 40th birthday just passed, and one of my gifts was a $50 GC to Hooter's from an old work buddy I used to go there with. I guess I'll be giving it another shot.
 
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