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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsHooters Is the Proudly 'Tacky' Restaurant Chain That Just Won't Die. Here's How It's Thriving!
A current article about Hooters. The previous OP was a year old!
Im a woman. Im a straight woman. I hate sports (and by proxy, sports bars). I have never, in my entire life, eaten a chicken wing.
Still, theres a certain anthropological appeal to visiting a restaurant that, for the last 35 years, has dressed waitresses in uniforms designed to leave little to the imagination, and footwear straight out of a geriatric ward. So when I recently found myself moseying past the orange glow of Manhattans last remaining Hooters, I decided to go inside.
Hooters NYC is just a few blocks from Times Square, so there were some tourists, but the bulk of the crowd could have been plucked from any chain restaurant, anywhere in the country. Families of four, five, and six huddled around boxes of crayons; couples held hands and debated appetizers. Waitresses cleaned up soda spills and moved sticky highchairs from table to table low-cut tops be damned.
It was all sort of quaint. And shockingly, quite busy.
This was a Sunday afternoon in July, one of the slowest months of the year for some restaurants. More importantly, this was in an era of #MeToo, Times Up, and a paradigm shift where conversations about systemic inequality, power imbalances, and the myriad ways women are subjugated in the workplace are supposed to be moving us towards a more equitable future. Hooters, its safe to say, does not exactly jibe with this new, woke worldview. And Im not the only one whos confused.
Im scratching my head, says Juelene Beck, a Florida-based chain restaurant expert and consultant. Its amazing that the brand has such power. Its like, sex still sells.
Delightfully Tacky and Growing
So what, pray tell, is going on?
Hooters is a privately-owned company and declined to talk to me for this story. So officially, the answer =¯_(ツ _/¯. But there a few socioeconomic trends that could be contributing to the brands lasting appeal.
In December 2017, Hooters opened its 200th corporate location, and has added a dozen more in the months since. The number of franchise units, or non-company-owned branches that pay a fee to Hooters headquarters, have dipped slightly, but the chain is still one of the highest-grossing restaurants in the country, beating sales at Ruby Tuesday, Macaroni Grille, Dave & Busters, Chuck E. Cheeses, Hard Rock Cafe, and California Pizza Kitchen, according to the data firm Technomic.
Internationally, the brand is growing even more rapidly. In the last six months, Hooters outposts have opened in Germany, Spain, Mexico, Costa Rica, Japan with 14 additional locations slotted for Spain and Portugal over the next three years.
More at: http://time.com/money/5360517/hooters-chain-growth/
underpants
(182,826 posts)USALiberal
(10,877 posts)underpants
(182,826 posts)Thanks
HipChick
(25,485 posts)Snarkoleptic
(5,997 posts)Last edited Sun Aug 19, 2018, 10:05 PM - Edit history (1)
which imploded on a shabby business model.
https://www.businessinsider.com/rise-and-fall-of-hooters-airline-myrtle-beach-bob-brooks-atlanta-airplanes-2018-2
marble falls
(57,099 posts)Last edited Mon Aug 20, 2018, 07:54 AM - Edit history (1)
WhiteTara
(29,718 posts)Hooters is closing restaurants cause millennials don't care about boobs.
https://www.democraticunderground.com/100211020411
maybe the ghoul is right--there is no truth.
USALiberal
(10,877 posts)WhiteTara
(29,718 posts)didn't even look at the date. THanks
JI7
(89,251 posts)and she says it was full in what she claims was a slow month of july. but july is actually one of the busiest months becsuse of vacation and tourists .
doesn't sound good to me.
X_Digger
(18,585 posts)They're not going anywhere anytime soon.
TlalocW
(15,383 posts)I would go to Hooters with some funny friends from work who went there "on holidays" (the Friday closest to whatever holiday was coming up). I pointed out that you could use the internet and find a holiday for every day of the year (our favorite was, "Yell Fudge at Cobras Day" so we would go every Friday because we all liked this one waitress, Snoopy, not just for her appearance but her sense of humor and the fact that she sounded like Janis Joplin when she sang. Once our boss, a religious man, insisted on joining us, and after Snoopy got done telling her jokes, he insisted on telling one that involved ripping up a napkin a certain way to reveal a cross. She looked right at him and said, "Well, that joke sucked!" making us love her more.
TlalocW