Hooters

Hooters is the trade name of two privately held American restaurant chains: Hooters of America, Incorporated, based in Atlanta, Georgia, and Hooters, Incorporated, based in Clearwater, Florida.

Hooters targets male customers with a serving staff comprising only well-endowed waitresses, although Hooters does employ males as cooks, hosts (at some franchises), busboys, and managers. The menu includes hamburgers and other sandwiches, steaks, seafood entrees, appetizers, and the restaurant's specialty, chicken wings. Almost all Hooters hold alcoholic beverage licenses to sell beer and wine, and where local permits allow, many offer a full liquor bar. Ancillary offerings for sale include T-shirts and various souvenirs and curios.

Between company owned locations and franchises, there are now more than 435 Hooters throughout the United States. The company has restaurants in 46 U.S. states, US Virgin Islands, and Guam. In addition, Hooters operates restaurants in 24 other countries,^[1] including Bahrain, Brazil, Canada, China, Colombia, Argentina, the United Kingdom, Israel, Mexico, Guatemala, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Croatia, Chile, Australia, Panama, Costa Rica, South Korea, Greece, Venezuela, Spain, Switzerland, and Singapore - its first overseas location to open. Hooters plans to open its first branch in Dubai in 2008. The first location in Colombia was opened in Bogota in 2008.^[2] A Hooters was opened in St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands in December 2007.^[3]

History

Hooters, Inc. began operations on October 4, 1983 with a restaurant in Clearwater, Florida. (Although a reference to "a building that allegedly was previously a walk-in dumpster called Fernando's Dumpster, Inc." appears in the Hooters menu, it is false. The Original Hooters took the place of a failed seafood restaurant. In fact, so many businesses had failed in that particular location that Hooters' founders built a small "graveyard" at the front door for each of the businesses that had come before them.) ^[4]

In 1984, Robert H. Brooks and a group of Atlanta investors (operators of Hooters of America, Inc.) bought expansion and franchise rights for the Hooters chain. In 2002, Brooks bought majority control and became chairman.^[5] The Clearwater-based company retained control over restaurants in the Tampa Bay Area, Chicagoland, and one in Manhattan, New York,^[6] while all other locations were under the aegis of Hooters of America, which sold franchising rights to the rest of the United States and international locations.^[7] Under Brooks's leadership, the collective Hooters brand expanded from one restaurant to more than 425 stores worldwide. Brooks died in July 2006 of a heart attack.^[8]

The Hooters Casino Hotel was opened February 2, 2006 off the Las Vegas Strip in Paradise, Nevada, United States. This hotel has 696 rooms with a 35,000 square foot casino. The hotel is owned and operated by 155 East Tropicana, LLC (Florida Hooters, LLC 66.67% & EW Common, LLC 33.33%). It is located off of the Las Vegas Strip next to the Tropicana and across the street from the MGM Grand Las Vegas. It is the only "Hooters"-branded operation that is not operated by Hooters of America. At this time it is the only Hooters facility offering overnight accommodations since a Hooters Inn motel located along Interstate 4 in Lakeland, Florida was demolished in 2007.

As part of their 25th anniversary, HOOTERS Magazine released their top HOOTERS girls of all time. Among those best 25 known were Lynne Austin, the late Kelly Jo Dowd (mother of golfer Dakoda Dowd), Bonnie-Jill Laflin, Leeann Tweeden, and Holly Madison.^[9]

Hooters Girls

Hooters Calendar Girl Melissa Poe

A Hooters Girl at their Singapore restaurant.

A Hooters Girl is a waitress employed by the Hooters restaurant chain. They are instantly recognizable by their uniform of a white tank top with the Hooters owl logo and the location name on the front paired with the famously short orange runner's shorts. Originally, the shirts were white cotton, pulled tight and knotted in the back to emphasize the breasts. The pulchritude (physical beauty) of the waitresses is a main selling feature of the restaurant. For years, tying these knots was part of the daily pre-opening ritual. Later, Hooters changed to a tight white spandex shirt that eliminated the knot-tying. Waitresses also have a choice of shirts that are more suitable for cold weather. The company also began using other colors and designs for their tops such as a camouflage theme on Monday ("Military Mondays"), black on Friday ("Formal Fridays"), and the football uniforms of a local NFL team during the NFL season, yet this varies from state to state. The two uniforms handed out at employment date is a black uniform and the white, the black being worn usually all day Sunday and Monday night for football and Tuesday/Thursday for basketball. The remainder of the Hooters Girls' uniform consists of the restaurants panty hose, white loose socks, and clean white shoes. Men who work at Hooters wear Hooters hats, shirts with long pants, Bermuda shorts, or attire more suitable for cooking.

Employee handbook requirements

The inside of a Hooters Restaurant in Chattanooga, Tennessee.

The Smoking Gun website obtained a copy of the Hooters Employee Handbook^[10] which notes that:

Customers can go to many places for wings and beer, but it is our Hooters Girls who make our concept unique. Hooters offers its customers the look of the "All American Cheerleader, Surfer, Girl Next Door."

Female employees are required to sign that they "acknowledge and affirm" the following:

1. My job duties require I wear the designated Hooters Girl uniform.
2. My job duties require that I interact with and entertain the customers.
3. The Hooters concept is based on female sex appeal and the work environment is one in which joking and sexual innuendo based on female sex appeal is commonplace.
4. I do not find my job duties, uniform requirements, or work environment to be offensive, intimidating, hostile, or unwelcome.

Public perception

Public relations

Kara of the Hooters in Marietta, Georgia (Called Cumberland because it is near the Cumberland Mall) signing her January 2009 calendar picture at the Hooters in Lawrenceville, Georgia on November 1, 2008.

Hooters has an extensive public relations campaign and has actively supported charities through its Hooters Community Endowment Fund, also known as HOO.C.E.F., a play on UNICEF. It has provided money and/or volunteers to charities such as Habitat for Humanity, Make-A-Wish Foundation, Special Olympics, and Muscular Dystrophy Association.^[11] In addition, after the death of Kelly Jo Dowd, a former Hooters Girl on the cover of the Hooters calendar in 1995, and later a restaurant general manager, Hooters began a campaign against breast cancer, with awareness of the issue being spread through the Kelly Joe Dowd Fund. Local restaurants will often select their own local charities.

Hooters also launched what it calls "Operation Let Freedom Wing," which involves sending its celebrities, such as Hooters Calendar Girl, UC3 and singer Angela Lanza, to visit U.S. troops overseas, including to Afghanistan.

Athletics & promotions

Keisy of the Hooters in Canton, Georgia signing her March 2009 calendar picture at the Hooters in Lawrenceville, Georgia on November 1, 2008.

2008, is the 25th anniversary of Hooters opening. In celebration of its "birthday" Hooters has the Hooters passport. A customer can purchase a passport, and gets it stamped at each Hooters that he or she visits until he or she has 25 stamps. Also, on every 25th of the month Hooters gives 25% off of their merchandise.

Hooters is very involved in the sports world. Previous sponsorships include the Miami Hooters, a now defunct Arena Football League team. Hooters currently sponsors the USAR Hooters Pro Cup, an automobile racing series and the NGA Hooters Tour, a minor league golf tour. In 1992 Hooters sponsored NASCAR driver Alan Kulwicki as he won the Winston Cup Championship, beating Bill Elliott by ten points, the closest margin in NASCAR prior to The Chase era. The race was called the Hooters 500, which it remained until 1994.

Hooters has also licensed its name for the Hooters Road Trip PlayStation racing game as well as Hooters Calendar mobile wallpaper application. Oasys Mobile will also be putting out several other games for mobile consumption based on the Hooters Calendar license in 2008.^[12]

Professional golfer John Daly is sponsored by Hooters on the PGA Tour though that has changed given his recent alcoholism issues. He also serves as a corporate spokesperson. Dick Vitale (college basketball analyst) is also a sponsor of Hooters.

Since 1986, the restaurant has put out a calendar of their girls worldwide with signings that take place in some of their restaurants. Since 1996, Hooters has held Miss Hooters International.

Closures

The Hooters concept has not been successful in all markets. Eight Hooters locations in the northeastern United States were closed in 2007 after a Hooters franchise owner was forced into Chapter 11 bankruptcy by court order. The owner owed money to vendors, land owners, utilities, and Hooters itself.^[13] A Hooters in Ohio closed in 2006 due to lack of business,^[14] followed by another in 2007.^[15] Also in 2007, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported a plan to sell and re-brand (non-Hooters) the Las Vegas Hooters Casino/Hotel, and television station KPTV reported recent closure of two Hooters locations in Oregon in 2008.

See also

• Hooters Air (ceased operations April 2006)
• Hooters Casino Hotel
• Miami Hooters (a defunct Arena Football team)
• USAR Hooters Pro Cup - racing series
• NGA Hooters Tour - golf tour
• Hooters Road Trip - PlayStation racing game based on the franchise

References

External links

• Official website
• About Hooters - the Atlanta-based chain's information page
• Original Hooters - the non-Atlanta-based founders sub-chain
• Transfer of "Hooters" brand from Clearwater to Atlanta, a March 2001 article from Atlanta Business Chronicle
• So You Wanna Be A "Hooters" Girl?, from The Smoking Gun
• Sexual Harassment Retaliation Lawsuit, from The Smoking Gun
• Fortune Magazine feature on Hooters
• Hooters Bikini Contest
• Blast Magazine reviews the Hooters Cookbook
• Video of Hooters opening in Beijing in 2007
• A Hooters Girl’s Perspective regarding working conditions for the female wait-staff, from Chief Magazine