Hooters

This article may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards. Please improve this article if you can. (May 2008)

Hooters

Type	Private
Founded	Clearwater, Florida, U.S. (1983)
Headquarters	Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. Clearwater, Florida, U.S.
Number of locations	"over 450"
Industry	Food Service
Products	Burgers, Chicken Wings, Seafood, Alcohol
Parent	Hooters of America, Inc. Hooters, Incorporated
Website	http://www.hooters.com/

Hooters in Morrisville, North Carolina in February 2009..

The interior of a Hooters Restaurant in Chattanooga, Tennessee in 2006.

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 is a restaurant with a waitstaff primarily made up of attractive, scantily-clad waitresses, though the company also employs other males/females 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, a full liquor bar. Other offerings for sale include Hooters T-shirts, sweatshirts, 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, the US Virgin Islands, and Guam. In addition, Hooters operates restaurants in 24 other countries.^[1] The company's first overseas location was in Singapore, and other Hooters restaurants are now located in Argentina, Aruba, Austria, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, Germany, Greece, Guatemala, Israel, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, the Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Spain, Switzerland, Taiwan, the United Kingdom (only in Nottingham), and in Venezuela.

History

Hooters, Inc. began operations on October 4, 1983, with a restaurant in Clearwater, Florida, founded by Alisa Ianelli and built on the site of a former dumpster washing facility that had been purchased at a low price. The store actually opened on April 1, 1983, as an "April Fools Day" joke, because the original six owners believed that their prospect was going to fail. Indeed, so many businesses had folded in that particular location that the Hooters founders built a small "graveyard" at the front door for each that had come and gone before them.^[2]

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.^[3] The Clearwater-based company retained control over restaurants in the Tampa Bay Area, Chicagoland, and one in Manhattan, New York,^[4] 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.^[5] 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.^[6]

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 (3,300 m²) 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 next to the Tropicana and across the street from the MGM Grand Las Vegas. 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 its list of top Hooters Girls of all time. Among the best-known were Lynne Austin (the original Hooters Girl), the late Kelly Jo Dowd (the mother of the golfer Dakoda Dowd), Bonnie-Jill Laflin, Leeann Tweeden, and Holly Madison.^[7][8]

Hooters Girls

Hooters Calendar Girl Melissa Poe in 2004

A Hooters Girl at their Singapore restaurant in 2008.

The looks of the waitresses are a main selling feature of the restaurant. A Hooters Girl (informally, "Hooter Girl" is commonly used) is a waitress employed by the Hooters restaurant chain. The girls are recognizable by their uniform of a white tank top with the "Hootie the Owl" logo and the location name on the front paired with the famously short orange runner's shorts. The idea of the uniform came from the women's track team at Clemson University.^{[citation needed]} Originally, the shirts were white cotton, pulled tight and knotted in the back to emphasize the breasts. "Hooters" is a euphemism for breasts in common parlance.

Later, Hooters changed to a tight white spandex shirt that eliminated the knot-tying. 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"), some Sundays, for special occasions, and for important local football and basketball games, and the football uniforms of local National Football League teams during the NFL season, although this varies from state to state and by location. The remainder of the Hooters Girls uniform consists of the restaurant's brown ticket pouch (or a black one with the black uniform), pantyhose, white loose socks, and clean white shoes. Men who work at Hooters wear Hooters hats, t-shirts with long pants, Bermuda shorts, or attire more suitable for kitchen use.

Legality of sexual discrimination

Legal history

• In 1997, three men from the Chicago area sued Hooters after being denied employment at an Orland Park, Ill., restaurant. Each of them got $19,100. Four men who filed a similar lawsuit in Maryland received $10,350 each. The settlement allows Hooters to continue luring customers with a female staff of Hooters Girls. But the chain also agreed to create a few other support jobs, like bartenders and hosts, that must be filled without regard to sex.^[9]
• In 2001, a jury determined that Hooters of Augusta Inc. willfully violated the Telephone Consumer Protection Act by sending unsolicited advertising faxes. The class-action lawsuit, brought in June 1995 by Sam Nicholson, included 1,320 others who said they received the advertising faxes from Hooters. Atlanta-based Hooters of America Inc., the local restaurant's parent company, paid out $11 Million.^[10] The jury determined that six faxes were sent to each plaintiff. With a $500 fine for each, that amounts to a $3,000 award per plaintiff.^[11]
• In 2004 it was found that job applicants to a Hooters in West Covina, California were secretly filmed while undressing, prompting a civil suit filed against the national restaurant chain in Los Angeles Superior Court.^[12] The company intends to address the incident with additional employee training.
• In 2009, Nikolai Grushevski, a man from Corpus Christi, Texas, filed a lawsuit because Hooters wouldn't let him work as a waiter. Grushevski and Hooters reached a confidential settlement on April 13.^[13]
• In September 2009, The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission filed a lawsuit against NC charter airline, (formerly Hooters Air) on behalf of Chau Nguyen, an Asian flight attendant fired three years ago after complaining only white workers were being promoted.^[14]

Legal status

In employment discrimination law in the United States, employers are generally allowed to consider characteristics that would otherwise be discriminatory if they are bona fide occupational qualifications (BFOQ). For example, a manufacturer of men's clothing may lawfully advertise for male models.

Hooters has argued a “bona-fide occupational qualification” defense, which applies when the “essence of the business operation would be undermined if the business eliminated its discriminatory policy”.^[13]

Employee handbook requirements

A version of the Hooters Employee Handbook, published in the The Smoking Gun reads:^[15] 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 entertaining conversations are 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

Ericka Whittaker of the Hooters in downtown Atlanta signing her June 2010 calendar entry at the McDonough, Georgia Hooters on November 14, 2009.

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.^[16] 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 Girls, UC3 and singer Angela Lanza, to visit U.S. troops overseas, including to Afghanistan.

Athletics & promotions

Kara at the Hooters in Marietta, Georgia signing her January part of the 2009 calendar signing at the Hooters in Lawrenceville, Georgia on November 1, 2008.

Hooters is 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. On April 1, 1993 Kulwicki, along with several others including Hooters Chairman Bob Brooks' son Mark were killed in a plane crash near Bristol, Tennessee. They were flying back to the track for Sunday's race after making a sponsor appearance at a Hooters in Knoxville, Tennessee.

Hooters has also licensed its name for the Hooters Road Trip PlayStation racing game as well as a 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.^[17]

Professional golfer John Daly is sponsored by Hooters on the PGA Tour, a deal potentially in jeopardy given his recent issues with alcohol. He also serves as a corporate spokesman. Dick Vitale, a college basketball analyst, is also a spokesman for Hooters.

Since 1986, the restaurant has issued a calendar of their girls, with signings taking place in some of their restaurants. Since 1996, Hooters has held Miss Hooters International, a pageant of Hooters Girls from around the world; in 2009, this event took place in Hollywood, Florida.

See also

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Hooters

• 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
• Sexual Harassment Retaliation Lawsuit, from The Smoking Gun
• Fortune Magazine feature on Hooters