Since I have plenty of time, here's my part 2 on Hooters potentially going bankrupt.

First things first, I had a follow up with my OB yesterday and while both me and the baby are fine, the events of last week do make things a little more complicated and now I am a very good candidate for a C-section. This freaks me out for so many reasons. First of all, I just don't want to have surgery. Second of all while the childbirth process was terrible, being mostly alert and awake when my first two kids were born are among the very best moments of my life and I've been looking forward to that with this pregnancy. My OB here is great and I definitely trust her but I did put in a call for the OB that I was seeing in Texas to get her opinion. As I've mentioned, she delivered my son, she delivered all 6 of my nieces and nephews and most of my cousin's and cousin's wives kids and I have a ton of respect for her. She's supposed to call me back later today. The OB here in Tucson pretty much said that I am in bed as much as I can possibly handle it until I deliver and that's the best way to prevent needing a C-section. 

My in-laws took the kids up to the Grand Canyon in their RV so it's just been me and Bubs around the house and while he's being very sweet, he's kind of like that prison warden from Shawshank Redemption where he's smiling at me and offering me some hope while knowing he's not going to let me up to do anything. He had to go into work today and after he kissed me on the forehead and admonished me to stay in bed today, I gave him the most aggressive middle finger I have ever given someone. I love him and he's doing the right thing but he's also an easy target for my frustrations.  He's bringing me Cane's today so I guess I can't be all mad. 

So on to Part 2 of my Hooters rant...

So I think I've covered most of me working there. I definitely noticed in the comments (and I'm so sorry that I didn't respond) people asking me if my pics are up on the websites somewhere, specifically in the "hall of fame" section. I honestly have never looked but I know for sure that when my location was still open my pics were part of a rotating banner that would appear on the front page. Most of those pics were staged shoots but mine was a candid shot of me carrying a tray of Oysters that whoever maintained the website really liked. It was when my hair was cut really short (the only time in my life) and I have to admit that something about that haircut, the lighting, etc. made my eyes pop and it was a great pic. I really wish I would have screencapped it. But after all that, if you see a pic that matches that description on the corporate site, it's probably me. Hall of fame material, probably not but I think they rotate pictures there too. 

So why do I think Hooters is declaring bankruptcy. Before I answer that it's important to know that Hooters is actually two different companies, I won't get too deep into it because a quick google search can explain it better than I can. But as far as I know, there is still Hooters of America and Hooters of Clearwater. The original chain was Hooters of Clearwater which was founded by six or seven friends because they wanted to have a place to hang out. Sometime in the 80s an individual investor bought the rights to establish Hooters of America and put restaurants all over the country (I'm actually not sure about the international locations).  

Please keep in mind that this is my opinion and so things I say here may be wrong as far as how the structure of the two companies worked. But having said that, the impression was that for many years and in fact while I still worked at Hooters, the Hooters of Clearwater set the tone in terms of service, atmosphere, operations etc. and Hooters of America would take guidance from the original founders. The original Hooters was almost meant to be like a roadhouse that was somewhat seedy but with children's menus if that makes sense. I guess a better way to put it is that they wanted to make sure you were going to have fun, that you were going to be treated right and get a great value for they money you spent. 

I know this because I met one of the original founders. One night when I was at work this very handsome older guy came in and it kind of freaked out our assistant manager. The older guy wasn't in my section but when our actual manager came in on his night off to meet this man, I learned that he was one of the original six founders. Again, we were Hooters of America and he was involved with Hooters of Clearwater--two totally separate companies--but he carried enough weight that people wanted to meet him. We all got our pictures taken with him and I have to say he was a charming, charming man. He made a joke about me and Ashley jumping on his chartered plane with him and going to San Diego. It just so happened that Bubs was out trying to shoot Bambi with arrows that weekend so the offer was more than tempting. But he gave us all a little chat about why they founded the company and he still liked to come around to see which of the locations were keeping up the traditions and our store was doing a great job. 

Just like the original Clearwater restaurant, lots of Hooters locations were in older buildings that they could buy or rent for super cheap. So you often saw lots of Hooters in failed seafood or Mexican restaurants or even a cheap strip mall so the underlying décor didn't really match the Hooters "orange" aesthetic. But this actually gave the spots a lot of that "road house" charm. 

The other thing that came from Clearwater was that we bent over backwards to make customers happy. Slight mess up on the order? We are so sorry, here's $50 gift card to make your next visit perfect. The sauce on your wings was hotter than you expected? Ok, here's two trays of wings with the mild sauce on us. As an example of this my best regular gave me a $2500 tip for Christmas. He never bought another drink again and he wasn't a picky eater so my manager allowed me to give him any food orders that were mistakes but still edible.  All of the girls who worked there long term had at least one regular who got some special treatment (no, I don't meant THAT special treatment--while THAT did happen a couple of times with a few girls, I'll have to save that for another blog). Dollar beers, 20 wings instead of 12, free fries, etc. were all very common ways of showing the customers that we appreciated them. 

All sounds great right? Well shortly after I started working there a new corporation bought Hooters of America and while they didn't make changes for several years, it was clear from some of the future plans that things were going to be changing. I feel very lucky that even though I worked for the new corporation, they started their changes in other locations. It was very clear that Hooters of America was going to diverge from some of the old traditions that Hooters of Clearwater had started. I think its interesting to note that as far as I know, Hooters of Clearwater is still doing just fine. 

The first thing we started to hear about was that they were going to stop renewing leases on the older buildings and either build new locations themselves or they were going to have them custom built and lease them (I think this was a scam to pad the pockets of owners who were also real estate investors). Basically, these new locations looked like any generic mid 2010s restaurant. I've been in a few and to me the look like big Starbucks with orange instead of green. The acoustics are terrible, they are wide open so everyone is watching every thing and even being wide open, it looked so hard to maneuver. I know for a fact vs my experience, it lost a ton of that fun atmosphere that the original Hooters founders were going for. The one here in Tucson is great example of this--Bubs and I went for lunch one day and we couldn't even hear the waitress, much less have the time to kind of joke and banter--which made Hooters much more fun than getting chicken wings at the local sports bar.  The new buildings killed the fun and almost dingy atmosphere that is almost necessary when your place is called Hooters. 

I have heard that somewhere around 2015 there was a massive change to how the day to day operations of the restaurants was going to work. They got rid of weekly specials, happy hours and a separate kid's menu (which is insane to me--having a slightly risque but safe place to bring a family was a huge money maker for us). Even worse was that they were no longer going bend over backwards to make the customers happy and feel welcomed. I've heard this from people who've stayed on at my old location and also have seen it in person. 

We don't go to Hooters often but every once in a while I'll get a craving. I think it was last year were heading back home from Dallas and there's a Hooters right off I-35. We decided since it was easy to get off I-35, that's where we'd pick up dinner to go and then eat it at home.  I called in the order, it was quick to get in and out of there, and all seemed fine. I should have checked it but when we got home we found that they did not include any of the fries we ordered.  It's not that big of a deal but I decided to call and was blown away to hear the manager tell that I would have to drive back for him to check the order. When I told him we were over an hour away he actually told me that I should always check orders. I told him that I used to work there and I know for a fact that we should never tell a customer that. He got a little nicer after I told him that I worked there but still his solution was to give us free fries the next time we came through. I asked him how he'd know it was us since we live well over an hour away. He said he would know. And that was that. Had that happened at my restaurant, the customer would have been FedExed at least $100 in gift cards--and if that didn't make them happy, the manager would have cancelled the credit card transaction so the customer didn't pay anything. Heck, they might have done both. 

The second instance that made me realize how much it's changed was actually the only time we've been to the one here in Tucson. With a few exceptions, I've had the same meal nearly every time I've eaten at Hooters. Buffalo chicken tenders, 911 sauce, side of fries with a side of honey mustard.  I looked on the menu and they just have "chicken tenders" minus the Buffalo. I reasoned they would still be able to give me what I wanted, they just needed to spin it in the sauce. I was blown away when the girl told me "we can't do that anymore." I was like what do you mean you can't do that?  She said we serve our tenders with a side of the sauce now. I was a little annoyed and I said you put them in either the spinner or shaker and you coat them in the sauce. She was adamant it's not allowed. I'm never going to be one to make a huge scene in a restaurant but the "not allowed" line blew me away. Baring someone asking for a lapdance, we would have never told a customer it's "not allowed." especially when it came to their food, double especially when it came to such a simple request. Although Bubs implored me not to, on the way out, I had to find a manager and just tell them that I used to be a Hooters girl and didn't quite understand why I can't have my chicken tenders coated in Hooters sauce. Again just another corporate dry excuse about not being sure but it's just not allowed.  I can't stress enough how that would have never happened in my old restaurant. My manager would invent dishes on the fly for picky eaters or do combinations that would never be on the menu...for any restaurant, let alone one who's reason for existing is bar food--to tell a customer it's not allowed blew my mind. 

So yeah...why is Hooters of America going bankrupt? Because they completely forgot what makes them special. I'm sure there are other reasons like price of food, competition from other boob restaurants, etc. but I know for certain Hooters has weathered those storms before, this one seems real. Customers can get wings and tenders these days but it was the fun and customer service that set Hooters apart. I loved my time working there, genuinely looked forward to working every shift, and was very loyal. But now me as a starving pregnant lady who can't get out of bed, my husband is going to stop at Cane's to get my chicken tenders--which incidentally is about a city block away from Hooters in our new home town--because what I want from Hooters is "not allowed."