Hooters Comes to Spain and Israel Within the Next Week

On Monday, Hooters, Inc announced that the popular chain restaurant is planting its flag in new countries within the next week--Spain and Israel.

The Hooters of Poleg, located in the Israeli city of Natanya, is the first of at least three restaurants that the chain plans to open in that nation. The Spanish restaurant will be opening on Tenerife, which is the largest of the Canary Islands. Hooters plans to open a total of 15 restaurants in Spain.

In 2008, Hooters plans to open in 32 more locations, 19 of which are international and will include the nations of Dubai, Thailand, New Zealand, and Columbia. The chain restaurant, which opened for the first time in 1983 in Clearwater, Florida, has 440 restaurants open around the world at the time of this writing.

"It's a great week for the brand to be able to claim two new countries for the wide world of Hooters," says Coby Brooks, President and CEO of Hooters of America. Mr. Brooks will be attending the VIP Grand Opening Celebration in both Spain and Israel.

The well-known restaurant chain, which bills its member locations as "family restaurants" and attempts to deliver a fun atmosphere with quality food for children as well as adults, has often received hostile remarks from feminists and women's rights groups who claim that the entire concept is sexist and discriminates against women who are not buxom or considered above average in physical attractiveness.

The women who make up the entirety of Hooters' floor servants all have to be pretty and well-endowed with curves. They dress in very snug, low-cut t-shirts and snug, skimpy shorts and often appear at sports festivals or other outings as sexy models.

However, the Hooters website has this to say: "Claims that Hooters 'exploits' attractive women are as ridiculous as saying the NFL exploits men who are big and fast...To Hooters, the women's rights movement...guarantees women have the right to choose their own careers, be it a Supreme Court justice or Hooters Girl."

Personnel managers for the restaurant chain insist that to be a Hooters Girl a woman also has to have an outgoing personality, charm, and enjoy being serious about the quality of customer service given to patrons.

Most of the gals who work there insist that they are well-treated and have a lot of fun, and that anyone who feels put off or offended by the restaurant's concept can simply not apply for a job or can go out to eat elsewhere. There have been occasional reports of underhanded doings such as the making of secret videotapes made of gals undressing to put on the Hooters uniform when applying for a job and such shenanigans, however.

Original Newswire Source:
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