OUR TEAM'S CONCLUDING ANALYSIS:
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OUR TEAM'S CONCLUDING ANALYSIS: |
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Click here to read a reporters analysis of similar Hooters factors |
To understand the success of Hooters, it is necessary to understand how the theme exemplified by the Hooters Girls interacts with and complements capital and profit. As a notable chain, the first of its kind and imitated by several less successful startup chains, Hooters enjoys tremendous profits, which give it the mobility and leverage to expand in desirable locations throughout the world. Hooters maintains that the restaurant is intended as a neighborhood place for fun, food and sports. However, in the face of public and legal attention and condemnation of recent years, Hooters of America,Inc. has justified its use of women as a way of appealing to public interests and has defended its treatment of its Hooters Girls as equal, responsible and considerate. Hooters has seized upon the fact that consumers seek to fulfill their fantasies and pleasures through commercial enterprises. By seizing upon the sexual appeal of women to the male consumer population, Hooters is embracing a message that prevails in the American industries of entertainment, fashion and advertising; namely that sex and sex appeal sell. Not only does sex sell, but it sells well. Hooters is a growth industry; valued at $325 million, it has an annual growth rate of 20%. Through political, economic and symbolic means, Hooters has become a prototype for capitalistic enterprise. Thus, its growth has had an important impact on urban development in both global and local spheres. Hooters represents the glorification of all that is American, namely male machismo and a wealthy globalized economy. This themed space illustrates this through its identical restaurants-all have stools, wood paneling, chicken wings, juke boxes, and uniformed waitresses. Hooters' developing role as a tourist attraction is symbolic of the increasing popularity of globalized chains throughout the world. An growing trend in travelers' taste has been the desire for familiarity and the security and comfort one feels when entering such a setting. Patrons at any of Hooters' hundreds of locations know what to expect and feel safe in this space. The element of surprise is thus omitted. |
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The replacement of "sleazy" peepshows with the development of Hooters (and other such chains) is representative of the city government's ability to use policy to guide neighborhoods to attain a desired character. This movement is a form of urban renewal: guided by government but still invested in by the private sector. The goals of urban renewal efforts have often been to extend the city's tax base. By transforming midtown Manhattan into a tourist neighborhood, New York city has accomplished such a goal. The incorporation of establishments that can be found in most tourists' home town has been a successful venture. Visitors want New York, but not too much New York. Thus Hooters also perpetuates a homogenization of American urban identities that has been trendy in recent years. The economic success of Hooters is thus rooted in its ability to co-opt its waitresses to its overarching theme and find a sufficiently large consumer audience. By using "the ideal woman" to represent this restaurant, Hooters has ensured its financial success and societal visibility, both nationally and internationally. In this way, Hooters is an example of how the language of symbols creates increased market values, and how the economic and semiotic factors combine to create a powerful entity in the political economy of themed spaces. |
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