Hoping to compete with Wendy's, McDonald's and Taco Bell for the late-night customer, Hooters Restaurants will attach drive-through windows to their facilities so diners can get a quick meal and one more peek at over-exposed waitresses on their way home to empty apartments, sourpuss spouses or nagging girlfriends demanding to know where the hell they've been.
Hooters' officials admitted the move was risky. Drive-through customers are typically more crass, their propositions for sex weaker, and they tend to show their Johnsons while in the comfort of their own vehicles, particularly truck drivers.
Results of one focus group indicated, in the strongest of terms, that it wasn't frequenting Hooters for its dry, discolored hot wings, and that it hoped the windows were built strategically low enough for waitresses to bend forward suggestively, and make it worth a customer's while.
Another focus-group concern was that the Hooters' girls would, for the most part, be behind a glass window, making it all but impossible to grope them, although the voyeur demographic gave the move three cheers. One Hooters' official said he expects the less-gifted or alcohol-fueled customer to re-enact the scene in Midnight Express, in which Brad Davis' character Billy gratifies himself as his girlfriend takes off her blouse opposite a glass partition in the prison visiting room.
"We can't control everything," the official said. "Don't forget, we're dealing with nutjobs of every caliber during regular business hours, so who knows what's going to happen in the wee hours.
"Hey, we encourage leering. That's in our corporate mission statement. But be a gentleman for Christ's sake."
Hooters experimented with a prototype drive-through window at its Bedrock, W.Va., location, and decided it needed some tweaking.
"We need a special kind of girl at that hour, one who can keep up the ruse of flirting, pretending you're a hunk and that she wants to go to bed with you," the manager said. "Most of ours were testy after a long day on their feet."
Tape-recorded comments included: "I'm done jiggling at midnight, buster."; "Where's my tip, asshole?"; and "Take your shit and get out of here."
One Hooters' vice-president said the company was also considering reaching a younger market by opening a Hooters Kids.
