Hooters review: bad service 46

My name is Stephanie Popkowski and I live in Jacksonville, NC. I am writing this letter because I feel you should know about what goes on in your restaurants. Now I know there are thousands on Hooters restaurants around the country and it is hard to keep tabs on all of them but I feel it is my right and my duty as a woman to bring to your attention the actions of one of your employees.

On December 16, 2008 at 2pm my friend and I after not seeing each other for months decided to go to Hooters Morehead City, NC 28557 for lunch because we love the food and the environment. Well our mindset toward Hooters changed after today. I just graduated college and while my husband was deployed in Iraq I lost 40 pounds. I did this because of personal reasons as well as once I moved to North Carolina full time I had hoped to re-apply for a position at Hooters since I wasn�t overweight anymore and that hindered myself from being hired the last time I applied. My friend whose name is Stephanie as well just had a baby after being honorably discharged from the Navy. She had both of her ovaries removed and was told she would never have children and found out about her pregnancy 37 weeks into it. So her baby was a miracle from God and she is a very proud mother of a baby boy. Now with both of us being familiar with the military we know that men military men love going to Hooters for dinner as well as wives love taking them there just before deployment because the restaurant makes them feel good about fighting for this country.

Now that you know our background here is what happened. We sat down and ordered two Hula Hoop Pina Coladas. The waitress checked our id�s as appropriate and placed our drink order. Then came back and said it would be awhile because the computer system was down and she had to tell the bar tender herself. Now the restaurant was not busy and the bar was not crowded so the time to make our drinks was extensive. Then we proceeded to order our food which we ordered the Buffalo Chicken Sandwich, Curly Fries, and a Hooters Burger. The waitress tried to suggest the mini burgers to me but I wanted the real Hooters Burger because that is what I was familiar with and called a �real burger�. Then when she finally brought our dinks I forgot to order and appetizer and ordered the cheese sticks. The cheese sticks came very quickly and raised suspicion to me because I have been in the food industry for over 10 years and know how long it takes to make frozen cheese sticks and it ranges from 7-8 minutes depending on the company. They were burnt and there in less then 5 minutes. She was very peppy like the cheerleader image you mention on your website but when she brought out our food she said �Hungry Girls Today�. Now I know from being a waitress for many companies you never make a comment like that. No matter whom the client is or how much food they order a comment like that is inappropriate. Also the waitress, Amanda, filled the Hooters image perfectly with her being at perfect weight and making the Hooters uniform proud. In other words she was very skinny and my friend and I are not twigs like she is. So we took extreme offense to her comment. She proceeded to walk away after making the comment. I sat for a minute with my friend and asked her if I just heard Amanda right and she said yes she heard the same thing. So we asked another waitress who came to check on us because Amanda was taking a lunch break if we could see the manager. There were two managers present that day and they both were doing interviews but one came over and said he was the manager. How appropriate to have a male manager address a comment a woman made about another woman. So we knew he was not going to fully understand the extent of the comment made but we proceeded to tell him what happened. He apologized for the comment and said he would take 20% off the bill, 10% for each meal but then continued to talk. He said to us that Hooters is mainly a man environment but we do encourage women to come to the restaurant. Right there he was in the wrong too because of what your webpage says.

Your mission statement on your website quotes:

�Our mission is to provide a family of hospitality and services that achieves excellence and enhances lifestyles of all who come in contact with the Hooters brand.

We are committed to providing an environment of employee growth and development so that we can provide every guest a unique, entertaining dining experience in a fun and casual atmosphere delivered by attractive, vivacious Hooters Girls while making positive contributions to the communities in which we live.�

As well as:

�Hooters characterizes itself as a neighborhood place, not a typical family restaurant. Sixty-eight percent of customers are male, most between the ages of 25-54. Hooters does not market itself to families, but they do patronize the restaurants. Ten percent of the parties we serve have children in them. Hooters is in the hospitality business and provides the best possible service to anyone coming through the door. For this reason, the chain offers a children's menu.�

Now I am an educated female having graduated college and taking classes of interpretation and your Morehead City restaurant does not follow either statement. First off this restaurant did not follow the mission of providing excellence or enhancing the lifestyle of all who come in contact with the Hooters brand because the waitresses comment put both of us down and made us feel horrible about ourselves. Also while Hooters make characterize itself as a neighborhood place I would never call someone in my neighborhood hungry for I do not know their financial situation or how much their family eats. For all your waitress knew in this economy today we saved up our money and wanted to treat ourselves to good food but instead were insulted. I know that the cliental is 68% male but that leaves 32% of the cliental to be either women or children and that is not the �best possible service� to provide to either woman of children by calling them hungry. The food also on the menu is not cheap nor does it really follow the value for the item because everything is ala cart. Everything is separate and charged an extensive price for so while 20% off may have seemed appropriate for the manager to take off the mean was still $34.83 after discount. Alcohol I understand to be priced the way it is but to charge extra for fries, blue cheese, and cheese on a burger alone is ridiculous. The comment Amanda made ruined our whole dining experience as well as our impression of Hooters.

I would expect a response in an appropriate time manner for I will be telling the many thousands of Marines in Camp LeJeune, NC to not eat there as well as their wives not to apply there because we were truly discriminated against for our weight and the fact we were women. I truly hope Hooters can resolve this issue for I feel that despite the ridicules the company has been through hiring attractive women as servers it would not discriminate against the sex it takes pride in hiring.