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Woke has won ๐Ÿ˜” (thelemmy.club)
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[-] Awoo@hexbear.net 18 points 1 day ago

Lame. So what they're actually doing here is making the girls wear even less clothing. I suppose the Hooters uniform was probably more risque when it opened and has become pretty mundane over time so now they're just gonna straight up put them in bikinis?

Hooters is basically the American version of a Japanese maid cafe but like most american things the effort isn't there and it's kinda shitty and unimaginative.

[-] WhatDoYouMeanPodcast@hexbear.net 4 points 19 hours ago* (last edited 19 hours ago)

I am reasonably confident that the (ig)noble maid cafe is a Japanification of Hooters, not the other way around.

[-] Awoo@hexbear.net 6 points 18 hours ago* (last edited 18 hours ago)

Nah the first Hooters is 1983 whereas the first maid cafe is 1920s, and even before that back in the Meiji period (1860s) Japan had "Kissa" which were coffee shops with a "service" atmosphere which were basically always women. The addition of the maid uniform was just added to the Kissa to create the Maid Kissa.

Culturally this was probably successful because historic Geisha culture had already rooted the service culture and turning Geisha into Maids was just a western exotification of the same thing.

It was the late 90s early 2000s where these maid cafes boomed to 300+ venues in Akihabara though, which I would guess was caused by Japan's economic downturn and men seeking forms of fantasy escapism.

[-] WhatDoYouMeanPodcast@hexbear.net 4 points 18 hours ago
[-] Awoo@hexbear.net 4 points 18 hours ago

I wanna stress a bunch of this is my speculation. Only the dates and numbers are true and the culture stuff about why it succeeded is mostly guesswork.

[-] hotcouchguy@hexbear.net 10 points 1 day ago

They claim they're making it somewhat-less sexualized, more "athletic".

Really it sounds like they're turning a big dial labeled "clothing" until customers appear. I'd expect another decade or so of random flailing before some vulture fund puts it out of its misery.

[-] Awoo@hexbear.net 3 points 22 hours ago* (last edited 22 hours ago)

There's no imagination, no vision.

Like most american things, it's just a bit shit. Maid Cafes are significantly better in part because there's a whole fantasy there, a fun game, a fictionalised roleplay. It's silly but it's silly in a way everyone gets to have some sort of fun.

Hooters is just doing a regular restaurant and putting the titties out there to try and attract people. Nevermind the fact that it's not the men in families that pick which food place to eat, it's the women.

Much like Gamestop failing to adapt to changing times because it lacks the vision to integrate itself into the community like a TCG shop does, this completely lacks vision also.

A starting point could be different uniforms, not just hooters standard or beach, but a whole range of alternatives. If they're concerned about staff reaction then they should just offer them as choices the staff themselves can choose to try. Put a tail and some ears on. Put a maid costume on. Put a different outfit on and just see how the customers react. If the staff themselves are choosing the outfits they wear then they get to have a little fun with it, they can then give feedback to headquarters about the reception of these things and that feedback can be used to adapt new ideas internally. There's just no reason to stick to one uniform and I guarantee the staff will have solid ideas if you give them some freedom with this because they want more tips. This would be a pretty simple and low-cost starting point for changing things and it wouldn't be too large of a change to harm the existing patrons, which I suspect is their biggest fear - they're scared that changing something will accelerate the losses rather than turn things around.

this post was submitted on 23 May 2026
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