Marks and Spencer support new 'Hooters' in Bristol

[JessinAvalon]

Dear all
This is my first post on here so I hope I am doing this right!

I live in Bristol and, last week, 'Hooters' was granted a licence to open in the city centre. The site is virtually opposite 3 apartment blocks, the lower floors of which are social housing and children are living in them.

What's most disappointing is that Marks and Spencer are leasing the site to 'Hooters'. They have been e-mailed by many concerned people to ask if they will reconsider leasing the building but they have just replied saying it is a "commercial decision" (as if that makes it ok!). In Sheffield, a 'Hooters' didn't even make it to application stage because the developer (Ask Pizza) realised that it would be better not to be associated with a company like 'Hooters'.

Marks and Spencer don't seem that concerned, however. Although they have signed up to the "Let Girls Be Girls" Mumsnet campaign they are not concerned about a company which sells merchandise including babygros which say "Future Hooters Girl" and "Does my butt look big in this?"

I have written to Marks and Spencer telling them that I won't be shopping in their stores again. If you feel strongly about this, please e-mail:

[email protected].

'Hooters' tries to sell itself as a family friendly restaurant but it is anything but. The Hooters in Nottingham attracts mainly stag parties and football fans. Hooters Girls take part in bikini contests and iced wet t-shirt competitions (the t-shirts are put in the freezers before the girls wear them). 'Hooters' has links to Playboy magazine....I could go on.....

I think Marks and Spencer should be shamed for facilitating this company's expansion into Bristol. They are selling women and girls down the river by leasing to this company and all just to make a "quick buck".

Thanks everyone.

Just keeping this bumped in case M&S think it's going to blow over!

I was at a regional Unison conference today and I was allowed to speak for a few minutes about this topic in the afternoon.

Hopefully it will keep the message out there about Marks and Spencer's involvement.

Has anyone from MNHQ heard back from M&SHQ yet?

Hi jessinavalon!!
Very much enjoyed meeting you at the unison day - my collegue that was at your session is going to help me to draft a motion for local unison branch about the issue so we will be spreading the word in Plymouth about the issue

Had the same responses as everyone else. I also brought it up at work and was astonished (despairing) of the responses. One colleague said she'd been to 'Hooters' and didn't think it was too bad. One said, seriously, that she couldn't boycott M+S because that is where she buys her underwear and jeggings! What I find most shocking is that this is the same colleague who tells me I can't be a feminist because I'm married but insists that she is a feminist. Sometimes I am so lost for words I just don't know what to say!

Hi ipodtherforipoor!

Great to meet you too! Thanks so much for taking this forward (and the other stuff when I get around to sending it on to you!).

Hi Chrysanthemum

Someone at the conference today said that she had been to one in the US and didn't think it was too bad. However, after some discussion, I think she can see why we are concerned. I, too, had a conversation with a young woman whom I was sure would be horrified and she wasn't. I was so stunned I could barely get a coherent sentence out (and as ipodtherforipoor will know from today, I have no problem speaking normally!!).

I think Hooters/M&S are counting on the fact that there will be apathy or an outright welcoming of Hooters.

Perhaps you could ask your colleague what she thinks about the 'Does my butt look big in this?'/'Future Hooters Girl'/'Your crib or mine' babygros or the bib that says 'I'm a boob man'. Does she think this is bad or just a bit of harmless fun?

Well dh went out today and bought a new suit. Would normally have gone straight to M&S but went to Debenhams instead. £200 if you're still keeping totals, Jess.

This is rather bland -- seems ver focussed on the perceived commercial forces at work more than anything. Not sure why the 'high degree of self-regard' was necessary. Perhaps women aren't supposed to have any.

Hi Jess
I tried all those arguments it all came down to people liking to buy their pants in M+S regardless of their ethical issues. I am also not normally lost for words but I had to give up before I became too despairing

www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/epic/mks/8010701/Marks-and-Spencer-faces-boycott-over-sexist-Hooters-restaurant-deal.html

And the Sunday Telegraph!

Thanks everyone for helping to get this into the national press twice over on the same day!

It's a shame that 2 articles in national newspapers aren't enough to make M&S listen!

I think their repeated mantra of "it's a commercial decision" is going to backfire. It makes them look pretty bad.

Telegraph article

Yes, agree that this is better.

I think the mistake M & S are making is that they believe that because the lease is "Completed and concluded" there is nothing we can do and so we'll just shut up. But their involvement is set in concrete now, and it's not going to go away, so if the connection between them and the Hooters brand is emphasized and magnified to the max, in a steady drip drip campaign, in the nature of this thread, then M & S will begin to lose customers. Their customer base are the people most likely to be offended.

It's like the vote.. at the end women didn't give a shit about the vote, they just wanted to break the patriarchy. I feel like that about this. It's hugely important that Hooters is not opened, but it's almost more important that companies like M & S take women seriously. The fob-offs we've had are too insulting. The worst one was the line that "this decision was not taken lightly" which does imply that they knew it would upset women, but went ahead anyway

By the way you can add my new sofas to the list, something between £1500-£2000. It was between M & S and John Lewis -- M & S were cheaper for almost identical style. DP (feminist male) 100% in support.

Presumably M&S signing up to the LGBG campaign was a "commercial decision" too.

One that quickly went out of the window when there were better "commercial decisions" to be made.

I think I may start a feminist version of "Godwin's Law" and will call it "Glebe's Law" after the commenter on the Telegraph page.

"As an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a feminist being called ugly and/or jealous approaches 1."

He manages it after only 2 comments!

How many of the proposed 36 Hooters restaurants are in buildings held by M&S?

The headline argument in these newspaper articles has been framed as 'Mumsnet Vs M&S' rather than 'Feminists Vs Hooters'.

If you get the Bristol Hooters shut down, how do you then use the M&S tinged momentum to do the same to the next one, if M&S arent involved?

Serious question.

The company which has bought the franchise hasn't got plans to open the same 36 branches that the previous franchise holder did. I explained this in an earlier post.

What it is hoped that this specific part of the campaign will do (and it is only one part) is to make lease holders more aware of their corporate responsibilities. Hopefully it will make others think twice about leasing their buildings to a company like Hooters.

There have been incidences before both with Hooters and with lap dancing clubs where the plans fell through because the lease holders/building owners didn't want to be associated with those companies.

Ahh apologies - the telegraph article states 36.

How many is it now? (forgive me if I dont read back through 25 pages!)

We don't know. There's no way of knowing until the franchise holders publish their plans and they have s history of not doing so because of the negative press they have encountered.

Plus, it is easier for them to get applications through if they don't advertise the brand or mention it in the application because that ensures that interested parties who might want to object then don't know about it. The news only came out about the one in Bristol purely by chance.