I see what you did there
They still do it at the one by the Brother Hotel near Nanjing East Road, across from Jolly.
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The original Hooters which has been here for 20+ years is actually managed by the same company that manages Hooters in Singapore…
The new location is managed by Taiwanese and has only started less than a year ago. I have a friend who was asked to join in the early stages but even then before opening could see it wasn’t as well organized and they didn’t have any experienced staff. They did seem to have an agreement with the original store for training but it seemed rather limited.
Hooters is in generally run as a western company and I think the Taiwanese management failure in that department is the most likely reason of their current issues / closure…
The rent for that location across from Land of a Thousand Mitsukoshis has to be frigging astronomical too, which can’t have helped.
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Hmm, not sure where you’re getting your information, but it’s not quite right. Hooters Xinyi is part of Hooters Asia. Sure, the staff are local, but the restaurant is one of several in the Hooters Asia group.
The Hooters in Singapore is a stand-alone franchise, as is the Hooters in Qingcheng Street. Both of them were (independent of each other) given their franchises over 20 years ago.
I see a few reasons behind their failure: poorly trained staff, a REALLY hard location (the wrong side of Songren is the dark side of the moon), and as Rocket says, truly astronomical rent, upwards of 700k/month.
I’ve heard that they’re planning on reopening soon with a new GM, but this is just rearranging deck chairs on the titanic, in my opinion. It cannot succeed in that location.
Location is the problem with the new (closed) one. Quality management won’t improve that. But rampant advertising will help some.
…or the brand/style on top of the location?
I mean, look at Ichiran Ramen, the place practically markets itself and has 2 hour waits on a daily basis. It’s location is kind of weird, but people will still go there because it’s Ichiran and there’s not many restaurants like it in the vicinity. There’s ramen places, but not one where you eat in a stall like Ichiran.
Whereas Hooters, there’s Texas Roadhouse in Breeze Song Gao, Chili’s in Neo19 and Fridays in the bus station building all in main drag strip of the Xinyi. Hooters only stands out because they have…Hooters. Otherwise, these places all sell relatively the same food.
And the prices!! They could do volume and revenue on 120NT glasses of piss, and 150 NT Beam high balls. But with the prices they charge you might as well go to the Roadhouse or Gordon’s.
Prices are all relatively the same at most of these major chain American restaurants though.
It may just come down to personal preference and experience.
UPDATE
Hooters Xinyi re-opened about two weeks ago, and I finally took a stroll in last night. Aside from slight rearrangements of the interior decorations, it’s pretty much the same place it used to be. Big positive: proper happy hour deals. 100 NT beers and highballs. Thank the God lord in heaven.
I also noticed that the majority of the staff are Thai. How are they pulling that off? All via working holiday permits? Or what?
Probably Thai because they speak better English and are better at customer relations. Wonder if they speak Chinese.
Time for a field trip.
What are they doing for work permits though? It’s not exactly a job locals
can’t do.
Ummm. I’m not so sure about that
I’ve actually wondered that too. The Thai massage place that I go to, the majority of the employees are Thai, but speak almost perfect Taiwanese accented Chinese. I honestly can’t tell if they are half Thai and Taiwanese, but that’s my assumption.
Just in time…
Next meetup location? 
They are usually married to Taiwanese
Explains them being able to work. What about the perfect Chinese?
Seems like most of the staff only knew English. There was a manager that seemed bilingual.
Not sure about you, but hiring a full staff of people to cater to less than 10% of the entire population of Taiwan, recipe for success.