The real reason Hooters is disappearing across the country

Usually, when you announce where you're headed for dinner, it's met with a bit of excitement and — hopefully — agreement. Announce to the family you'd like to go to Hooters, though, and it might be met with doubt and a disapproving scowl. There's no denying that Hooters — with their scantily-clad waitresses and looks-based hiring practices — has always targeted a certain client base.

It's hard to believe they've been doing it for more than 30 years, and according to USA Today, they haven't aged well. They called Hooters "a fading relic of the 1980s," and they've been on a very slow downward slide for a long time. There's only one year in recent memory that they saw a sales increase, and even then it was just a pretty sad one percent. In 2008, they had 400 restaurants. By 2011, they had closed 35 locations and lost an annual revenue of more than $100 million (via Time). Between 2012 and 2016 they closed a further seven percent of their locations, says Business Insider. So what's going on with this bro-centric breastaurant?