Restaurant in China boosts business by hiring scantily clad servers
The restaurant management makes no bones about this gimmick - a blatant attempt at attracting more customers.
The waitresses are dressed in bikinis, while handsome hunks strut around the restaurant topless.
The new eatery in the Tiexi district of Shenyang, in China's Liaoning province, has been seeing a steady stream of customers, The Mirror reported.
It is not difficult to see why.
But the restaurant, which specialises in congee, has been accused of being sexist and using women to drum up business.
Restaurant managers admit hiring good-looking staff to wait the tables.
But bosses say it is not sexist because males are also made to dress in swimwear - and the customers love it.
Since the move to the unconventional costumes, business has been booming, local media reported.
BIG DEMAND
The staff of 20 women and 10 men boosted sales so much that they are having a tough time keeping up with demand from both male and female customers.
The staff even have the name of the restaurant, which loosely translates as fresh rice, painted on their bodies at the start of each shift.
Critics say the decision to dress staff in beachwear sends the wrong message, especially to younger customers.
One Weibo user Ginsy08 said: "This restaurant's business is selling food, not swimwear. It is just irresponsible."
It is not the first time that Chinese businesses have resorted to using such gimmicks.
Early this year, a camera dealership in Taiyuan in Shanxi province caused a stir after it solicited the cleaning services of scantily clad bikini models as part of its opening celebrations over the weekend, reported Xinhua.
In the brazen publicity stunt, the store's owners hired six seductively dressed women, gave them brooms and mops, and made them clean the store and the windows, to the delight of some passers-by, Shanghaiist.com reported.
In a similar case in March, a car show had pole dancers share the stage with little children.
The event was held in a shopping mall in Hangzhou in Zhejiang province to celebrate the mall's 100th day of opening, reported Tencent News.
Netizens were split over the event.
Some strongly condemned the shopping mall for putting children and scantily clad women on stage together, but others felt the promotion was completely harmless.
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