Hot Waitress Economic Index

Sentences starting with the phrase "in this economy..." are getting stale, but there are some perks to the economic slump: designer clothes on sale, half-off drink specials, and now, hot waitresses. New York magazine reports that "a robust market for hotness" exists only in a boom, when attractive men and women are employed to sell "everything from condos to premium vodka," leaving "more-punishing work, like waiting tables, to those with less striking genetic gifts." But as times get tougher and business must cut costs wherever possible, less-attractive waiters and waitresses are being let go while the better-looking ones are kept on. Says one waitress, "“They slowly let the boys go, then the less-attractive girls, and then these hot girls appeared out of nowhere. All in the hope of bringing in more business. The managers even admitted it." Some might call this kind of practice discriminatory, but for many restaurant owners, it's a two-for-one: Waitresses are now marketing bait.