TGI FRIDAY’S philosophy and name are inextricably linked to comfort food in a cozy ambience. Yet! It was once the first bar for singles.
Author: John Protopapadakis- Marketing Tips
Sometimes history of business is full of surprises. Often times, aspiring entrepreneurs adopt a idiosyncratic approach to the business they wish to set up.
This logic could not escape TGI Friday’s, which, when it was founded on March 15, 1965 in New York, was the “vehicle” for anyone to meet flight attendants in his neighborhood.
Despite the apparent lack of a clear business plan, the store in question would be the first of its kind.
Shortly after its opening, queues would form, enough to hire a porter and install ropes marking the waiting area…
In 1965, Alan Stillman was a young single New Yorker selling colognes who was looking for, as he boldly declared, attractive girls.
Then he decided that the best way to meet flight attendants (in his neighborhood, he claimed, there were 480 flight attendants), secretaries and models was to buy for $10,000 (half of the amount was paid for by his mother) a partially-collapsed beer stein and convert it in a cocktail bar.
After he painted it blue, decked it out with fake Tiffany’s lamps, hired new waiters wearing red-and-white-striped football shirts, and named it TGI Friday’s (Thank God It’s Friday) – the name is alleged to be conceived when he was skiing with a friend, got upset he had lost and exclaimed “Thank Goodness it’s Friday!”
America’s first singles bar, serving “mouthwatering hamburgers and tasty fries in a comfortable environment,” had just come to light, marking the beginning of an entire industry.
The response of the people was beyond all expectations. To his surprise, Stillman, who had no experience in catering business, found out that there were quite a few like him, men and women, looking for their significant other.
Until then, these people either went to restaurants or gathered at home. He, of course, attributed the initial success – in the very first year revenues reached one million dollars – to the discovery, in the same year, of the contraceptive pill, which contributed to sexual liberation.
Stillman, however, proved to have an entrepreneurial spirit.
His shop, which soon caught the attention of local magazines, was the first to institute promotions such as ladies night, offering free drinks or hamburgers at the end of the month to representatives of the fairer sex.
He himself, as a bartender, even attracted the spotlight of the cinema, as Tom Cruise, who was trained by a bartender of the store, for his role in the movie Cocktail, played the founder himself.
The long lines attracted the attention of prestigious newspapers and magazines such as Time, Newsweek and the Saturday Evening Post.
Although the first review, from the New York Times, was negative, enough to abruptly drop sales, the founder didn’t sit idly by and took out three full-page op-eds in the same newspaper, extolling the irresistible steaks he served, eventually succeeding in turning the odds in his favor.
Within a few months, TGI Friday’s was the ultimate success story.
Two years later, he opened the first franchise in Memphis, Tennessee area, when a mall owner approached Stillman asking him to open a store — until then, he admitted, he didn’t even know what a franchise was, and agreed telling his future partner “I’ll teach you the job and the profits 50/50”.
Within a short time, seven TGI Friday’s had opened up, without a plan, around the country.
Did you know that…
The airplane propeller mounted on each TGI Friday’s symbolizes the engine that drives the business, while the rowboat symbolizes the teamwork required to effectively serve guests.
Employees are also rated by guests themselves and rewarded accordingly.
At the same time, the company pioneered, as when a customer had his birthday, the entire personnel would bring him a cake while singing the traditional TGI Friday’s birthday song.
The expansion into the southern states of the US brought about a number of changes to the business, most notably repositioning it in the market and approaching another target market, particularly during the day: families with young children.
Over the next 6-7 years TGI Friday’s was a a whole new business.
Under Alan Stillman’s leadership a total of 12 stores were opened, before he retired in 1975 and, after preserving the original store (which, however, stopped its operation in 1996)created, shortly after a trip to Europe, a successful chain of restaurants, Smith & Wollensky (he came up with the name by chance while reading the phone book) inspired by the French cuisine.
In 1986 the journey abroad began, with United Kingdom as the first stop – TGI Friday’s landed in Greece in 1997, in Kefalari, with plans to open up more in Athens and later throughout Greece.
Nowadays, there are 900 TGI Friday’s in 60 countries.
English (UK) 
Ελληνικά