Said Trump, who seems to involve himself in everything, in a Truth Social post.
I wasn't going to talk about the Cracker Barrel foofaraw, and I have nothing but free time to look at whatever might attract my attention and scribble about to my heart's content. But Trump talked about it, and that's a layer of meaning I cannot resist.
His Truth Social post is interesting — almost like a challenge on "The Apprentice."
By the way, I think Cracker Barrel needed a better logo. I've never understood what the background shape was supposed to be. Looking for it as I drove the interstate, I thought of it as the sole of a shoe. Or what do you think? A kidney? And then all that extra iconography — the man, his chair, the barrel. That's too much going on when people are whizzing by in cars.
Posts
59 comments:
I have never been to a Cracker Barrel.
I've heard that, like many restaurants during Chi-Com Fauci Covid - the food quality went down hill.
I thought the old logo was too busy, but I'm not impressed with the new one. It's too far the other way, too plain. Still, I don't understand all the to-do over it. Some things get more attention than they deserve.
The back ground is a bean shape. The man, rocker and cracker-barrel is the full imagery. The blew it keeping the name while gentrifying the logo.
It is a bit amusing to see how many podcasters and such use the racial slur "cracker" seemingly unaware of the "cracker barrel" as a thing and philosophy.
cracker-barrel | ˈkrakərˌberəl |
adjective [attributive] North American English
(especially of a philosophy) plain, simple, and unsophisticated:
late 19th century: with reference to the barrels of soda crackers once found in country stores, around which informal discussions would take place between customers.
Ann - I agree.. The few times I've driven by one, I didn't understand the logo at all. It's too detailed to see. I also do not understand the uproar over it.
It wasn't until a few days ago that I realized it was a man sitting next to a barrel.
I have heard that the CEO did more to ruin the place than the Logo change. Perhaps she allowed woke BS to creep in? If CB had a loyal customer base, and she allowed the food and service deteriorate and additionally allowed woke BS - all a recipe for disaster. (no matter what that logo looks like)
When people are whizzing by in their cars and they see the logo they are reminded they need to take a whizz someplace safe and clean. The kidney shape is a subconscious prompt. Come pee here and maybe buy something as well.
Their new management didn’t just go woke on the branding. They went woke on food and service quality.
They made these decisions years late and the results were easily predictable.
The main takeaway from this is that corporate culture in this country is tribal and nepotistic. If you are a college educated leftist you can get hired into corporate leadership no matter how stupid you are.
Democrats are just stupid people and they are going to destroy things they control.
I think that the bigger problem with Cracker Barrell is that they fell into that trap of substantially lowering the quality of the food to save money. (We all know how resturants have been hurting since the pandemic.) Then they tried to distract people from that by remodeling. But their remodeling is dull and unimaginative.
The old one was as unreadable as a 20-year-old fuzzy tattoo. Yes, it was terrible when driving but so distinct that one easily knew the identity. It brings to mind the old timey Kentucky Fried Chicken logo -- but they also simplified to a big face and "KFC."
The new CB logo is a lazy abstract blob at best, and the words don't fit the odd shape. In this case a first-year art student could do a better job. A simple barrel outline with the CB name would make more sense and be more memorable.
Cracker on a barrel. How urbane.
We live in the South and my kids used to treat going to Cracker Barrel as a special occasion.
The last few times we went the bacon and pancakes just weren’t very good.
It was always a clean restaurant with good quality food. There was a unique flavor in ambiance to walking through the scammy gift shop in the front. If you wanted you could get in and out relatively quickly with tables that were spaced far apart and there were always fireplaces around.
The problem is they hired some idiot Scion millennials into corporate management and they let their condescending attitude towards Cracker Barrel customers show.
Their stock price has declined by around 60% since 2020.
It looks like they are going to go the way of Howard Johnson’s who got squeezed out the rise of fast food.
I am distinctly not a fan of Cracker Barrel cuisine. But if I travel to a contest where some of the other flyers are from Georgia--by gum we're going to eat at Cracker Barrel. For the Cracker Barrel loyal any change is bad. Same goes for the Waffle House folks. Still it's not smart to abuse your loyal patrons. See Dylan Mulvaney who managed to destroy Bud Light's market share.
If so many Americans actually craved the nostalgia Cracker Barrel was offering, it wouldn't have seen customer traffic fall precipitously between 2021 and 2024, or seen its stock price drop 75% over that period.
After restoring its classic logo, Cracker Barrel's CEO to present Trump with a solid gold logo replica, as well as a 10% equity stake in the company.
From what I've read, the logo rebrand and store redesign are smaller problems than the drop in the quality of the food. Customers will put up with a lot to eat at a place that makes them feel nostalgic, but if the dining experience is not satisfactory, then they will go elsewhere, and in recent years, that's what they have done. Don't fix what's not broken; fix what is.
Cracker Barrel's dated menu may be its biggest issue. I've eaten there several times when traveling, but struggle to construct a low-to-moderate carb meal. First, they add biscuits to everything. Second, they love breaded and fried foods. My wife peeled a side dish of fried okra to eat only the okra -- it was 2/3rds breading. They push sweet sauces for most everything. They sell a dozen pancake variations, but no omelettes...!
In our visits, the average customer was heavyset to very obsese. I'd guess the frequency of diabetes is off the charts, and their regulars are literally dying off.
I remember when the restaurants on the interstate were all Shoney's! That was really really bad. I was really glad when Cracker Barrel came along. I went out of my way to keep driving until I saw the yellow shoe.
Kakistocracy said...
< >If so many Americans actually craved the nostalgia Cracker Barrel was offering, it wouldn't have seen customer traffic fall precipitously between 2021 and 2024, or seen its stock price drop 75% over that period.
The woke idiots running the company decided to try to save money by selling cheap food.
When that predictably failed they tried to do a woke rebrand.
The problem is corporate greed and stupidity. The problem is corporate culture has been consumed by shortsighted dishonest idiots like you.
I never understood the old logo, but the new one is just dumb. Dumber than Denny's. But most people are complaining about the interior redesign of CB. Some say they feel like they are in a Target or Bed Bath & Beyond.
I don't get it. When Land-O-Lakes removed the Indian, but kept the land, that was pretty on the nose funny, but this is one kerfuffle I am bowing out of.
@Curious George: "But most people are complaining about the interior redesign of CB. Some say they feel like they are in a Target or Bed Bath & Beyond."
The old version was akin to visiting a small town General Store, with lots of vintage-style art and cluttery antiques. The new decor has horizontal plain wooden siding and fewer decorations. It's a lot brighter inside (think New England coastal) than the old brown/gray theme.
Yes, the base design is a generic "retail space" in the fashion of a Target. Still, there are enough cues to know you are in a CB. I didn't hate either interior. I do hate the new logo.
From my perspective, people are missing the real issues by concentrating on the logo. The revise logo is just emblematic of the revise menu, declining food quality and poor service. We frequently stopped at Cracker Barrel when on road trips between home in Central Florida and our condo in Gulf Shores and visiting the grandkids in the Atlanta area. Now, we don't. In fact, the last time we were at a Cracker Barrel, the waitress was surly, the food trickled out of the kitchen in whatever order it was cooked (my wife was finished eating before my order arrived), and, for the first time ever, I gave the manager a verbal list of issues he should be working on if he didn't want to lose more customers like he just lost me. Cracker Barrel's attraction was its consistency, broad comfort food menu, quick service and cleanliness. All that disappeared sometime in the recent past, and the new logo is just a reminder of everything else that changed.
You had a cracker and a barrel. Why ruin the logo?
Being Southern my wife and I were once big fans of Cracker Barrel, as was my whole family. But its current troubles relate primarily to the quality of the food, which has really gone downhill. The last time we ate at a one was in FL nearly two years ago, and it wasn't very good. We have had no desire to go back to one since, though we have one very near each of our homes in TN and GA.
Given we are in our mid-70s we tend not to eat out in the evening very much but do venture out a couple of times a month for breakfast or brunch. CB would once have been our preferred choice. But at our home here in GA we have now about 10 really good breakfast/brunch places to eat, some local and some chain. CB would be at the bottom of the that list.
I have also been amused as someone pointed out earlier the mis-understanding of the term "cracker". It has nothing to do with the man in the chair but the fact that he is sitting by a "cracker barrel", in which old country stores received their shipment of crackers many years ago. These were usually a fixture in many stores and were often used as a table where customers would gather to share a drink, talk, and maybe play a little game of checkers. We have moved on so far from that time that people don't seem to know that any more.
As for the man sitting in the chair, CB lore is that his name was Herschel and he was the uncle of the chain's founder. I think there used to be a meal on the breakfast menu called "Uncle Herschel's Favorite". He was usually a presence at many of the openings of a new store in the early days of the company.
I neve thought the sign was too complicated. Its customer base could easily recognize the white, orange, and brown colors and its shape. Just like I don't need to read the letters of Waffle House when I see one along the road, the size, shape, and color is enough to know what it is.
Took a quick look at their financial statements- inflation ate into their profits after 2021. Additionally, there is a positive value listed under "other income expense" that contributed 2/3 of the pretax income in 2021 that disappeared in the following years. Not sure what that was- given it was a restaurant chain I suspect there is some sort of real estate reorganization like a sale/leaseback that contributed one-time income.
Yancey Ward said...
Took a quick look at their financial statements- inflation ate into their profits after 2021. Additionally, there is a positive value listed under "other income expense" that contributed 2/3 of the pretax income in 2021 that disappeared in the following years
COVID “loans.”
On the really, really bad roadside restaurant bet, I see your Shoney’s and raise you Stuckey’s.
As for Cracker Barrel, I think their problem was staffing. During the Great Resignation, they had trouble keeping their restaurants fully staffed. Their servers would even talk about it if you gave them an opening. My experience has been that the food quality and service has gotten back to where it used to be over the last couple of years. But once a restaurant chain loses a customer …
Enigma said...
Cracker Barrel's dated menu may be its biggest issue. I've eaten there several times when traveling, but struggle to construct a low-to-moderate carb meal. First, they add biscuits to everything. Second, they love breaded and fried foods. My wife peeled a side dish of fried okra to eat only the okra -- it was 2/3rds breading. They push sweet sauces for most everything. They sell a dozen pancake variations, but no omelettes...!
In our visits, the average customer was heavyset to very obsese.
Oh my! Have you considered suing for emotional distress?
This is a ridiculous made-up controversy. They need a new logo for social media and the internet (and billboards). The one they had is too complex and needed to be changed just like many companies did years ago with their old-timey logos.
IMO their logo sucked anyway. A "cracker" sitting next to a barrel? WTF is a cracker barrel anyway? Is that a southern thing?
I always thought the yellow back drop was like a slice of cheese for the cracker. Whatever it was, it is still there, minus the other things that more clearly define Cracker Barrel.
This is another fight that lacks a dog of mine. I quit going to Cracker Barrel about a decade ago. We were there for a late breakfast (not a brunch, because this was a Cracker Barrel after all). I just wanted a sausage biscuit, but while I could order the sausage a-la-carte, not so for the biscuits. It was 10am, and at 11am, biscuits would be served for free, so they were not available a-la-carte. If I wanted a biscuit, I had to pay extra for the biscuit smothered in sausage gravy, even if I had no interest in the sausage gravy. No, I couldn't freely substitute the sausage gravy for just sausage. After spending 3 times more than what I could have gotten an hour later much cheaper (except then they didn't make cooked sausage to sell after 11am), I decided not to go back. Too many rules with too high a price to pay to play within those rules.
Did Cracker Barrel's stock drop because of what the CEO did, or did I miss Kak's recommendation to buy?
I once bought my mother a mechanical dancing flower from the Cracker Barrel gift shop. I don't remember anything about the food.
"... a small town General Store..." Spot on. I can't believe how many people were unaware of the old country store with a, literal, cracker barrel.
It used to be, when traveling, CB was out default place to stop. Near interchanges. Always pretty good food. And always pretty good service.
Now?
Well, at least they are still near the interchanges.
But, hey, a new look. A new logo! Huzzah?
I love how Mark warns us in the first sentence that everything else after is a ridiculous made-up controversy.
Social media had nothing to do with changing the interior design of the stores and the menu. In fact, had Cracker Barrel used social media for advice on changes to make, they probably wouldn't have made these mistakes.
JK Brown and MountainMan nailed the imagery in the old logo. As a kid, I was instantly able to understand what the old logo was projecting even though the setting wasn’t one that spoke to me as someone from an urban neighborhood.
And they definitely should have focused on the cratering quality, not the logo.
This kerfuffle encapsulates where the left is at right now. Their product sucks and everybody (well most people) knows it. So what do they focus on? Rebranding/messaging.
Ya'll just cannot figure it out, can you?
Tanking these companies is DELIBERATE. Larry Fink and BlackRock have figured out that DEI/ESG is a way to tank a company stock ... so they short it, then implement these terrible, terrible policies that have easily predictable outcomes. The nation's retirement funds take the stock price hit.
The stock price then crashes. Fink and his pals thus RAID every retirement plan in the country, and they personally make BILLIONS of dollars on the destruction of these companies. Fink and BlackRock PUT these board members on the Cracker Barrel board of directors.
They then buy the stock back at the bottom.
Voila.
They just robbed your retirement fund.
And the funny thing is that MBA programs still teach that this kind of rebranding to attract new customers is how to create growth. The truth is, leave the cash cow alone and seek growth in another playground, make new Gay Barrel restaurants if you want. Franchisees are your most important customers, don’t screw them over.
That is damn good advice from Trump and the first time since this started that I have heard this recommendation. Make use of the publicity and the moment to turn those lemons into lemonade.
“ The stock price then crashes. Fink and his pals thus RAID every retirement plan in the country, and they personally make BILLIONS of dollars on the destruction of these companies. Fink and BlackRock PUT these board members on the Cracker Barrel board of directors.
They then buy the stock back at the bottom.”
Ha! I love it, comedy gold Jerry.
Dad wants Pops back.
Make use of the publicity and the moment to turn those lemons into lemonade.
Coca-Cola >> New Coke >> Coke
I created a logo for the low low cost of 1 million dollars. https://imgur.com/a/ptFKYoG
Is a huge barrel the best way to transport and store crackers?
To me, the logo always implied a place to get a wholesome, country-cooked meal.
I think the crackers were more like hardtack. The barrel is reasonably waterproof and airtight so not a bad place to ship them and I guess store them as well. Before plastics and rubber, your storage/shipping containers that were waterproof were ceramics, think amphoras, or barrels, or glass.
"The stock price then crashes. Fink and his pals thus RAID every retirement plan in the country, and they personally make BILLIONS of dollars on the destruction of these companies. Fink and BlackRock PUT these board members on the Cracker Barrel board of directors."
OR maybe Fink and the people who just run all these huge hedge funds just don't give a damn. When the banksters drove Washington Mutual and a lot of other banks into the ground in 2009,, or forced them to be "rescued" by other financial institutions, none of the people at the top were hurt. They got Golden parachutes.
What evidence is there that the chick CEO will be hurt if the CB collapses? None. That's why losertarianism and "Let the free market rule" is bullshit.
Does CB own all the restaurants or does CB have franchises. Because I can tell you with 100 percent certainaity (sic) that Blackrock and the Huge hedge funds don't give a fucking good Goddamn if some franchise owner in Nashville Tenn goes broke. In fact, they enjoy it.
Oh nooes. The Billionaire hedge managers aren't political. They don't care about Israel. They aren't liberals. They don't care about anything except $$$. Cause ayn rand told me so.
And that's written in the Constitution.
LOL!
Regarding Larry "Rat" Fink, see his 2017 comments about forcing DEI behaviors:
https://www.foxbusiness.com/politics/blackrock-ceo-slammed-force-behaviors-dei-initiatives
Old logo sucked. New logo sucks. Try again. Have a contest. Million $ prize. Votes from customers at stores. Do quarter finals, semi-finals and drum roll…. New voting after every round. Maybe some stay-at-home mom wins, or a granny or student or policeman.
Use your heads Cracker Barrel! Trump’s right. You can turn a skunk into a golden goose.
The news tells people what to care about, and they care so hard!
"They sell a dozen pancake variations, but no omelettes...!"
This is my complaint. I want an omelette.
I have some advice for all restaurants.
I know it's difficult - (no sarcasm - because finding good & honest people / in the era of Democrat party inspired low moral behavior - is a challenge.)
But here IT is: ... Make Good Food.
There is A REASON why we all return to the hole-in-the-wall that serves good food. right?
Clues.
May I suggest that a new logo in the shape of Sydney Sweeney's ass would be a yuge success?
The old logo was easily recognizable to me.
I've probably eaten there 15/20 times over the last 20 years, always on a road trips of varying lengths. They had decent chicken and dumplings; the rest of the menu was grade C, but if you like Southern food there's slim pickings on the Interstates. The breakfasts were OK too.
I noticed in recent years the portions getting smaller, the service worsening, and the general ambience was somehow more unsettled.
Last time I was in there, I noticed they weren't playing traditional country music as I had come to expect.
> Have a contest. Million $ prize.
> Votes from customers at stores.
And that's how the rebranded Cracky McCrackface was born!
Back to Waffle House.
Post a Comment
Please use the comments forum to respond to the post. Don't fight with each other. Be substantive... or interesting... or funny. Comments should go up immediately... unless you're commenting on a post older than 2 days. Then you have to wait for us to moderate you through. It's also possible to get shunted into spam by the machine. We try to keep an eye on that and release the miscaught good stuff. We do delete some comments, but not for viewpoint... for bad faith.