“They’re trying to modernize to be like the competition — Cracker Barrel doesn’t have any competition,” Lowe told WTVF Thursday. “I heard she was at Taco Bell. What’s Taco Bell know about Cracker Barrel and country food? They need to work on the food and service and leave the barrel — the logo alone.”...
"She" = CEO Julie Felss Masino, who Lowe claims, doesn't know who he is and has never met with him. We're told "Masino began implementing changes to the menu, interior design and prices soon after [becoming CEO] in November."
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I saw one of the better takes on the root of the debacle from Sgt. Mom commenting on a David Foster post at Chicago Boyz
I’d be willing to bet that the CEO who put all this in train just wanted to change it into a place that she and her upscale girlfriends wouldn’t be embarrassed at being seen setting foot in the place.
All of my friends mentioned how they knew what the problem was when they saw the picture/video of the CEO. Reminded them of that Alyssa Heiderscheit with Bud Lite.
They also wagered that Masino had never eaten at Cracker Barrel in her life.
Cracker Barrel reminds me of how the International House of Pancakes became IHOP. At one time, they had unique, inefficient, blue A-frame buildings and sold international pancakes. Thin Swedish pancakes, crepes, blintzes, etc. Then, the Wall Street crowd took over and turned them into a Denny's alternative with a big selection of USA-style pancakes.
While IHOP may make more money and appeal to more people, it lost its reason for being.
American “conservatives” have fully morphed into the fragile, constantly outraged, perpetual victim stereotype they drew of young liberals.
Not really an "old fashioned restaurant" -- more a PE-funded roll out which has become a dumbed down faux-traditional diner chain serving poor quality food made from cheap produce -- the fact that anyone can get exercised by their logo speaks volumes about the state of the US.
Imagine being so insecure about your place in the world that you get triggered by the marketing campaign of a truly awful restaurant.
Christopher is right on target. The only thing I would change would be she wants to trans the restaurant into something she wouldn’t be embarrassed to tell be she ran.
Can you imagine the shame she must feel when she tells new acquaintances, who run NGOs, newspaper columnist, charities, museums, etc that she is CEO of Vracker Barrell? That shame must burn her soul.
I don’t understand how I missed Cracker Barrel all these years. I thought Cracker Barrel was the place with all the cheese in those open refrigerator units that snaked around the store and you had to run a gauntlet of hard sell employees to reach the exit. I went to my first one just a few years ago when my parents insisted on going there for breakfast. I thought it was too contrived and the food was awful- thin bacon, thin french toast made from a carton of that gloopy egg substitute. I’m not snooty about it I love a good diner or old school joint…but yuk. I suppose the corporate anti-gentrification mystique conjures something in ‘folks’…
…I’m agreeing with Kak on this one…
Simple really. A woke white woman took over a company and decided the company's most import job was to make a political statement, not to make money. With results that are completely predictable. Yet people like Kaki keep pretending they don't understand. Because everything must be explained by "Trump bad."
One thing you can say for Ms Masino - she rode her BA in Communications from Miami right up the corporate ladder.
I looked up the institutional holders and no surprise Blackrock is the largest. She was likely there because Fink wanted her there. No surprise the founder didn’t get a say…
"What’s Taco Bell know about Cracker Barrel and country food?"
They know how to use a microwave.
Cracker Barrel used to cook the food at their restaurant. Now, it is cooked elsewhere (China???) and shipped in frozen, to be microwaved upon ordering. Like Applebees.
But the real story is how hedge funds and institutional investors like Larry Fink are targeting companies ripe to be destroyed and taking over their boards of directors. Fink and his pals short the stock, then destroy the company from the inside by letting Democrat Party DEI mavens like Julie Masino loose inside it.
She doesn't know shit about Cracker Barrel customers and hates their ever-loving guts because they vote Trump.
So of course, she wants to destroy that.
And Fink wants to make billions of dollars making that happen.
…I think he gets the jollies making calculated judgements about wrecking institutions with woke vs being sued by shareholders. Last President he didn’t need to concern himself with the latter…
@Kaki and @rehajm: This is no different than the market segmentation that targets a specific demographic group. For CB parallels, consider The Dukes of Hazzard, the Beverly Hillbillies, The Andy Griffith Show, and Green Acres for 1960s to 1980s rural culture targeting.
Next up, consider who was targeted by Sex and the City, Virginia Slims cigarettes, organic yogurt, and Special K cereal.
Next up, consider who was targeted by Apple, Starbucks, and online subscription services for razors and refrigerated package meals.
Next up, consider who was targeted by menthol cigarettes, 40-oz malt liquor bottles, and the Cadillac Escalade.
If you live by corporate demographic profiling, your entire ID is derived from corporate profiling. It's nothing new or unique to "conservatives" or CB. It has little to do with personal insecurity, and everything to do with maintaining the only viable options for an ongoing lifestyle.
Post-industrial reality.
Oh my god, she's a Redhawk (Redskin when I was there). Well, she certainly fits the look-profile.
"What’s Taco Bell know about Cracker Barrel and country food?”
This isn’t about food. It’s about the long march through the institutions.
It think it would be difficult for Blackrock to take a net short position when they’re the largest institutional shareholder, ergo often the largest shareholder. I suppose technically possible using leaps and other cboe stuff. I think it would attract the lawyers and a Trump controlled SEC. Fink disseminates pure evil and if he’s working financial market shenanigans he wouldn’t be hard to catch and convict…
That NY Post website is a nightmare.
Fat Electrician did a good breakdown. He thinks there is a chance it could be a New Coke campaign, but doubts it. However, he thinks they could make it into one if they lean into the correction. https://youtu.be/6Jj3bEM90lw
"Next up, consider who was targeted by menthol cigarettes, 40-oz malt liquor bottles, and the Cadillac Escalade."
Burger King advertising is 100% ONLY targeting black people.
Once you start paying attention, you see lots of unhealthy products that are ONLY targeted at black people.
"It think it would be difficult for Blackrock to take a net short position when they’re the largest institutional shareholder, ergo often the largest shareholder."
I didn't say BlackRock.
I said Larry Fink.
See, Fink is INSANELY RICH. And he's figured out how to rob institutional investors by having BlackRock take the losing side of HIS trades.
He has his friends/buddies short the stock while he destroys the company from the inside by stacking the board, and ensures the stock price gets decimated.
It's the largest heist in history.
By far.
Your retirement fund is RIPE for exploitation.
This was the entire business model for the Boston Consulting Group. They'd get hired into companies while their insiders shorted the stock and BCG would make sure the company failed.
I didn't say BlackRock. I said Larry Fink.
…you are implying something unlikely. Me having worked on the buy side I can confirm because he’s the former the latter won’t get to hide…
Style over substance.
You ladies are known for it...
Gee, I wonder how the word "substance" evolved, when it was first used, and some funny dictionary references... Ann, get on that, stat? We know you like the distracting-from-the-news fluffy stories of little substance. You ladies make the dumb stories look so good... fresh-like! Serving up a plate of hot shit, but so stylishly!
When your name is on Edgar filings the SEC is Santa Claus- sees you when you’re sleeping knows when you’re awake..
Urbane appropriation and extraction with progressive viability.
Why anyone would eat at Cracker Barrel if you have a Waffle House nearby is beyond me.
Of course the rebranding to tone down the Jim Crow roots of the diabetes inducing restaurant is going to cause a calamity amongst all the crackers who enjoy ultra processed food partially heated in a microwave.
clearly her goal was to remake Cracker Barrel into just another Dennys
I NEVER saw how that was a winning path..
Did the world Truly NEED another Dennys?
Not for nothing that the producers of My 600 lb Life are often found in Cracker Barrel scouting for new talent.
"Why anyone would eat at Cracker Barrel if you have a Waffle House nearby is beyond me."
You've obviously never taken a Carnival Cruise before. Or a Greyhound bus.
Certain communities are "priced out" of certain restaurants.
"And he's figured out how to rob institutional investors by having BlackRock take the losing side of HIS trades."
That's how the Tyson's guy used to bribe Hillary, then she would tell us lies about how she did so well on her market bets in cattle futures markets because she read the Wall Street Journal. Good times, good times.
@Tofu King: "Why anyone would eat at Cracker Barrel if you have a Waffle House nearby is beyond me."
The menus are significantly different, and Waffle House's food quality is even lower.
I suppose: "I'm too chubby to sit at a high-top counter. I need to buy some candy bars for the road, and get some gifts for the grandkids. Waffle House doesn't have a gift shop."
”Cracker Barrel doesn’t have any competition,” [Cracker Barrel co-founder Tommy] Lowe told WTVF Thursday.
Based on the one that the wife and I ate at several years ago, they don’t have edible food, either.
If they don't fix their food, the logo is not going to matter a bit. My guess is, their greed has not been swayed by the logo fiasco - the drive to cut costs by flushing the food quality has resulted in a serious sales slump, which they were trying to hide by the re-brand. The faux 'Country-style' that's being 'updated & refreshed' is not going to work. They have to fix their food.
Gemini tells me that CB does not microwave their food.
Cracker Barrel does not microwave all of its food; the company states that items like biscuits, mashed potatoes, gravy, slow-roasted beef, and Sunday Homestyle Chicken are prepared from scratch in each restaurant to maintain an authentic, country-style cooking experience. However, their take-home meals are designed to be microwaved for convenient reheating.
Foods that are NOT microwaved
Biscuits: Hand-rolled in each restaurant. Cracker Barrel does not microwave all of its food; the company states that items like biscuits, mashed potatoes, gravy, slow-roasted beef, and Sunday Homestyle Chicken are prepared from scratch in each restaurant to maintain an authentic, country-style cooking experience. However, their take-home meals are designed to be microwaved for convenient reheating.
Foods that are NOT microwaved
Mashed Potatoes and Gravy: Made from scratch throughout the day.
Slow-Roasted Beef: Slow-roasted for 18 hours.
Sunday Homestyle Chicken: Dipped and breaded by hand.
Other Scratch-Cooked Items: The company emphasizes its commitment to scratch-cooked meals made with care, according to Cracker Barrel's website.
Foods that ARE microwaved
Take-Home Meals: The $5 take-home entrees, such as the fried chicken with mac and cheese and meatloaf with macaroni and cheese, are intended for microwave reheating to provide a quick and convenient option.
"fried chicken with mac and cheese and meatloaf with macaroni and cheese..."
I am no health nut, but that's poison, it's the food version of burning yourself up in a Tesla.
Restaurant stocks as a group stopped rising last February. CBRL topped in 2021.
Wall Street is hard to please. They don't care about authentic. They don't think longer term than maybe the next two years. They don't care about anything except higher profits.
This is just another story of disappointment. She had to try something. Her ideas may have been dumb. But overall stock valuations are the highest ever. That means, by definition, expectations are also the highest ever. Many will be disappointed. That's baked into this market.
@Wilbur: "Cracker Barrel does not microwave all of its food; the company states that items like biscuits, mashed potatoes, gravy, slow-roasted beef, and Sunday Homestyle Chicken are prepared from scratch in each restaurant to maintain an authentic, country-style cooking experience.....:
I am told what they actually do, is make some of the food in-house during off hours, and then freeze it - and then pull it out and microwave it to heat it up for the customer, during the day. So that's a partial truth being misrepresented in order to be deliberately misleading. And these kinds of behaviors are the hallmark of the current CEO.
Way back in the day in WV, I worked part-time by helping deliver milk and ice cream to real country stores out in the boondocks. Believe it, the wooden barrels, spittoons and tobacky were everywhere along with pickled beets, cukes, and pigs feet. They were not restaurants like those built by Tommy Lowe, and at 94, he knows full well that country stores were for limited shopping and a gathering place for farmers to smoke and "shoot the shit."
The only thing that Cracker Barrel has in common with the old fashioned country stores is lack of cleanliness - tables, floors, bathrooms and cooks not wearing hairnets, gloves or masks.
"Slow-Roasted Beef: Slow-roasted for 18 hours.
Sunday Homestyle Chicken: Dipped and breaded by hand."
Both of those statements could be true of food cooked offsite and reheated in the restaurant. Using AI to 'prove' something is naive at best, even if you are a 5th grader.
I had to stop reading comments, as they were putting me off my breakfast.
“"Why anyone would eat at Cracker Barrel if you have a Waffle House nearby is beyond me."
I’d like some biscuits and gravy with a side of fisticuffs, please…
@Mark: "Both of those statements could be true of food cooked offsite and reheated in the restaurant"
It's all about incremental costs and whether the customers notice or care about quality differences. There are a dozen grades of ice cream available, and somewhere around the middle they start to taste really good. The elite stuff at Whole Foods tastes better (sometimes), but it costs 5x or 10x more per ounce than bulk Walmart stuff.
Par-baked breads and other foods generally do taste better when finished just before serving. Yes, they rarely taste as good as freshly cooked stuff. The average customer isn't going to wait around for a complete cooking cycle.
Chicago is known for deep-dish pizza. This resembles lasagna wrapped in pizza dough as much as a common pizza. Speciality restaurants take reservations and hold tables for an hour, as it takes that long for 2" deep casseroles (pizzas) to cook completely.
It may have been a country store for country people, but country people are fewer now. The idea that one has to change things to keep up with the times would naturally occur to management at some point. And management wouldn't try do do anything serious or difficult like improve the food.
Of course that failed. I'm not saying they should have changed the store and the logo, just that Lowe could have found a better way to express who the target market was and what the appeal was.
I wonder about Tractor Supply, though. Once a country store for country people. Still a country store for country people. With a lot more outlets than Cracker Barrel and still growing. But aren't they getting a lot of customers outside the farm demographic?
I've never eaten at a Cracker Barrel and have no plans to do so. I don't see how changing the decor to match all their sterile competitors helps them, but whatever. If they go away, so be it. You can't eat at a Sambo's or a Lums or a Burger Chef anymore, either.
Saying something "could be true" is less proof than a 5th grader would offer.
And who's "proving" anything? Their website says one thing; you say the opposite "could be true". Do you actually know? Of course not.
I saw one of the newly remolded CB's on TV. They modernized it ALL WRONG.
They could have made a few alterations - keeping the county feel/vide/history - while perhaps updating SOME things - but keeping the country hippy vibe.
Instead they just turned the interior decor into Joanna Gaines. They turned it into a starbucks.
Pride flags are a lecture.
People are sick to death of being lectured to all the time.
Stop it.
She sucks. i could do her job for a fraction of the price.
I would occasionally go to Cracker Barrel when I was in keto and get the French dip and they’d give me extra dip to drink with a side of green beans and I would not eat the bread. Was pretty nice. But last time I was there it was off the menu.
I guess I wasn’t their target demographic now or then.
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