Can Cracker Barrel Be Saved?

Cracker Barrel has new leadership in 2024, and the famous old time restaurant is looking to become more relevant. Will a rebrand fix their financial woes, or simply ruin the experience for their core customer base? I have no idea, but that won't stop me from talking about it.

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[InfinityEnterprises]

You'd think a place that calls itself an "old country store" would see the obvious folly of making everything "modern."

[eliaswilliams]

The draw of cracker barrel is the vibes, getting rid of them will only make things worse

[kabooki]

Wanting to make Cracker Barrel hip is like trying to teach a pile of dog bones to sit. It won't work, it's a terrible idea, and it's entirely useless to all involved.

[Flynnsomething]

"What if we took [thing] and removed every quality about it that made it desirable and successful in the first place." - _brave bold innovative_ CEO

[Llova]

“Make it local” is the best advice, and the least likely to be heard.
But when you described that I actually got kind of hyped for Cracker Barrel. It fits into their current aesthetic and branding to have local pictures everywhere. Just add some town history and give a random old dude a harmonica next to the rocking chairs and suddenly they’re a destination.

[nojustno.justno]

The reason you go to Cracker Barrel is to go to Cracker Barrel. I don’t know why people don’t seem to know that.

[PinheadLarrysGaming]

It's like taking charge of a renaissance fair and saying "You know what this could really use? Fancy computers, lasers, and holograms". I'm not a fan of Cracker Barrel but when you make a business around the idea of an old time sit down restaurant, it seems insane to try and make it fancy and modern

[thepandaken]

I absolutely despise the wall street enshittification of everything

[BlitzkriegOmega]

That thing about all fast food restaurants turning into "Starbucks, but with a different sign out front"... You put into words that strange feeling that I've been having for at least the past decade or so.

The...iunno, Un-Funification of eating out? All the mascots went away, all the fun aesthetics went away, Fast Food lost its play-places, all the unique buildings were remodeled into Featureless squares... Service got worse, pay stayed the same, prices went up...

Everything lost its identity and soul, And everything is getting shittier because some hyper rich asshole who you will never so much is glance at Demanded even more money from a finite market.

[Lawg]

Am part of the younger generation, never particularly identified with the southern/country culture of my local area, still adore the rustic vibes of cracker barrel.

If all of the cracker barrels get remodeled with sterile white lighting and generic fast food architecture I literally see no point in even going anymore.

This reminds me a lot of what happened with stake n' shake after the pandemic. Gutted menu, automated ordering, unique quirks stripped away. They used to give all of the kids little hats, coloring page menus, and even little car models that you'd punch out of cardboard and fold up. That's all gone now (to my memory at least.)

[iScorpio]

The only way to save the company is to hire Brad’s Wife once more.

[kkelseym]

Hiring someone who used to work at modern, young companies like Starbucks and Taco Bell for old-fashioned Cracker Barrel of all places just sounds dumb.

[rolfathan]

It's too late. The "simplification" decor to the logos is on its way out the door. It's very 2015, and it's starting to show that people are fed up with the aesthetic. There's a reason the over-design of the 00s are getting popular with youths as well. People are getting tired of modern, flat, corporate barren hospital cafeteria aesthetics, and as a graphic designer, I welcome this change with open arms. I don't pretend to know exactly where it is going, but it's clear that people want personality.

[iodinev]

Every restaurant worker knows what a death knell looks like, and yet investors can't figure it out

[Psywak]

If I recall right, McDonald's makes most of their money from real estate, I think most locations the franchisee is leasing the land the restaurant sits on from McDonalds. The more "modern corporate look" of a lot of these fast food chains is about making the buildings more nondescript so that if the location fails they can sell the building for a higher price. It's harder to sell a building that looks like a pizza hut when the next tenant is a vape shop or some nonsense

[lazarus]

I absolutely love the sentiment that nobody has ever complained that a restaurant wasn't modern enough. The best Ruben sandwich I ever had was at the creepiest, most run down, dark, ancient looking store in the middle of nowhere on the way to Tombstone Arizona. 0/10 modern but that doesn't matter because it was an incredible experience.

[theuseraccountname]

Modern businesses are pump-and-dump schemes for the executives. New CEO comes in, guts the company for short-term profits (raking in lots of cash for themself), leaves, then does the same thing for the next business. You can see this time and time again.

[CaptainRegular]

- Take all the money they'd spend on rebranding and redecorating, and use it instead for better wages and more competitive sourcing of ingredients.
- Have the menu be incredibly competitively priced, and put some loss leaders on there. 50 years and people still haven't learned the lesson of the CostCo Hotdog and the Denny's Grand Slam.
- If all else fails, shorten the name to CRACK BAR and court controversy.

[maddestlad]

Honestly I love your idea at the end there. Having Cracker Barrels act as local community hubs sounds great, both for local customers and visitors

[lastspring]

I also don't go to Cracker Barrel to get drunk. So strange that they got a liquor license and started serving alcohol.
The place always had an "after church" vibe going and when they started serving alcohol, it just seemed to break this..
Just my perspective.