Jay Weber Show transcript 8-22-25
Cracker Barrel stock dropped fourteen percent after the CEO rolled out the new logo and gushed over the ‘new look’ of these restaurants. Oh boy.
The stock closed somewhere between 12 and 15 percent yesterday, after people took to social media to bash and trash it.
Most on social media are insisting that this CEO has made the same mistake that Budweiser and these other companies who ‘went woke’ have made...but...
I’m not so sure.So far as I know, this wasn’t an ‘anti-America’ or ‘pro-woke’ rebranding.
It’s simply a misguided CEO and board tampering with the corporate look of the company...for no apparent reason.
Folks- cracker barrel- is not- a failing restaurant chain. But the CEO that was brought in to boost sales, apparently decided that a 700-million dollar ‘update’ and ‘re-imagining’ of the restaurants and the brand were in order.
Bad idea.
The entire point of those restaurants has been ‘down home comfort’. Legacy, old-fashioned food, that you eat as you sit amidst grandma and grandpa’s old nick-nacks.
This chick blew it by going all ‘Joanna Gaines’ with the place...putting up white shiplap...and throwing away the trinkets.
Bad idea.
But- that doesn’t mean cracker barrel won’t survive the rebranding. Most consumers hate change. We don’t like businesses tampering with a product that we like.
And so, is this just initial backlash that will calm down? Or will this cost them customers?
Will loyal families go to...check out the changes...but ultimately not care that much?
Or will they stop eating there?
That’s the real question, at this point. If the menu doesn’t change- it’s hard to ‘write off’ a restaurant that you enjoy...especially a good breakfast restaurant.
Very few places don’t even do’ breakfast anymore, and not very many of them are good.
So, I wouldn’t leap to assume this is a fatal blow for cracker barrel-but it sure is unpopular.Wow.
If you bleep with the menu...you’re done.
I don’t know about other people-but i do know ‘human nature’ ..and I know how having a place remove your favorite item or items from the menu can be the quickest way to ‘never going back’.
I have written about a few restaurants for this reason.
When I lived in Delafield, I used to stop at this one restaurant and bar for lunch a few times a week because it had a great chicken salad sandwich- and-
As a super-bonus for ‘ole Jay’- it had a very good Scottish ale on tap. It is rare to find a place with Scottish ale on tap...because... it’s a heavier beer. Has some richer tones...
So- i was in heaven: two or three times a week: give me the chicken salad sandwich and a Scottish ale. I was in heaven.
Then...in a ‘re-imagining’ ...this place dropped both the Scottish ale and the chicken sandwich from their offerings-at the same time. Boom.
There was no reason to go back.
But But.. we still have burgers...and a new turkey melt you might like...and, and.
And bleep you...you’ve upset my entire day with this news: stop after work. Eat the sandwich. Have two Scottish ales. Go home and take a nap.
At least twice a week.
Gone.
That’s how much a silly sandwich or ‘hash brown omelet can alter someone’s life- and their enthusiasm for your restaurant.
Cracker Barrell’s future here might hinge on how much they are ‘re-imagining’ that menu, because if a change of décor is a slap in the face for loyal customers.... Taking the ‘special omelet and the cheesy potato’s off the menu is going to be the final insult. The real kick in the nards.
(And I’m just making up those changes. I don’t know what they are ending). Maybe they are only ‘adding’ to the menu, but I doubt it, in this inflationary economy.
I’d describe the new look more like... A creation from Joanna Gaine’s less talented sister.
Yep. There’s the white shiplap. And there’s the perfectly geometric flowerpots on the wall. And there’s the OCD arrangement of cutting boards...
But it’s not warm or inviting.
So lets hope they weren’t dumb enough to screw with the food.
Give us eggs, cheesy potatoes and a slab of ham.
Well, we don’t have that...but we do have a bowl of Polynesian oatmeal with honey drizzled over it from bees that were all gently massaged as they produced it.
No. No. I want two eggs from a hen that was force fed grain...and ham from a pig that was punched by the farmer....
With a side of milk from a terrified cow...
And I want it all to be served on tin campfire cookware. Because - that’s breakfast.
photo credit: Getty Images
audio version of the segment > I think the Cracker Barrel rebrand wasn't so much woke, just stupid