Get the Ricochet app
Ricochet will work fine in a browser on your mobile devices, but for the best experience please download our app.
For the first quarter of 2012, Cracker Barrel provided the following self-description in the discussion it released along with its quarterly financial statements:
About Cracker Barrel Cracker Barrel Old Country Store restaurants provide a friendly home-away-from-home in its old country stores and restaurants. Guests are cared for like family while relaxing and enjoying real home-style food and shopping that's surprisingly unique, genuinely fun and reminiscent of America's country heritage…all at a fair price. The restaurants serve up delicious, home-style country food such as meatloaf and homemade chicken n' dumplins as well as our signature biscuits using an old family recipe. The authentic old country retail store is fun to shop and offers unique gifts and self-indulgences. Cracker Barrel Old Country Store, Inc. (Nasdaq: CBRL) was established in 1969 in Lebanon, Tenn. and operates 608 company-owned locations in 42 states. Every Cracker Barrel store is open seven days a week with hours Sunday through Thursday, 6 a.m. — 10 p.m., and Friday and Saturday, 6 a.m. - 11 p.m. For more information, visit: crackerbarrel.com.
Cracker Barrel describes itself as a "friendly home-away-from-home" and says that they care for guests like family. It describes its menu as "real home-style food" and "delicious home-style country food." It lists three of its signature dishes: meatloaf, chicken n' dumplins, and biscuits. It mentions that it wants to reflect America's country heritage and to be genuinely fun. They even mention their hours, probably expecting that the same investors reading their financial discussion will want to drop by and try the meatloaf and some biscuits. A lot of their description reminds you how they make regular country folks feel welcome.
Flash forward to the second quarter of 2025, and here is the same self-description, however much altered.
About Cracker Barrel Old Country Store® Cracker Barrel Old Country Store, Inc. (Nasdaq: CBRL) is on a mission to bring craveable, delicious homestyle food and unique retail products to all guests while serving up memorable, distinctive experiences that make everyone feel welcome. Established in 1969 in Lebanon, Tenn., Cracker Barrel and its affiliates operate approximately 660 company-owned Cracker Barrel Old Country Store® locations in 43 states and own the fast-casual Maple Street Biscuit Company. For more information about the company, visit www.crackerbarrel.com.
What has changed? Cracker Barrel is now "on a mission." In 2012, they described their mission without saying the word and knew exactly what they were about. By 2025, they tell us they are on a mission, but they have lost most of what made them distinctive. It's not providing a home-away-from-home anymore, but it is mission-oriented. They have added "craveable" to the description of their food, which sounds like they have embraced the food science that makes Twinkies and Hostess Cakes nutritionally empty but addictive.
They are no longer proud of their roots. America's country heritage - GONE. Mentions of their best dishes, which probably sound a touch declasse to the investors that Cracker Barrel now wants - GONE. Now they serve all guests and make everyone feel welcome. The 2012 description used the word "country" six times, but the 2025 description only uses it twice, both times in the name of company. Nothing is described as "country" anymore.
They have even engaged in some M&A activity and acquired Maple Street Biscuit Co. in 2019 - they are no longer simple country folks from Lebanon, Tenn., but play in the New York markets too. And most of their description is aimed at letting investors know that they are maximizing profit. They no longer need to let the investors know what hours they are open because they don't expect their investors to stop by anymore.
Cracker Barrel didn't just lose its vision this week when they launched their new logo. Year by year, they have forgotten that they were inviting customers into their own home and feeding them home-style country food and giving them a chance to buy some fun memorabilia on the way in and out of the store. They started catering to their investors instead of their customers.
Discussion (101)
CHARTER MEMBER
To read this bio, please join Ricochet.
Take the decorative bits and pieces off of the walls and you have a junior high school cafeteria. David Marcus referred to it as “corporate slop,” but that is unnecessarily harsh on corporations.
CHARTER MEMBER
To read this bio, please join Ricochet.
Mmmm … tallow fries…
To read this bio, please join Ricochet.
I get that a lot of people liked the “old” Cracker Barrell (I’ve only been twice) but was the food actually that good—even for the price point? My, perhaps incorrect, impression is that it was largely pre-prepared stuff, sometimes pre-frozen, put together by young “chefs” going by the guidebook. Let’s except the breakfasts from that.
To read this bio, please join Ricochet.
Gosh I love Steak n Shake! I wonder if they still do 1/2 price milk shakes in the afternoon.
To read this bio, please join Ricochet.
No it wasn't, but it was comfort food for sure and we like the peg game on every table. Whenever we are on road trips, we look for the large Cracker Barrel sign poking up over the horizon. It is fun to go to the store, especially for vintage candy and gum, although I suspect the generation that knew what most of the items are is fading away. But the nostalgia was the appeal and the food was secondary. I don't think they will survive the make over.
You're seeing five of 101 comments. Sign in, or join for just $5 per month, to read them all and add your own.