Cracker Barrel has fallen

#151
#151
BigOrangeMojo said:
There are several threads throughout and the common thread is the food isnt as good and the portion-adjusted prices have risen more than competitors. This is accurate.

The question I ask is why is the food worse?

The first thought may be they cut corners on food to get better margins. Only problem with that is their margins arent better (gross, operating and net per 10 yr 10K filing). Actully worse when compared to their baseline and other publicly traded companies.

So, if its not nickle and diming on the ingredients, what is causing food decline?
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They obviously lost quality control at the corporate level. A simple "exit poll program" since the pandemic restart would've told them satisfaction was dropping among their core customers: old farts and travelers.

I'll keep going because it's just easy to meet off the interstate with old pals to catch up when we're "splitting the difference" now and then but it's not the treat it used to be but just the habit.

I feel like the wait staff is still reasonably nice but I've lost confidence in the back of the house actually caring AND having to care what they put on the plate. That's a top down issue.

It's a restaurant. I really don't care about your politics but slap a decent breakfast value down on the plate consistently and people will show up again.
 
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#154
#154
I think the sign and the booths are actually an upgrade. The fall menu I looked at on a website article actually looked good too. I think people are making a mountain out of a molehill. I voted for Trump specifically because of all of the woke BS, but I don't understand why people are saying this change is "woke". I get where it kills a lot of the nostalgia value for people who have precious memories from eating there over the decades unlike someone like myself who only ate at Cracker Barrel once in my entire life, at a Hendersonville/Gallatin location in 2004 or so, but there doesn't seem to be anything woke about the changes. It's not like they have posters of Dylan Mulvaney, George Floyd, and Rupaul all over the place or changed the American flag-style banners with rainbow ones. Because Trump Jr. criticized Cracker Barrel's makeover? Maybe the Trumps should stop criticizing American businesses like Cracker Barrel that hire tens of thousands of American workers who are trying to make ends meet while paying for Trump's massive new sales tax increases on imported goods and materials. Getting a lot of Cracker Barrel workers laid off and trashing the stock price isn't going to make American great again. The Trumps should just stick to the family business of bankrupting casinos instead of intentionally giving Cracker Barrel bad press.
 
#155
#155
#156
#156
SquirrelOrange3 said:
I think the sign and the booths are actually an upgrade. The fall menu I looked at on a website article actually looked good too. I think people are making a mountain out of a molehill. I voted for Trump specifically because of all of the woke BS, but I don't understand why people are saying this change is "woke". I get where it kills a lot of the nostalgia value for people who have precious memories from eating there over the decades unlike someone like myself who only ate at Cracker Barrel once in my entire life, at a Hendersonville/Gallatin location in 2004 or so, but there doesn't seem to be anything woke about the changes. It's not like they have posters of Dylan Mulvaney, George Floyd, and Rupaul all over the place or changed the American flag-style banners with rainbow ones. Because Trump Jr. criticized Cracker Barrel's makeover? Maybe the Trumps should stop criticizing American businesses like Cracker Barrel that hire tens of thousands of American workers who are trying to make ends meet while paying for Trump's massive new sales tax increases on imported goods and materials. Getting a lot of Cracker Barrel workers laid off and trashing the stock price isn't going to make American great again. The Trumps should just stick to the family business of bankrupting casinos instead of intentionally giving Cracker Barrel bad press.
Click to expand...
It wasn't about the updating. It was about their focus. Food has declined. Once grand items to the tastebuds pretty well suck now. Or were removed from menu in lieu of "healthy" items. Nothing wrong with that. Just don't remove some of the most popular items in company history going "woke" as some call it. If people want that other stuff, let them go somewhere else to have it. It's not CB cuisine. Our last 3 visits were our last. And we gave benefit of doubt may could have been a bad day or a bad location. 3 visits, 3 different location in 2 states. Food quality was bad. Got people at top that don't get why their numbers had falling so they roll out a facelift that had nothing to do with their issue. People call it woke cause that's what wke folk do. Focus on anything but the problem. Fix your systemic food quality issue back to what it once was, then update the interiors and sign. They were totally out of touch on this, and out of sequence.
 
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#157
#157
SquirrelOrange3 said:
I think the sign and the booths are actually an upgrade. The fall menu I looked at on a website article actually looked good too. I think people are making a mountain out of a molehill. I voted for Trump specifically because of all of the woke BS, but I don't understand why people are saying this change is "woke". I get where it kills a lot of the nostalgia value for people who have precious memories from eating there over the decades unlike someone like myself who only ate at Cracker Barrel once in my entire life, at a Hendersonville/Gallatin location in 2004 or so, but there doesn't seem to be anything woke about the changes. It's not like they have posters of Dylan Mulvaney, George Floyd, and Rupaul all over the place or changed the American flag-style banners with rainbow ones. Because Trump Jr. criticized Cracker Barrel's makeover? Maybe the Trumps should stop criticizing American businesses like Cracker Barrel that hire tens of thousands of American workers who are trying to make ends meet while paying for Trump's massive new sales tax increases on imported goods and materials. Getting a lot of Cracker Barrel workers laid off and trashing the stock price isn't going to make American great again. The Trumps should just stick to the family business of bankrupting casinos instead of intentionally giving Cracker Barrel bad press.
Click to expand...
It almost sounds like you are blaming Trump for Cracker Barrel’s abject stupidity. They have no one to blame but themselves. Long time customers like myself warned them before now when they began the remodels that they were risking brand loyalty. This was long before any politician got involved.
People like myself didn’t want to see yet another business with a long history and distinct brand listen to a bunch of Corporate nimrods who wouldn’t know a biscuit from a hash brown deciding that they knew what the customer wanted. We got yet another soulless,bland, and boring nonentity.
I don’t know about you; but I don’t want to live in a world in which every restaurant looks and feels the same.
It’s fine that you yourself like the new look. But you already had First Watch, Big Bad Breakfast, and a dozen other chains with the same interchangeable cookie cutter decor. Couldn’t you just let the rest of us keep the one restaurant that was still unique?
In summary, for me at least, this has nothing to do with politics. I would hate it no matter what any politician or influencer said. I have eaten at CB ever since the 1980s and my opinion matters. Cracker Barrel can ignore it if they wish; but they will loose a long time and loyal patron
 
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#158
#158
BigOrangeMojo said:
There are several threads throughout and the common thread is the food isnt as good and the portion-adjusted prices have risen more than competitors. This is accurate.

The question I ask is why is the food worse?

The first thought may be they cut corners on food to get better margins. Only problem with that is their margins arent better (gross, operating and net per 10 yr 10K filing). Actully worse when compared to their baseline and other publicly traded companies.

So, if its not nickle and diming on the ingredients, what is causing food decline?
Click to expand...
Shrinking customer base. 100% of their issues start there. Same for Bud Light, same for ESPN.

They've got a revenue generation problem, so they are trying to 1) cut costs and 2) generate new revenue. Their attempts to do both have 1) pissed off their existing customer base, and 2) not attracted any new customers.
I haven't looked at the numbers, but I imagine their margins aren't better because as they've cut costs their revenue has shrunk or remained flat (or at least not grown at a faster clip than the rate they're cutting costs). They've made the food cheaper and the service worse, which pisses off existing customers, while at the same time their attempts to expand their base (new menu items, the rebrand, supporting certain progressive social causes) also has pissed off existing customers and failed to attract new ones. You know a company is in trouble when they start trying to entice people to go there who would never go there.

Or perhaps my wife could be correct, who, despite being very southern and enjoying traditional southern food, has always thought their food was nasty. Maybe their food was just never all that good, and consumer tastes have changed or come around to that fact. I'd always thought their food was pretty good, but I also haven't eaten there in probably 6-7 years.
 
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#159
#159
McDad said:
Yall are the internet version of the old men who gather at Hardees in the morning or at the barbershop to lament every change seen or feared.

What a sad lot.
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When I was a kid, sometimes on Saturday mornings my Dad would take me to Krystal's to get a breakfast sandwich while he had a coffee and read his paper. It was so boring but I always went, I guess because I wanted to be with my Dad. The best part was you could often overhear the old-timers talking about the HS football game from the night before and whatever Vols game was coming up. They were a barrel of laughs.
 
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#160
#160
SquirrelOrange3 said:
I think the sign and the booths are actually an upgrade. The fall menu I looked at on a website article actually looked good too. I think people are making a mountain out of a molehill. I voted for Trump specifically because of all of the woke BS, but I don't understand why people are saying this change is "woke". I get where it kills a lot of the nostalgia value for people who have precious memories from eating there over the decades unlike someone like myself who only ate at Cracker Barrel once in my entire life, at a Hendersonville/Gallatin location in 2004 or so, but there doesn't seem to be anything woke about the changes. It's not like they have posters of Dylan Mulvaney, George Floyd, and Rupaul all over the place or changed the American flag-style banners with rainbow ones. Because Trump Jr. criticized Cracker Barrel's makeover? Maybe the Trumps should stop criticizing American businesses like Cracker Barrel that hire tens of thousands of American workers who are trying to make ends meet while paying for Trump's massive new sales tax increases on imported goods and materials. Getting a lot of Cracker Barrel workers laid off and trashing the stock price isn't going to make American great again. The Trumps should just stick to the family business of bankrupting casinos instead of intentionally giving Cracker Barrel bad press.
Click to expand...

The menu always looks good.
 
#161
#161
GVF said:
It wasn't about the updating. It was about their focus. Food has declined. Once grand items to the tastebuds pretty well suck now. Or were removed from menu in lieu of "healthy" items. Nothing wrong with that. Just don't remove some of the most popular items in company history going "woke" as some call it. If people want that other stuff, let them go somewhere else to have it. It's not CB cuisine. Our last 3 visits were our last. And we gave benefit of doubt may could have been a bad day or a bad location. 3 visits, 3 different location in 2 states. Food quality was bad. Got people at top that don't get why their numbers had falling so they roll out a facelift that had nothing to do with their issue. People call it woke cause that's what wke folk do. Focus on anything but the problem. Fix your systemic food quality issue back to what it once was, then update the interiors and sign. They were totally out of touch on this, and out of sequence.
Click to expand...
Everything I see on X or YouTube has to do with the new sign or the paint going from dark gray to white. And they call it woke. Truly woke people would be complaining about the color white being considered an upgrade by corporate, that brown and black are the only two acceptable colors. There's still a bunch of clutter on the walls just as before and it looks very similar to the way it was, just a new paint job. If the food is worse, that's a very legitimate complaint, but it's not what I'm reading about in 99% of the complaints.
 
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#162
#162
SquirrelOrange3 said:
Everything I see on X or YouTube has to do with the new sign or the paint going from dark gray to white. And they call it woke. Truly woke people would be complaining about the color white being considered an upgrade by corporate, that brown and black are the only two acceptable colors. There's still a bunch of clutter on the walls just as before and it looks very similar to the way it was, just a new paint job. If the food is worse, that's a very legitimate complaint, but it's not what I'm reading about in 99% of the complaints.
Click to expand...
If you know the background of the head lady, there are some inferrable undertones. Right or wrong. I'm not saying it is or isn't. But, it's not always loud and proud either. But, when people start catching wind how much corporate money you donate politically or socially to things that don't align with the CB image, other changes get picked apart. Company's that donate should do so bilaterally. Because in the today's world of judgement that the left created, turn about will be fair game.

However, when you are slowly and subtly removing certain things down to the intelligence levels on a stupid tee game, coupled with a major logo overhaul, and interior designs re-directions that don't sit well...all while your food is in noticeable decline...people see the undertones cause you created an environment to look for them. Start serving great food again, and people may just shrug and say oh well. The interior would have been a non-issue if they had left the sign alone. People associate that move with Land O Lakes, Aunt Jemima, Uncle Ben's, etc. Ergo the woke inferences. THe tide is swinging and people are tired of this stuff, so it's under a microscope.
 
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#164
#164
05_never_again said:
Shrinking customer base. 100% of their issues start there. Same for Bud Light, same for ESPN.

They've got a revenue generation problem, so they are trying to 1) cut costs and 2) generate new revenue. Their attempts to do both have 1) pissed off their existing customer base, and 2) not attracted any new customers.
I haven't looked at the numbers, but I imagine their margins aren't better because as they've cut costs their revenue has shrunk or remained flat (or at least not grown at a faster clip than the rate they're cutting costs). They've made the food cheaper and the service worse, which pisses off existing customers, while at the same time their attempts to expand their base (new menu items, the rebrand, supporting certain progressive social causes) also has pissed off existing customers and failed to attract new ones. You know a company is in trouble when they start trying to entice people to go there who would never go there.

Or perhaps my wife could be correct, who, despite being very southern and enjoying traditional southern food, has always thought their food was nasty. Maybe their food was just never all that good, and consumer tastes have changed or come around to that fact. I'd always thought their food was pretty good, but I also haven't eaten there in probably 6-7 years.
Click to expand...

No, it has gotten worse. My wife assures me that they have changed. It is hit or miss overall.
 
#165
#165
OrangeTsar said:
It almost sounds like you are blaming Trump for Cracker Barrel’s abject stupidity. They have no one to blame but themselves. Long time customers like myself warned them before now when they began the remodels that they were risking brand loyalty. This was long before any politician got involved.
People like myself didn’t want to see yet another business with a long history and distinct brand listen to a bunch of Corporate nimrods who wouldn’t know a biscuit from a hash brown deciding that they knew what the customer wanted. We got yet another soulless,bland, and boring nonentity.
I don’t know about you; but I don’t want to live in a world in which every restaurant looks and feels the same.
It’s fine that you yourself like the new look. But you already had First Watch, Big Bad Breakfast, and a dozen other chains with the same interchangeable cookie cutter decor. Couldn’t you just let the rest of us keep the one restaurant that was still unique?
In summary, for me at least, this has nothing to do with politics. I would hate it no matter what any politician or influencer said. I have eaten at CB ever since the 1980s and my opinion matters. Cracker Barrel can ignore it if they wish; but they will loose a long time and loyal patron
Click to expand...

Then you’re ignoring what private equity groups have been doing to the restaurant industry for over a decade now. Food quality is way down the list of things these conglomerates focus on to maximize revenue. If they could replace every employee with AI-run kiosks they would without hesitation. Their duty is to their investors and shareholders. That is it. They don’t give a single flying **** about their customers or what they want. In some cases I think they actively antagonize their customers to see what they’ll tolerate. COVID was a blessing in disguise for these groups that bought up struggling restaurant brands. They weren’t going to ever go back to customer focused products because that costs money. Rebrand and trick dumbshits into thinking it’s something better but it’s just the same garbage in a new container and a new logo slapped on the bag. That’s the American way. Why put in the effort to make a quality product when you can just cut costs and repackage the same ****** product for the same price or higher?

And the saddest thing is we’re so addicted to this **** that we’ll still hand over billions of dollars a year to them. It’s sad. And they’re only emboldened by an administration that applauds every effort to reward their financial backers and squeeze every last penny out of their customers until there is no goodwill left. The enshitification of everything not only has continued but it is only going to increase and intensify as long as the climate of admiring profit margins over everything persists in this country.
 
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#168
#168
I think the fact that this thread has 167 (now 168 I guess) posts since Thurs is a perfect demonstration of where our priorities lie in relation to where they should. With all the strife and problems domestically and abroad, Cracker Barrel’s logo takes center stage. Not the advent of A.I. replacing the workforce and how we’ll deal with that massive shift in our society, or massive healthcare system woes, or rampant corruption in our political system… but Cracker Barrel’s logo, look out.

Y’all are easily distracted.
 
#169
#169
OHvol40 said:
I think the fact that this thread has 167 (now 168 I guess) posts since Thurs is a perfect demonstration of where our priorities lie in relation to where they should. With all the strife and problems domestically and abroad, Cracker Barrel’s logo takes center stage. Not the advent of A.I. replacing the workforce and how we’ll deal with that massive shift in our society, or massive healthcare system woes, or rampant corruption in our political system… but Cracker Barrel’s logo, look out.

Y’all are easily distracted.
Click to expand...

You could attribute it to the whitest, corniest thread title in the history of VolNation.
 
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#170
#170
OHvol40 said:
I think the fact that this thread has 167 (now 168 I guess) posts since Thurs is a perfect demonstration of where our priorities lie in relation to where they should. With all the strife and problems domestically and abroad, Cracker Barrel’s logo takes center stage. Not the advent of A.I. replacing the workforce and how we’ll deal with that massive shift in our society, or massive healthcare system woes, or rampant corruption in our political system… but Cracker Barrel’s logo, look out.

Y’all are easily distracted.
Click to expand...
There are threads on all those topics
This entire website is based on a distraction from what matters
 
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#171
#171
OHvol40 said:
I think the fact that this thread has 167 (now 168 I guess) posts since Thurs is a perfect demonstration of where our priorities lie in relation to where they should. With all the strife and problems domestically and abroad, Cracker Barrel’s logo takes center stage. Not the advent of A.I. replacing the workforce and how we’ll deal with that massive shift in our society, or massive healthcare system woes, or rampant corruption in our political system… but Cracker Barrel’s logo, look out.

Y’all are easily distracted.
Click to expand...
You realize of course the irony of making a claim about priorities and what a person chooses to discuss on a website that exists for the stated purpose of discussing sports played with balls by people barely out of their teens, right? 😂
We are ALL easily distracted friend 😉
 
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#173
#173
Who would have guessed all those old pictures on the walls of Cracker Barrel, where nobody is smiling, was really just foreshadowing the look on their customers faces in 2025.
 
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