Cracker Barrel has fallen

#52
#52
OrangeTsar said:
I miss the Woolworth cafeteria myself. And Shoney’s ☹️
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We ditched shoney's breakfast bar/hot bar, an after church excursion, when the guy in front of us had a two mile high plate and was double dipping his bscuit in the gravy at the bar while leaning over the bar to bite it so as not to drip gravy on his tie. Couldn't even wait to return to table. Sooooo groooossssss. We politely set our plates down, returned to our table, asked for our checks to pay for our drinks and left. Never been back. 18 years ago.
 
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#53
#53
GVF said:
We ditched shoney's breakfast bar/hot bar, an after church excursion, when the guy in front of us had a two mile high plate and was double dipping his bscuit in the gravy at the bar while leaning over the bar to bite it so as not to drip gravy on his tie. Couldn't even wait to return to table. Sooooo groooossssss. We politely set our plates down, returned to our table, asked for our checks to pay for our drinks and left. Never been back. 18 years ago.
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I almost always ordered the slim Jim sandwich
 
#56
#56
BigOrangeMojo said:
This is what happens when you let a couple of woke women run a brand primarily situated in red areas.....
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It is generally frowned upon by the power-mods to allow political posts outside the thunderdome known as VNPF.
 
#57
#57
McDad said:
It is generally frowned upon by the power-mods to allow political posts outside the thunderdome known as VNPF.
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Ill rephrase

Sandra Cochran and Julie Felss Masino are so incompetent the share price has fallen by 75% in the past few years since they cant master basic restaurant task like a menu and to go ordering. They are covering up their incompetence of performing basic restaurant operations by blaming outdated branding. They think the old man and the barrel are why the brand isnt relevant but fail to look at their decisions for the real reason why it isnt relevant..
 
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#59
#59
BigOrangeMojo said:
Ill rephrase

Sandra Cochran and Julie Felss Masino are so incompetent the share price has fallen by 75% in the past few years since they cant master basic restaurant task like a menu and to go ordering. They are covering up their incompetence of performing basic restaurant operations by blaming outdated branding. They think the old man and the barrel are why the brand isnt relevant but fail to look at their decisions for the real reason why it isnt relevant..
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Boring. tldr.
 
#60
#60
I know "get woke, go broke" is a popular phrase, and I certainly am not woke, but CB has been trending downward for years. You don't implement changes like this because things are going well. ESPN and Bud Light did the same thing.

The phrase should actually be "go broke, get woke." How is this rebrand "woke" anyway?
 
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#61
#61
McDad said:
It is generally frowned upon by the power-mods to allow political posts outside the thunderdome known as VNPF.
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Yeah, this isn’t caused by politics. It’s is 💯 about just basic stupidity.
It is also what happens when a company hires outside management instead of promoting from within with people who actually understand the product or service they provide.
 
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#62
#62
OrangeTsar said:
Yeah, this isn’t caused by politics. It’s is 💯 about just basic stupidity.
It is also what happens when a company hires outside management instead of promoting from within with people who actually understand the product or service they provide.
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It's also what happens when your customer base, which appeals to a very particular demo, begins to shrink and then your attempt to appeal to a broader demo fails. It's a marketing tale as old as time.
 
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#63
#63
05_never_again said:
It's also what happens when your customer base, which appeals to a very particular demo, begins to shrink and then your attempt to appeal to a broader demo fails. It's a marketing tale as old as time.
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I agree but think I am also correct in saying that the demo was very wide fairly recently but shrunk mostly due to quality issues instead of brand appeal.
My teenagers loved Cracker Barrel until our last few meals there were just 😑
Vintage and nostalgia are „in“ right now.
 
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#64
#64
05_never_again said:
I know "get woke, go broke" is a popular phrase, and I certainly am not woke, but CB has been trending downward for years. You don't implement changes like this because things are going well. ESPN and Bud Light did the same thing.

The phrase should actually be "go broke, get woke." How is this rebrand "woke" anyway?
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My accusation against CB don’t involve the word „woke“ but instead center around the word „corporate“. The tendency of businesses schools to turn out cookie cutter MBAs who have absolutely no concept of the businesses that they are hired to manage.
And the incentive structure is backwards. Even if a CEO absolutely destroys the brand, they retire with full bonuses and a golden parachute and then soon get hired to „run“ another company.
There is no approbation attached to failure.
 
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#65
#65
OrangeTsar said:
I agree but think I am also correct in saying that the demo was very wide fairly recently but shrunk mostly due to quality issues instead of brand appeal.
My teenagers loved Cracker Barrel until our last few meals there were just 😑
Vintage and nostalgia are „in“ right now.
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I think your crowd might be an exception to the rule. Almost 50% of their customers are over 55 years old. The menu, decor, the store, etc., doesn't exactly scream Millennial or Gen-Z. Their older, conservative crowd doesn't like the changes and the younger crowd they are trying to appeal to can see what they're doing. My grandparents really got rubbed the wrong way when they started selling alcohol.

CB is an extremely well-established brand; everybody knows what it is, and so it is difficult for them to broaden out. And I think another issue of theirs, as you and others have suggested, is that the food simply isn't all that good. That part is probably the easiest to fix - Chili's definitely has done that over the last few years and has reinvigorated itself Millennials, who famously "killed chain restaurants."

It isn't like things were going great there, then they made all these changes, and now everybody hates them. Their brand, product, etc., had been trending negatively for quite a long time, and they stuff they're doing to try and fix it isn't working. The exact same thing happened to Bud Light and ESPN.
 
#66
#66
05_never_again said:
I know "get woke, go broke" is a popular phrase, and I certainly am not woke, but CB has been trending downward for years. You don't implement changes like this because things are going well. ESPN and Bud Light did the same thing.

The phrase should actually be "go broke, get woke." How is this rebrand "woke" anyway?
Click to expand...

Things arent going well because the current and prior CEO has tried to impose their personal beliefs on a customer base that is largely opposed to those beliefs.

The average Cracker Barrel customer wants a decent meal at a fair price. They dont want to see Pride merch every June. Instead of focusing on the basics, the last two management teams have tried to appease a customer base that wont step foot in a Cracker Barrel.

When the food slips and basic things like to go ordering is often a failure, then you see 75% stock price declines in 5 years.

You are seeing it with Target. When you fail to execute basic operational functions because you are forcing personal beliefs on a customer base, you eventually see that base tune out..
 
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#69
#69
Go aeiou said:
I'll never understand the word "woke". Sorry.
It's what happens when the taste and the quality of the food decline significantly.
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I explained it more later. Instead of working on basic customer-facing tactics like online ordering, to go ordering, and consistent food quality, the leadership has chosen to prioritize social initiatives that do not align with the bulk of their customer base...

What you are seeing with decrease in food quality is a direct result of the misplaced priorities of senior mgmt
 
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#70
#70
OrangeTsar said:
I almost always ordered the slim Jim sandwich
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I don't remember that. Obviously never ordered it. Guess it'd basically be a pepperoni stick hoagie.

In all these burger discussion threads, a burger from Shoney's or Big Boy in their peak days would have beat out erry one.
 
#71
#71
Well, they use to have Gas Pumps at some of the stores, They removed that. Then they took the ham taste out of the sausage, and now this.
 
Last edited:
#72
#72
BigOrangeMojo said:
Things arent going well because the current and prior CEO has tried to impose their personal beliefs on a customer base that is largely opposed to those beliefs.

The average Cracker Barrel customer wants a decent meal at a fair price. They dont want to see Pride merch every June. Instead of focusing on the basics, the last two management teams have tried to appease a customer base that wont step foot in a Cracker Barrel.

When the food slips and basic things like to go ordering is often a failure, then you see 75% stock price declines in 5 years.

You are seeing it with Target. When you fail to execute basic operational functions because you are forcing personal beliefs on a customer base, you eventually see that base tune out..
Click to expand...
The food at CB has been bad for years. Bad product + shrinking demo = bad business. Yes, now they are trying to appease a customer base who doesn't even go there to begin with, but their brand is so established and entrenched it is hard for them to appeal to people outside of it. Target is actually a reverse-woke thing. Their demo is young and female (more liberal than the population at large). When they got rid of all the DEI stuff, their foot traffic declined for 11 straight weeks.

Companies/brands are already in trouble when they start trying to appeal to people outside of their core demo. They don't get into trouble because of it.
 
#73
#73
05_never_again said:
The food at CB has been bad for years. Bad product + shrinking demo = bad business. Yes, now they are trying to appease a customer base who doesn't even go there to begin with, but their brand is so established and entrenched it is hard for them to appeal to people outside of it. Target is actually a reverse-woke thing. Their demo is young and female (more liberal than the population at large). When they got rid of all the DEI stuff, their foot traffic declined for 11 straight weeks.

Companies/brands are already in trouble when they start trying to appeal to people outside of their core demo. They don't get into trouble because of it.
Click to expand...

Target failed basic retail operations. They put focus on social issues instead of their online marketplace, merchandising, retail ops, and supply chain. Target was struggling long before the 11 week decline. There have been lengthy discussions about TGT in stock thread.

Cracker Barrel has struggled for the same reason. They have chose not to focus on fundamental operations needed to run a restaurant. That's why the food has suffered....
 
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#74
#74
BigOrangeMojo said:
Ill rephrase

Sandra Cochran and Julie Felss Masino are so incompetent the share price has fallen by 75% in the past few years since they cant master basic restaurant task like a menu and to go ordering. They are covering up their incompetence of performing basic restaurant operations by blaming outdated branding. They think the old man and the barrel are why the brand isnt relevant but fail to look at their decisions for the real reason why it isnt relevant..
Click to expand...
Not to mention what they did to the hash brown casserole.
 
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#75
#75
OrangeTsar said:
Yeah, this isn’t caused by politics. It’s is 💯 about just basic stupidity.
It is also what happens when a company hires outside management instead of promoting from within with people who actually understand the product or service they provide.
Click to expand...
By now, alot of those competent insiders have left after getting passed over a few times.
 
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