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When your whole schtick is nostalgia, but all the folks who remember the things you reference are now dead or otherwise unable to come to your restaurants, you either need to change your schtick, or you need to tap into the nostalgia of a younger generation. There aren’t as many Amos & Andy and Howdy Doody fans on the highways these days.
Or just be happy with the niche. Not everything needs to be global.
But its niche is disappearing, so it either finds a new niche, or it goes out of business. Its niche was always “middle-aged people’s childhood memories,” but how many of today’s middle-aged people grew up listening to radio shows and watching old men sitting around cracker barrels?
Hell, I AM middle-aged, and one of my grandfathers was a sharecropper who eventually started his own corner store, so I SHOULD be exactly their demographic… but my childhood memories are of Charlie’s Angels, Radio Shack computers and Run DMC. Their niche is almost nonexistent now.
That’s a weird way of saying your grandpa never took you to Cracker Barrel.
I would totally make it a point to frequent a steampunk themed Cracker Barrel.
Old and new logo for those interested
New logo sucks. Racists and wokists should be able to agree on this.
I was expecting more. Outlines, geometry, something...
However, looking at the old one, what are the words printed on? Is that a kidney?
I’ve honestly never noticed, but a little googling confirms that yes, it’s a pinto bean.
https://web.archive.org/web/20250317110059/https://www.crackerbarrel.com/newsroom/get-to-know-us
Every food place wants to look generic and sterile now. And their logos reflect that
"We can't afford to keep making elaborate signs"
The newer logo makes them look like a fucking bank
So, can someone explain this to non USAians?
Cracker Barrel, a kinda-sorta popular "Old Country Store" that prided itself on staying the same over the years...has undergone massive, sweeping changes in aesthetics. The man & barrel are from the sign, now gone. The dark wood walls covered in Americana are going away. I hear some of the food is going to change as well.
It's weird because I'm seeing everybody slamming Cracker Barrel's food, and I have never had a bad meal at Cracker Barrel. I'm not going out of my way to eat it, but every time I've gone it's been nice.
I have enjoyed Cracker Barrel in the past, but I'm far from a frequent customer. However: anyone with half a brain can tell you the very last thing Cracker Barrel regulars want is change. Unless this change is accompanied by providing...something...with value equal or greater than what they're taking away, we are witnessing intentional brand destruction and/or brand suicide.
You're missing context.
Look at the dead logos.
Now look up how Cracker Barrel had to be sued in 2004 to stop segregating their dinning room.
That is pretty fucked up, never heard about it. It's the usual suspects, "Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia". Probably not an unspoken nationwide Cracker Barrel policy, more of a Southern thing, but it's likely corporate knew it was going on & tolerated it.
The dead logos & old Southern country styling...WAS...their thing. It was their whole thing, now it's gone, and they have nothing. Idk personally I don't see it going well for them. Time will tell.
Right, but the point still stands. The type of person to frequent cracker barrel probably is an ancient racist. The rebrand will end them.
Not everybody, though. I'm with CoffeeJunkie; I go to Cracker Barrel because I like the food (and because they sell Hydrox cookies in the general store). I had no idea that it's apparently a hang out for racists. If they're around then they're well hidden at my local Cracker Barrel locations.
cracker barrel had a logo with racist undertones, like the other logos above it. it has recently been retired, much to the outrage of conservatives.
What racist undertones? He looks like a detailed Simpsons character.
All the other logos have controversies, except cream of wheat.
It's a guy leaning against a barrel, what racial undertones are there?
They got rid of the barrel and the cracker!
Wait. Is it called Cracker Barrel cuz the logo is a cracker leaning on a barrel? Never put that together.
No its a barrel of hard tack (aka crackers). Supposed to be old timely grocery store version of a water cooler.
Crackers used to be shipped in barrels.
Naturally they got really nasty really fast. It wasn’t until they invented sealed packaging we more or less have now that they became tolerable. It was kinda a bad thing to name a restaurant after.
Who cares. I got food poisoning from them twice, separate locations and years. The second bout of food poisoning sent me to the hospital, but also indirectly lead me to coming out as transgender. So thanks but no thanks, your food is disgusting.
Ah yes. This is the future libs wants.
The Cracker Barrel to Transgender pipeline.
There goes the neighborhood.
Uncle Ben is absolutely iconic to me, even though I agree with their reasons for the rebrand.
