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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.
Old and new logo for those interested
"We can't afford to keep making elaborate signs"
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?
the West has fallen 😞
Every food place wants to look generic and sterile now. And their logos reflect that
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.
I assume it's a Barrelof Crackers, but I dunno.
Ootl, what happened?
Cracker barrel changed their logo to some generic corporate thing and Republicans are mad about it for the wrong reasons
I'm mad about it because of the "modern" low-detail logo art style that feels like an art downgrade whenever corpos adopt it. Not a Republican. Is that a good reason?
As long as you aren’t mad about it because you think it’s some anti-white or anti-southern culture thing, think whatever you want about it. Nobody was offended anyone called the art ugly. Shit, the people paid to design it probably think it’s ugly.
Yeah it's funny the amount of people I saw blaming the "DEI designers" and "Gen Z" instead of the CEO/Board of directors and the largest shareholders, which unsurprisingly are Vanguard and Blackrock. Boomers mad that the companies funding their retirement accounts are being capitalist and focusing on quarterly hyper growth but then defending capitalism as the last bastion of freedom
Sorry, but you're officially Republican now.
That's why I'm mad about it, too
I'm addition to removing the cartoon old man and barrel iconography, Cracker Barrel is reducing the amount of random junk on the walls, and painting the bare wooden walls white. (Select stores only, not everything gets remodeled all at once). Probably they're trying to appeal more to a younger generation or something.
Any word yet if this is private equity stripping the copper or are they just morons?
It's a publicly traded company, so no, this isn't private equity bleeding a corpse. They seem to be trying to modernize and broaden their appeal to get out of an extended post-covid slump. Per Wikipedia:
In May 2024, Cracker Barrel revealed that 16% of their customer base had not returned since 2020.
Say what you will, but those 84 people stayed because there's no better place for microwaved insults to Southern cuisine this side of the Walmart frozen dinners aisle.
Given it's private equity, my guess would be both.
painting the bare wooden walls white
Welp, they just lost my business (not that I'd been there in years before this anyway...).
Painting real wood (other than maybe pine or poplar) is like painting brick: just don't do it!
So to appeal to a younger generation they made a minimalist logo and are removing any trace of personality? I mean, their personality wasn't my thing (haven't been in many, many years) but I have no idea why they couldn't try new personality instead of no personality.
Alternatively, have they tried making their food good? That might work.
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.
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?
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.
There goes the neighborhood.
Is that native American lady caricature holding a big stack of pancakes?
Uncle Ben is absolutely iconic to me, even though I agree with their reasons for the rebrand.
