Death of American staple as CEO tanks her own company's stock by announcing they're 'not as relevant' anymore

Daily Mail ^

[algore]

An iconic American eatery's stock has plummeted in recent week after the company's CEO said the restaurant is no longer 'relevant'.

Cracker Barrel, the Southern country-themed restaurants with 662 locations across the nation, has been diminishing in popularity over the past decade - with its loyal clientele of elderly people failing to return after the pandemic.

The business tanked even more when its chief executive Julie Felss Masino told investors, 'We're just not as relevant as we once were.'

While speaking on an investor call, Masino, who took over the CEO position nine months ago, admitted, 'Some of our recipes and processes haven't evolved in decades.'

Since the call, the 54-year-old company's shares fell by nearly 20 percent.

On Thursday, Cracker Barrel traded as low as $45.35 - a 52-week low that marked its lowest level in over a decade.

The stock closed today at $45.67 - down 2.1 per cent since Masino's comments.

Cracker Barrel's yearly dividend was slashed from $1.30 per share to just 25 cents.

Last Thursday, the Southern eatery announced plans to spend $700 million over the next three years to drive up its popularity.

The restaurant rose to prominence after it was founded in 1969 as patrons flocked to its all-American dishes, like biscuits and gravy and fried chicken.

[Billthedrill]

Phony or not, Cracker Barrel’s appeal was a rightful and widespread nostalgia for an America that is fading fast. That anyone in charge of a company marketing nostalgia would insist that it needs to “evolve” simply means that she doesn’t understand her own product and has wandered off into ideological irrelevancies such as Pride Month. Failure is inevitable.

[MinorityRepublican]

And it worked when she was caretaker for booming brands. Now with a troubled brand her inexperience is showing I think.

It worked when she was the figurehead and she had a white guy as the VP who ran the show behind the scenes.

[frank ballenger]

Ha.

People should clear out to make room for big cars out of respect.

That’s why we need signs “If you don’t like my driving then get off the sidewalks.”

[Fledermaus]

The author and CEO are idiots.

I live in middle TN. Every Cracker Barrel is packed. Old, young, rednecks, blacks...

The biggest problem lately is lack of servers. Still enjoy the food.

On a road drive at our age we take our time. We stop at Cracker Barrel for lunch. Good food. Beats fast food.

[Fledermaus]

Then start your own since you know better.

[Snowybear]

As the saying goes, go woke, go broke!

-SB

[Moleman]

I went there for the original old time recipes.
I don’t need arugula, brioche bread, aioli infused mayo etc.....

Ill take the chicken fried steak and mashed like the 1960’s recipe was.

Thank you,

[Moleman]

well done my man!!!

[Moleman]

My buddy had a 1974 hughe delta 88 which we were busted doing “donuts” in the snow (Parking lot of Sign of the Beefcarver) whiles 18 years old lol

[cgbg]

She has been job hopping from chain to chain.

That is a waving red flag.

If she was so great the previous firms would have paid her whatever was necessary to keep her.

[frank ballenger]

An amazingly bad idea was allowing Oldsmobile and Pontiac to be destroyed in the downturn.
Someone later said there was so much frantic rushing to do something that at least Pontiac should have been saved as it “really wasn’t slumping that badly”.

[Zhang Fei]

[I went there for the original old time recipes.
I don’t need arugula, brioche bread, aioli infused mayo etc.....

Ill take the chicken fried steak and mashed like the 1960’s recipe was.

Thank you,]

---

It’s not that no one goes there any more. Or even that people have abandoned it for hyper refined entres. Instead, customers are spreading their dining-out dollars among crowd-pleasing entres that include tacos, pad thais, phos, gyros, pizzas and tapas. Where Cracker Barrel might have gotten 50% of a family’s dining-out budget in world where it competed mostly with me-too joints serving similar food, it might be getting far less today. Its marketing budget has prevented it from sharing the fate of so many diners. But you can bet management is sweating. It doesn’t just compete with ethnic foods for wallet share - it also goes head-to-head with established chains like Waffle House, Denny’s and IHOP, and up-and-coming ones like Texas Roadhouse and Darden subsidiary Longhorn Steakhouse.