Posted on 05/24/2024 6:05:03 PM PDT by Morgana
Cracker Barrel was a restaurant for Boomer empty-nesters who spent their leisure time doing road trips.
As they depart this earthly plane in great numbers, so goes Cracker Barrel.
Much ado about nothing .
..
The company has lost its bearings since the founder died in 2012. They used to weather storms like this and come out of them stronger because he stood his ground and told the people trying to embroil them in controversy to go pound sand. He refused to get in the mud and wallow with them.
I think of my now-departed parents.
When they drove cross-country to visit family, they stopped at every Cracker Barrel on the way whenever they were hungry.
That’s what happens. The founders have a passion for the business. They get replaced with bean counters, who only care about the bottom line.
Crappy GMO ‘food’ served daily
I had cap lock on. Didn’t notice until through. Didn’t want to reset reply.
Sorry that bothered you!
No business lasts forever, at least not in the same form that business started with. I recall a very popular family restaurant in Michigan, during The Lyndon Baines Johnson administration. It was called Red Barn. Similar to places like Big Boy or Roy Rodgers restaurant.
All of a “sudden”, the Red Barns started closing. Perhaps they were bought out, then phased out.
From that period, The White Castle remains one of the last of the Mohiccans.
I used to call that “Sungirl HTML.”
We’re headed to the great cracker barrel in the sky.
What? I found that Cracker Barrel Cheese is made by Kraft. I did not know.
Hitting “the diner” for breakfast at totally random intervals has been a thing here on LI for all of my adult life. But after getting a bill recently of nearly fifty dollars for basically two omelette plates I really have no desire to do it again. That kind of money just takes all the desire out of it. Back when I was in highschool those two plates were probably less than four dollars.
The problem is not as simple as you make it (aging boomers). Bidenomics is a huge factor. Covid was a factor. Boston Market - bankrupt. Red Lobster - bankrupt. Ruby Tuesdays - bankrupt. California Pizza Kitchen - Bankrupt. More likely coming - watch Applebees, Denny’s, and Friday’s continue to pare back their footprints. Shoney’s and Fuddruckers have about disappeared.
The regional cafeteria chains are also collapsing, although that may cone closer to being because of the aging boomer factor, and started much earlier - Furrs, Luby’s, Piccadilly/Morrisons.
I grew up near Red Barn in St Clair Shores
It would help if their food wasn’t gross.
I know everyone is entitled to like what they want. But having been on the road for the past week and stopping at CB and other places, I find their service to be sub par and their menu to be stuck in the 70s.
Given a choice…I would rather eat at Wendy’s.
Last time we drove to florida stopped at Cracker Barrel service was horrible,never going to another one
So many on here seem to disparage them for being faux Southern food. I never saw them claim to be Southern food. A few menu items perhaps.
Old Country Store does not equal Southern.
And Howard Johnson.
Cracker Barrel will survive. They have great breakfasts and prices good.
I do like their chicken too.
I used to drive the Missouri to Arizona roadways with Michigan and Texas thrown in. Hit a lot of Cracker Barrels as the wife liked the Lemon Pepper broiled trout. I was also picking up candy.
They began to screw up their menu, cutting out prepared food and going to deep fried crap.
Their incisiveness caused them to accept employees that look like they went to Mad Max reunion or stuck their face in a tackle box — freak show.
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