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Cracker Barrel stock plunges amid brand makeover backlash
Fox Business ^ | August 21, 2025 | Amanda Macias

Posted on 08/21/2025 1:59:32 PM PDT by MinorityRepublican

The fallout from Cracker Barrel's logo change and restaurant makeover isn't over. Shares of the food chain plunged Thursday as customer backlash and investor unease drove the chain’s worst losing streak in months.

Shares of Cracker Barrel (CBRL) tumbled more than 12% on Thursday, the steepest drop since April.

The stock, down 16.47%, is on pace for its worst five-day stretch since Feb. 14, when it dropped 17.7%. Cracker Barrel’s stock fell to $52, down more than $6, or about 11%, marking its lowest level since mid-June. Shares gained slightly to $53.48 by the afternoon.

Since May, Cracker Barrel, beloved for its Southern comfort food, front-porch rocking chairs and gift shop filled with knickknacks and old-fashioned sweets, has embarked on a $700 million transformation across its 660-plus restaurants.

The sweeping makeover includes "decluttered" dining rooms, a revamped menu and other changes aimed at updating a brand long rooted in nostalgia.

On Tuesday, the brand unveiled its new logo, which drops an illustration of a man resting his arm on top of a wooden barrel, a folksy image that has embodied the brand's southern hospitality for the last 56 years.

Cracker Barrel described the new logo as squarely anchored on the brand's "signature gold and brown tones" while incorporating "the iconic barrel shape and word mark that started it all," the company said in a statement.

The statement added that "farm fresh scrambled eggs and buttermilk biscuits" served as inspiration behind the "hues of a refreshed color palette."

Critics say the rebrand is a risky move for a company already struggling with thin margins.

(Excerpt) Read more at foxbusiness.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy
KEYWORDS: budlight; crackerbarrel; dei; juliefelssmasino

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To: MtnClimber


Frog: Well, people know the name, sir.

Boss: They certainly do know the name - they burnt the factory down.
21 posted on 08/21/2025 2:16:01 PM PDT by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
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To: ronniesgal

It is, but in my experience in most places breakfast at Waffle House costs about the same with (at least in the past) CB having better quality.

The drop is quality has been going on for a bit and every menu item and process is optimized for cost savings.


22 posted on 08/21/2025 2:16:54 PM PDT by The Free Engineer
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To: MinorityRepublican

CB = Crap Bucket


23 posted on 08/21/2025 2:17:07 PM PDT by bigbob (If thou doth eff around, thou wilt findeth out)
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To: Opinionated Blowhard

I don’t think it’s the sign as much as new interior decor. As cozy and comfy as an operating room.


24 posted on 08/21/2025 2:18:29 PM PDT by MayflowerMadam (It's hard not to celebrate the fall of bad people. - Bongino)
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To: bray

Should have just renamed it Honkie Barrel..
A Rainbow Eatery….


25 posted on 08/21/2025 2:18:48 PM PDT by OKC Patriot ("Never Forget"!)
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To: ronniesgal

We never order beverages in a restaurant unless we’re on long road trips and need coffee.


26 posted on 08/21/2025 2:19:39 PM PDT by MayflowerMadam (It's hard not to celebrate the fall of bad people. - Bongino)
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To: MinorityRepublican

“Modernizing” a business which is rooted in nostalgia is risky.

They should modernize but stay with retro and Southern, simple, home cooked type food.

It’s a place you go to eat in lei of eating at home.

Lots of folks that were young in the 80s could be targeted perhaps... Not sure if they serve booze. That could be explored - the whole micro brewery and quality local beers. But they need to be careful.

I eat there.

I do NOT go there so I can Eat Asian fusion, see a sports team on a jumbo TV, or have LGBTQIA rainbows shoved in my face.


27 posted on 08/21/2025 2:20:08 PM PDT by Red6
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To: MeanWestTexan
She’s just an idiot, all over.

Not just woke, but stupid and woke.

Must have gone to the same school as Bud Light's vice president of marketing

28 posted on 08/21/2025 2:20:30 PM PDT by MinorityRepublican
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To: MinorityRepublican

It was more likely the overwhelming number of stories out there about lousy food and horrible service.

The logo thing is nothing but lipstick on the pig.


29 posted on 08/21/2025 2:20:31 PM PDT by Vermont Lt
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To: MinorityRepublican
What do they think Cracker means?
30 posted on 08/21/2025 2:21:35 PM PDT by Savage Beast (NOTHING enkindles anger, hate, violence, and murderous fury like Truth threatening guarded delusion.)
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To: MinorityRepublican

Bad move and will NOT survive.


31 posted on 08/21/2025 2:24:09 PM PDT by traditional2 ("Is it them, again, Yogi?")
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To: All

Boycott Cracker Barrel until they reinstate the old cracker and his barrel. pic.twitter.com/mwGaKWMnb7— Planet Of Memes (@PlanetOfMemes) August 20, 2025


32 posted on 08/21/2025 2:28:40 PM PDT by MinorityRepublican
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To: MinorityRepublican
Cracker Barrel is on its way to becoming the Stuckey’s and Bonanza of the late 2020s and early 2030s. Even if the company did not plunge into LBGTQ nonsense, they are developing a reputation for declining quality that deters repeat customers. Their traditional market of Boomers and older Gen. Xers is fading away. Fewer Millennials or Gen Zers have fond memories of grandparents who lived in small towns and farms and who fed them country cooking than was the case in older generations. Ten years from now, the Cracker Barrel facilities will either be repurposed or demolished.
33 posted on 08/21/2025 2:29:55 PM PDT by Wallace T.
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To: MinorityRepublican

34 posted on 08/21/2025 2:31:15 PM PDT by SamAdams76
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To: MinorityRepublican

They should get rid of the racist, hurtful and targeting name too.


35 posted on 08/21/2025 2:32:23 PM PDT by greenishness
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To: MinorityRepublican
Rebranding is starting to look like a minefield. According to the source the chain is turning a 1.5% margin, which magnifies any burble in business due to a misstep. They really don't have a lot of time to convince people that they aren't throwing the baby out with the bath water. A good marketeer would know that.

Their gimmick - what differentiated the chain from the competition - was folksy, laid-back rural ambience with old-fashioned cuisine. How much of that is being discarded is going to be critical and management hasn't managed to communicate that yet. Changing to something is always more saleable than changing from something. IMHO, of course.

36 posted on 08/21/2025 2:32:44 PM PDT by Billthedrill
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To: MinorityRepublican

I’ve been a CEO and on the board of directors in multiple public companies.

If I did something that caused my stock to drop 17% TWICE in six months, I would have been out on my ass so fast I’d have lost my shoes.

The fact that she is still there tells me this is intentional destruction of the company, for reasons unknown.

Lots of things can be involved, for example, once I was aware of a chain store that was driven into the ground because its model had, since the 1960s, required the stores purchase the land/building where they operated.

As a result, it was sitting on corner lots throughout many cities that were far more valuable than the chain itself.

It was pushed to near bankruptcy so it would divest the stores (and the lots could be snapped up by an insider).

I would not be surprised if the same thing is happening here.


37 posted on 08/21/2025 2:35:13 PM PDT by MeanWestTexan (Sometimes There Is No Lesser Of Two Evils)
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To: MinorityRepublican

The CEO is claiming customers want this.

Stock prices and feed back say otherwise.


38 posted on 08/21/2025 2:36:33 PM PDT by metmom (He who testifies to these things says, “Surely I am coming soon." Amen. Come, Lord Jesus….)
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To: MayflowerMadam

we pulled over b/c traffic was at a standstill. We never ate at CB before, and haven’t since. Those prices are ridiculous.


39 posted on 08/21/2025 2:37:37 PM PDT by ronniesgal ( so is it okay that I said that??? GO TRUMP GO!!!!)
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To: Opinionated Blowhard

I hear the food sucks of late. I have personally never been to one. And I used to travel for work but I always found local/mom pop joints to eat at or cooked my own when I was able to.


40 posted on 08/21/2025 2:39:00 PM PDT by waterhill (Nobody cares, work harder!)
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