See Jaguar...
Posted on 07/27/2026 7:48:44 AM PDT by T.B. Yoits
Cracker Barrel CEO Julie Felss Masino is stepping down after the failure of her “woke” rebrand last year, which was rolled back following intense backlash from loyal customers, the company announced Monday.
Masino will remain at Cracker Barrel in an advisory capacity until October 9 to ensure a smooth transition, the company said.
Shares in Cracker Barrel plunged 5.3% Monday morning.
Her departure comes after less than three years at the helm, during which diners revolted against the company’s attempts to modernize the Southern dining chain last August by axing its beloved mascot Uncle Herschel and revamping restaurants without its trademark tchotchkes.
Masino’s exit comes as somewhat of a surprise, since it has been nearly a full year since the Lebanon, Tenn.-based chain reversed the rebrand and the embattled chief executive has remained in her position – even giving several interviews on her experience navigating the controversy.
In early 2025, Cracker Barrel’s stock was in freefall after Masino admitted the chain was “just not as relevant” as it used to be.
By August, the company had revealed its plans for a $700 million transformation across more than 660 restaurants – which had already started at some locations in the spring – in an attempt to add new customers to its dwindling fanbase.
It included white paint, bright lighting and decluttering the walls of knickknacks in restaurants, as well as erasing from the logo its folksy farmer mascot Uncle Herschel, who had been part of the design since 1977.
Over the next week, Cracker Barrel watched its sales crater – losing its market share of Republican diners, its most loyal base, according to Consumer Edge data.
Its stock also plunged, wiping out hundreds of millions of dollars in value, though it has since started to bounce back.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
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I used to enjoy Cracker Barrel, but I haven’t been back since the blasphemers removed pork chops from the breakfast menu.
No pork chops, no $$$ from Augie.
Screw em.
She solved the conundrum of either keeping her father's surname name or taking her husband's by doing both.
“Masino will remain at Cracker Barrel in an advisory capacity....”
“So, Julie, would you do A or B?”
“Oh, B, most definitely.”
“Great, A it is.”
I have seen it a couple times. Every time a CEO or new exec VP comes in they always want to make a statement and start changing things adding their own touch. 9 times out of 10 it fails.
I am living through one now. Our new Product/Marketing VP (6 months) is trying to extend her influence over the Engineering team and dictate what tools we need to use to produce the platform and how to implement stuff. She doesn’t know crap about software, but she is a shiny ball drone and is pushing crap she reads about online. I don’t see her lasting very long.
Or president of the US
Millennials will soon realize the bit off more than they can chew.
The owner of Steak n Shake wanted it and won. A win for MAGA. A win for Iranians who are anti current Iranian regime.
Got it ... a win/win, for all.
🙃 😂
Mr. FF had one of those as his last boss. He called her “the cheerleader, “ because when there was a problem, she would often say, “I know you can handle it!” or “Great job! Just keep trying!” without ever sending him real help. Mind you, they just kept adding more to his plate.
He retired recently after a year and a half of that kind of talk. She was the type who worked up the ladder, not down it. Problem solver? Not a chance. She has no business being her role (she’s not an engineer). She has no idea how to tackle problems.
Nice lady, but not what the role needed.
The food isn’t very good. Breakfast is their best fare.
Now maybe work on getting the food back to where one can taste it. The last time we went to CB I thought I was eating cardboard instead of a Ckn Fried steak.
That ‘Cracker Barrel make over controversy’ was about a year ago. If this CEO has managed to hang on through that tidal wave of bad publicity, I’m surprised she is just now deciding to leave the company, and is not trying to ride the storm out. Maybe most of her loyalist have already left the organization.
Back to the kitchen, girlfriend...try not to screw that up.
What Cracker Barrel management did would have been OK if they worked for Starbucks or IKEA. Like Anheuser-Busch, management has been forced to spend huge amounts to try to recover market share.
The change from cooking on site to reheating frozen food was the real problem. Bad food drives diners away.
Yep.
See Jaguar...
Yup.
People were calling her rebrand a “Woke” rebrand, but I think the reality is that she was turning Cracker Barrell into another cookie-cutter bland restaurant box. It wasn’t “Woke”; it was oppressive, stultifying, bland corporatism at its worse. Cracker Barrell as a gray box that looked like any other gray box restaurant or cell phone store for that matter.
Well over a decade ago I use to take fishing trips into Canada. We would stop for the night at International Falls and eat at the Spot restaurant. The theme of the restaurant was a tribute to fire fighters and the building was lined with firefighting memorabilia. The new owner sold it all off to pay for the purchase of the business. The next year we stopped by it was closed.
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