Opera Man Says
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 ...
It’s what happens when a business school or MBA graduate who thinks it knows how to run a business gets its hand dirty trying to run THIS Business.
Far too many companies are bought out by investment groups who run up the costs, cut the quality and suck out everything they can like vampires till they kill the company. This is not the free market.
What took her so long?
I think you’ve encapsulated the picture perfectly.
I also didn’t infer “woke”.
It was just removing unique character from a country-style, down-home establishment. Commies want everything and everybody to be the same.
The plain vanilla style bordered in to the brutalist style.
We had a pizza place like that. The original owners had made it successful by hard work, and they decided to retire. Some dilettante bought it and ran it into the ground in less than a year.
Opera Man Says
“The plain vanilla style bordered in to the brutalist style.”
Plans to build Cracker Barrel stores that look like the Obama Presidential Library have been put on hold.
Thanks for the compliment.
We rarely travel which means I’d have to drive 10 miles to the closest one to me.
Before I’d get there I would pass by at least 6 or 8 places with equal or better quality food and service so it really doesn’t make sense for us.
Glad that woke idiot is stepping down though....Hopefully it’s not too late to save a great American restaurant chain.
Down the street from my office was (once) a truly exceptional sandwich shop, not part of a chain, owned and operated by Lebanese couple. After many years, they sold it to a much younger fellow, who had worked for them for a couple of years, presumably learning the business.
I wish this was a happy story of a successful transition.
Truly.
But it is not.
As soon as he took over, quality went downhill starting with significantly inferior bread. The rest followed. He managed to hang on for about 18 months before going out of business.
They couldn't find her replacement. No one wants to walk into that mess.
drfinitely took long enough to get rid of that woke creep...
hope it’s normal again
damn green beans better be very well done
Last time I went to a local CB a few months ago, I was painfully reminded of why I stopped taking my family out to eat.
-Overpriced
-Waitress served expired chocolate milk to my autistic son, who only later complained it tasted bitter.
-Waitress took forever to take order, even though they were barely busy.
-Waitress ignored refills.
-Food was cold upon delivery.
-Sides were forgotten. Corrections took too long to deliver.
-Requests for utensils were taken then forgotten.
-They took away my favorite dish (roast beef) and replaced it with “pot roast” or similar garbage. I ordered that instead, and spent the rest of the night kicking myself for paying $$$ for a can of Dinty Moore soup on a plate.
The restaurant business is under a lot of pressure because of biden’s inflation machine. A meal at a burger joint can cost 15 bucks or more. In this environment, wokeness and crappy food will insure failure. This ignorant arrogant CEO apparently doesn’t give a damn about all the employees that will be out of work soon. But she will make out ok, so I guess that is all that matters.
The restaurant business can be tough. Something simple like changing the ingredients of the pizza and you will lose long time customers.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_CXzPrEHFHQ&list=RD_CXzPrEHFHQ&;
Eats.
Martian boogie
Brownsville Station
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