Cracker Barrel: We screwed up big time

FoxNews ^ | 12/22/2013 | Todd Starnes

[RoosterRedux]

“We were flat out wrong."

That’s the message Cracker Barrel is sending to enraged customers after the restaurant chain removed Duck Dynasty items from its stores over fears it might offend people.

“Our intent was to avoid offending but that’s just what we’ve done,” Cracker Barrel said in a statement posted on its Facebook page. “You told us we made a mistake. And, you weren’t shy about it. You wrote, you called and you took to social media to express your thoughts and feelings.”

One of those customers was Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council. He said his family has eaten in nearly every Cracker Barrel in the country.

“Cracker Barrel must be off their rocker,” he said in a statement to Fox News. “For Cracker Barrel to take the bait of an organization like GLAAD, which has led the attack on Phil Robertson, they are betraying the values of the vast majority of their customers.”

[Guenevere]

FWIW, did anyone hear Kirsten Powers flat out call Phil Robertson a BIGOT on Chris Wallace today?

She said it and she meant it and she said it with spiteful gusto.

I didn't hear Wallace or anyone else call her out on it...

..and then, of course, Juan Williams trotted out his whiny agreement!

Charles Krauthammer piped in, but his response was so convoluted I don't know what he said.

[Errant]

Here is an interesting nugget in very recent news:

Biglari's latest idea: Just flat sell Cracker Barrel Activist says he'll call for special shareholders' meeting in absence of prompt action [Published December 18, 2013 by Geert De Lombaerde ]

Activist investor Sardar Biglari:

Found this too:

Published: May 23, 1998

Five years ago the Securities and Exchange Commission decided that the shareholders of American companies had no right to vote on the hiring policies of the companies. Now the commission has rightly, if belatedly, reversed course.

The original decision came after Cracker Barrel Old Country Store, a restaurant chain, decided that being homosexual was ''contrary to traditional American values'' and dismissed some gay employees. The New York City Employees Retirement System, which owned stock in Cracker Barrel, proposed a shareholder resolution to overturn that policy, but was rebuffed when the S.E.C. decided that employment policies were ''ordinary business policies'' that need not be voted on by the owners.

Shareholders and Corporate Hiring

There is a bigger story here, IMO...

[moovova]

“They apologized and fixed it.”

In the future, I don’t want it to even reach that stage.

If one nucklehead in the boardroom says “Let’s yank so & so off our shelves...I want ten board members to jump up and say “Oh, heck no. We can’t do that. Remember that restaurant that did that...what was its name? Pickle Barrel? Cheese & Crackers? You know the restaurant that USED to be at all of those interstate exits? Well, there’s nothing there now but boarded up windows and for sale signs. They gave in to those Happy wackos...I mean GLAAD folks...and look what happened to them. They tried to apologize, but the damage was done. Let’s just put out a statement saying we will not take sides.”

[Errant]

More:

"Cracker Barrel Old Country Store CEO Sandy Cochran has fired back at activist investor and board suitor Sardar Biglari, whose history she says suggests that he has — despite his public appeals on behalf of all shareholders — "an undisclosed agenda" to take over the Lebanon-based chain."

http://nashvillepost.com/news/2012/10/18/cracker_barrel_ceo_to_investors_look_out_for_hidden_biglari_agenda

[Errant]

Sardar Biglari (born August 30, 1977) is an Iranian American businessman and value investor, and is the Chairman and CEO of Biglari Holdings Inc.,[2] a holding company that trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol BH. He also manages the Lion Fund, an investment fund he founded in 2000.

Biglari controls the Steak 'n Shake Company and the Western Sizzlin' corporation, which are subsidiaries of Biglari Holdings.

He was called a "combative investor" by the New York Times[3] and his bid to take over a Michigan insurance company was blocked by the Michigan legislature.[4]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sardar_Biglari

[Utilizer]

OK... Colour Me confused. What does any of that have to do with the Duck Dynasty and Phil Robertson furor?

[Errant]

What does any of that have to do with the Duck Dynasty and Phil Robertson furor?

I'm not sure either, but with this infighting between a CEO whose sexual orientation is being questioned, and an "activist investor" possibly attempting a take-over, perhaps there is more behind the decision to remove Duck Dynasty items from Cracker Barrel restaurants than is being reported so far.

[Errant]

Oh, and Sardar Biglari, the “activist investor”, is Iranian.

[Gene Eric]

>> Be gracious in victory.

Unfortunately, there’s no victory, just signs of faithlessness.

[Brandonmark]

[Brandonmark]

[Utilizer]

Oh, and Sardar Biglari, the “activist investor”, is Iranian.

That simply means I dislike and distrust him instantly, unless he has established proof that he is not a bloody wog. (I remember the Iranian "crisis" quite well.)

Still do not see what effect he might have had with this debacle.

[JoeProBono]

[cva66snipe]

To be honest I didn’t see it. I don’t watch that much TV. I have a few choice shows I like and that’s about it. I’ve heard Krauthammer talk around a lot of things though and never commit himself to anything solid that he wont contradict himself the next day LOL. When I go down to my Moms house to check on her she usually has Fox news blaring away and that’s when I hear him. LOL.

[Polynikes]

I am sick and tired of these weak kneed businesses trying to go along to get along. If they want to commit corporate suicide like A&E that's their choice but shows a real lack of character and spine to turn a blind eye to a well defined violation of a persons first amendments rights.

[Errant]

Cracker Barrel's stock value had a great year in 2013. Biglari made millions. Now Biglari's latest idea: Just flat sell Cracker Barrel, days before they take this hit and their stock perhaps drops considerably over the next few days and weeks.

Maybe he goes ahead and sells and even shorts the company and then buys back at a much lower price with enough shares now to become the majority stockholder of the company for little or no out-of-pocket expense?

His dream is to become the next Warren Buffett.

[Errant]

The Iranian Millionaire Gunning for Cracker Barrel

[dead]

Unfortunately, there’s no victory, just signs of faithlessness.

It's not our job to get the management of Cracker Barrel right with the Lord, it's our job to send a message to companies not to screw with conservatives to appease leftist agitators.

And they clearly got that message.

[Gene Eric]

My point concerned reliability, not Faith per se.

[Walkingfeather]

Its not vengeance... It is a business, they made a poor business judgement, for the business. Why should he or they garner a bonus when the decision they made cost the company countless millions in brand identification? If I were the board i would be looking for the resignations of all who made this move. That is simple business logic. Not revenge.