I can tell you all about this. I live across the river in Washington, but grew up in Tennessee and love Cracker Barrel. There were 4 at one time, but the one just across the river in the Delta Park area was the first to close as they were paying over $10k a month for security to try to stop the shoplifters and homeless from camping on their front lawn. This sucked, as it was the easiest to get to for me. (It’s just across the freeway from where a Safeway had closed because they were losing $40k a month in theft). I’ve been to the the other 2 Portland area locations. The Tualatin one had VALET PARKING when it opened to try to cut down on the number of cars camping in front of the place. 2 hour waits were not unheard of. I never saw security guards at these other 2 locations though. And it breaks my heart that they’re closing, as Medford is 5 hours away, and is just this side of the California border.
The benefit it has that the others do not? It’s A LONG WAY from Portland. That’s the only reason I can come up with.
They were ALWAYS hiring post-pandemic. I used to chat with my waiter as he was about my age, and knew what was going on, and he said they COULD NOT get wait staff or cooks. More money didn’t help, flexible hours didn’t work. “People just don’t want to work”.
Several years ago, when my younger son said he wanted to go to a Cracker Barrel for his Birthday, we went to the one in Bremerton. It was only a couple hours away, and we had a good time. Three years ago, he wanted to go to Cracker Barrel again for his birthday, but he said “There’s no way in hell that I want to go to Portland!”. So we went to the fairly-new one in Couer D’Alene, ID. Farther away from us, to be sure, but a much better setting.
Wouldn’t be surprised if Chick-fil-A was the next to go.