Posted on 09/22/2023 7:08:43 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Retirees have lost their appetite for Cracker Barrel and Olive Garden since the pandemic — and it’s not clear when they’ll come back, according to the chains’ top brass.
No amount of biscuits and gravy or unlimited pasta refills seems to be enough to entice the 65-and-older crowd as they continue to pinch pennies amid high inflation and duck the coronavirus, according to Rick Cardenas, chief executive of Darden Restaurants, which owns Olive Garden.
“I do believe that they were a little bit more spooked on the COVID side,” Cardenas told analysts on a Thursday conference call. “We’d love to see them come back more frequently.” Indeed, seniors are heading to the budget-friendly pasta chain less often than they had before the pandemic, added chief financial officer Raj Vennam on a conference call on Thursday with Wall Street analysts.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
I do not think it is, or was, COVID. It is the high prices, bad food, and the impending recession.
Thats because seniors, most of them, are 100% capable of microwaving a prepackaged meal for a lot less money.
I think the recession started by March 2022.
Yep...they figured out it’s cheaper to eat at home. And it became their new routine. Seniors love routine.
If anything it was their incessant enforcement of the stupid mask crap.
Both of these restaurants are CRAP and overpriced..
Cracker Barrel put out the rainbow rocking chairs to support LGBT and then said they would provide a gay employee for customers to have a dialog with. Uh, no thanks. I can just eat anywhere else forever.
Adding: We did not like Cracker Barrel at all. Olive Garden is okay, but rather expensive, and we heard icky things about their kitchens.
We prefer locally owned restaurants for sit down, not chains
In Iowa, they’re still showing up at Pizza Ranch, Culver’s, and the Urbandale Panera, uninterrupted.
I quit going because of the noise.
Yeah, I stopped going to those places long before COVID.
You are right, people started tightening belts a year ago
Negative.
More pissed at the rules of “social distancing” and restrictions to dine out.
Then add POTUS Potato causing world wide inflation with his handlers’ policies and they see no reason to go back to those that scammed them with their BS.
I like Olive Garden. Never had a bad meal there. The reason I stay away is I would gain three pounds every time I went there. They cook everything with lots of butter which is why it tastes so good, but is really fattening. Unlimited Tuscan zapata soups and salads, it’s just hard to portion control. And the deserts....Now I’m hungry....
Many of them likely took the $hots....and, may not be able to find their way to Cracker Barrel, or, Olive Garden, these days....sadly.
Seniors (on fixed income) and small biz and middle class most impacted.
Do the Dems care?
Those factors exist, but are not the key ones. Seniors are seeing the behavior of Cracker Barrel toward blacks, womyn and LGBTQ+s (as shown in the discrimination lawsuits against Cracka Barrel) and are rising up in proletarian indignation against the restaurant chain! They are demonstrating their solidarity with the working class and against the capitalist dogs running these chains! (/liberal)
We used to eat and shop at our Cracker Barrel regularly util the food started becoming bad. We finally quit going at all. Then when we were out of state one time we saw one, and were excited to try it, but it was even worse than our local one. I may not ever eat there again, at any of them now.
Show me ANY Senior, other than those in Congress, who has extra money to spend on FOOD besides cooking at home!
It’s the ECONOMY, Stupid! It’s P*SS-POOR LEADERSHIP, Stupid! It’s Brandon, Stupid!
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