Free Republic

Q. How can you tell that the new Cracker Barrel logo is a classic woke catastrophe? A. When even the Morning Joe crew mocks it. You might think that the show would applaud the redesign. After all, it eliminates the image of an old, white, Southern male—and you know what, in liberal minds, those guys stand for! But no! On today's show, Jonathan Lemire led off the discussion by sardonically saying, "Let's be clear. It's now Cracker Barrel with no sign of a barrel." That got the panel, Eugene Robinson in particular, laughing [see screencap.] Katty Kay tried at first...

Cracker Barrel shed almost $100 million in market value after its stock plunged Thursday following the release of a new logo. The new design eliminates a longstanding drawing of an overall-clad man leaning against a barrel, in favor of a cleaner logo featuring just the chain's name. Shares of Cracker Barrel fell $4.22, or 7.2%, to $54.80 in Thursday trading, shedding $94 million in market value. The stock had dipped to a low of $50.27 earlier in the day, representing a loss of almost $200 billion in its capitalization. Wall Street's reaction to the logo redesign comes as Cracker Barrel...

The fallout from Cracker Barrel's logo change and restaurant makeover isn't over. Shares of the food chain plunged Thursday as customer backlash and investor unease drove the chain’s worst losing streak in months. Shares of Cracker Barrel (CBRL) tumbled more than 12% on Thursday, the steepest drop since April. The stock, down 16.47%, is on pace for its worst five-day stretch since Feb. 14, when it dropped 17.7%. Cracker Barrel’s stock fell to $52, down more than $6, or about 11%, marking its lowest level since mid-June. Shares gained slightly to $53.48 by the afternoon. Since May, Cracker Barrel, beloved...

Has restaurant chain Cracker Barrel gone woke? The signs point to that conclusion after the company announced its latest rebranding effort.On Tuesday, USA Today reported, Cracker Barrel plans to shed its recognizable logo — which it’s had since 1977 — featuring a man sitting in a chair leaning on a barrel next to the restaurant’s name.

What do you think? They got rid of the cracker barrel and the guy sitting in the rocking chair!! The Blaze went as far as to ask if this is an actual war crime that assaults the very essence of decency: As Not the Bee reported in 2024, there's a new young female CEO who thinks Cracker Barrel needs a facelift. To the question of war crimes and other high misdemeanors, the comment section provided some perspective. A few more moderate reactions: What do you, the people, think?

It has been a year since Cracker Barrel started renovating its formerly knick-knack-ridden restaurants, and fans are still angry. The Southern-inspired part-restaurant, part-store chain announced a 3-year plan to “evolve” in May 2024. Yet, more than a year later, fans are still commenting their complaints on an Aug. 5, 2024, Instagram post about the restaurant’s “new look.” The video has a Cracker Barrel district manager walking followers through the space’s changes, like new lighting, seating and paint color. As of this story’s publication, there are more than 2,000 comments on the video. Many of the comments are complaints about the...

Times are tough right now in the ‘egg game,’ whatever that is, because of this pesky bird flu. You heard of it? It's been going around for a while now, and really putting a dent in our livestock. I assume it will be a raging pandemic at some point relatively soon that the left drums up to be the start of the apocalypse, but, you know, we'll see. For now, though, it's mainly impacting chickens. Which affects our eggs. Which, in turn, affects our great food establishments across this great country. Waffle House, earlier this week, announced a 50-cent surcharge...

A group of special-needs students was denied service at Cracker Barrel in Maryland, with the mother of an autistic boy expressing outrage after the restaurant's manager told them not to come back. Stacey Campbell said her non-verbal son Jojo, 9, was refused sit-down service at the restaurant in Waldorf on Tuesday along with 10 other special-needs children. Jojo was on the trip with his school's community-based instruction (CBI) program, which gives special-needs children the opportunity to go on field trips and participate in educational activities. According to an email from a teacher, the kids and the seven adults with them...

Cracker Barrel has shut four stores so far this year - as the beloved family chain battles for survival. Stock for the Southern country-themed chain has plummeted in the past week after the company's CEO said the restaurant is no longer 'relevant'. Julie Masino was talking to investors as she outlined plans to turn things around at the chain, which until the closures had 662 outlets across 45 states. Popularity has waned over the past decade - with its loyal clientele of elderly people failing to return after the pandemic. To cut costs, it has already shuttered four stores this...

An iconic American eatery's stock has plummeted in recent week after the company's CEO said the restaurant is no longer 'relevant'. Cracker Barrel, the Southern country-themed restaurants with 662 locations across the nation, has been diminishing in popularity over the past decade - with its loyal clientele of elderly people failing to return after the pandemic. The business tanked even more when its chief executive Julie Felss Masino told investors, 'We're just not as relevant as we once were.' While speaking on an investor call, Masino, who took over the CEO position nine months ago, admitted, 'Some of our recipes...

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...

Southern-based family-dining chain Cracker Barrel was blasted for going “woke” by some of its biscuits-and-gravy-eating customers after posting an image of a rainbow rocking chair to celebrate Pride Month. Aside from serving oversized portions of country staples, the chain is beloved for the Tennessee-made rocking chairs that line the porches at all Cracker Barrel trinket-filled Old Country Stores. Thus, the chain honored Pride Month in June with an Instagram photo of a rocking chair with each wood slat painted a different color of the rainbow in nod to the Pride flag. “Everyone is always welcome at our table (and our...

Cracker Barrel was castigated on social media for following in the bumbling footsteps of beleaguered woke corporations Target and Anheuser-Busch InBev by lionizing the LGBT agenda. The uproar unfolded Thursday, shortly after the country-style restaurant and gift shop chain announced it was celebrating “Pride Month.” To this end, Cracker Barrel changed its iconic storefront display of rocking chairs to showcase a rainbow-colored chair. “We are excited to celebrate Pride Month with our employees and guests,” the Tennessee-based corporation wrote on Facebook. “Everyone is always welcome at our table (and our [rainbow] rocker). Happy Pride!” While many of the responses to...

Well, butter my butt and call me a biscuit. Cracker Barrel has gone gay.

On behalf of Cracker Barrel’s LGBTQ+ Alliance & DEIB Team, we want to celebrate YOU for being YOU. It is our greatest Mission to ensure that Pleasing People means “all people.” LGBTQ+ Pride Month each June is an important time to reflect on the Stonewall Riots that began on June 28, 1969, evoking activists to demand change for the LGBTQ+ community in America. As June prompts us to reflect on the core values of PRIDE: People/Professionalism, Respect, Integrity, Diversity, and Excellence, Cracker Barrel believes these are core pillars that should guide our decisions year-round. Along with ensuring educational resources and...

The comfort food-style restaurant chain Cracker Barrel, known for its overwhelming amount of ornamental knick-knacks and vintage signs plastered on the walls, is in some social media trouble today. Folks on the internet are claiming Cracker Barrel is racist. According to Southern Living, “cracker-barrel” was coined in 1916 because of barrels containing soda crackers — a popular item for sale at country stores. Customers at said country stores would hang around the barrels as a kind of ritual (kind of like the trope of employees gossiping near the water cooler). The first Cracker Barrel location opened in 1969 in Lebanon,...

PORTLAND Ore. (KPTV) - Cracker Barrel has permanently closed its remaining two locations in the Portland metro area, citing the pandemic. A spokesperson for Cracker Barrel confirmed the closure of their Beaverton and Tualatin restaurants on Monday. They are also permanently closing a Bend location. “As a standard course of business, we continually evaluate the performance of our stores, using various criteria to ensure we are meeting the needs of our guests and our business. With that, we are saddened that we have been unable to overcome the impact the pandemic had on our business and have made the difficult...

A manager at a Cracker Barrel near Houston was fatally shot early Saturday as she came to the aid of a co-worker who was being robbed while she entered the location, reports said. Robin Baucom, 59, a grandmother, had worked in the restaurant for more than three decades. The scene unfolded quickly. A car pulled while another employee was entering the store before business hours, and someone jumped out of it and tried to take the employee’s purse, the Star-Telegram reported.

A Tennessee sheriff’s deputy posted a photo on Facebook of a sweet note he says he received from two women at a Nashville restaurant. Sumner County Deputy Jody McDowell was eating breakfast at a Cracker Barrel near the Nashville airport when the server told him someone had paid for his food, according to WTVF. McDowell said they left him a note that read: “BLM, but so does yours. Thank you for your service. Breakfast paid.” Touched by the gesture, McDowell decided to thank them on social media, writing: “I want to thank the two sweet black ladies who paid for my...