Cracker Barrel’s marketing fiasco shows
investors are making woke a massive risk factor
New York Post,
by
Charles Gasparino
Original Article
Posted By: JoElla Bee,
8/23/2025 10:55:14 PM
If the Cracker Barrel market puke has anything to teach Wall Street, it’s that investors who are deciding where to put their money must add corporate “wokeness” to their menu of risks to digest.
In fact, making “woke” an investing risk factor — in some cases as important as the direction of interest rates and inflation — seems so obvious that I hesitated to write this column. Recall Bud Light’s Dylan Mulvaney fiasco, or Target CEO Brian Cornell’s recent exit following his ill-fated obsession with DEI.
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Reply 1 - Posted by:
jalo1951 8/23/2025 11:52:16 PM (No. 1994617)
If it ain't broke don't fix it. It wasn't broke. The food was better than pretty good. The setting was cozy, gift store packed and fun to look at. Rocking chairs inviting. Pleasant staff. So here's the big question. Why? Because you could? You were on a mission? You had $ millions burning a hole in your pocket and thought what the hell. No real reason just a whim? Like I said more than once. Have you not heard of the nitwit who tried to push New Coke on America?
37 people like this.
Reply 2 - Posted by:
JHHolliday 8/24/2025 12:20:31 AM (No. 1994618)
The ego of a new CEO. A woman who wanted to prove that she was tough and creative and could run with the men. She also figured that their base of older customers was dying out but didn't realize that younger people liked the ambience and food also. I won't blame it all on a female boss. The board had to sign off on the rebrand too. The customers liked Cracker Barrel for what it was and the chain was profitable. Slipping some wokeness in didn't help. That train has left the station for now. Maybe a tweak here and there might be justified but overhauling all the restaurants overlooked the older after church crowd and those who just like CB,...the old time wall decorations, the rocking chairs and the little gift shop. It's not true that most younger people would want a big change. Everybody likes a good restaurant with charm. The change must have also cost them millions...all that new signage, furniture etc. Even successful businesses have shot themselves in the foot before and will again.
35 people like this.
Reply 3 - Posted by:
Californian 8/24/2025 12:36:53 AM (No. 1994621)
We do t have one near me so I don't know: was there anything besides the logo change that was woke? I haven't read any examples.
The logo change to generic corporate was really stupid but I'm not seeing that as woke. Just incompetent.
11 people like this.
Reply 4 - Posted by:
Lawsy0 8/24/2025 12:38:46 AM (No. 1994622)
Why would a corporation start futzing with success? If they ruin the ambiance, they'll deserve what they get. Then they'll have to sell their real estate at bargain basement prices. Should have asked me first!
10 people like this.
Reply 5 - Posted by:
mifla 8/24/2025 5:37:33 AM (No. 1994637)
This reminds me of government employees who come up with useless regulations, simply because they need something to do.
24 people like this.
Reply 6 - Posted by:
jeffkinnh 8/24/2025 6:05:43 AM (No. 1994643)
“Moral of this story is if you’re going to do a rebranding of this type with long and short sentiment so evenly split, you should wait,”
Corporate management is charged with being fully aware of market conditions and steering the company around troubled waters. This is another case of corporate management ego and incompetence. This article clearly lays out the current position of Cracker Barrel as profitable but in a danger zone of possible growth AND possible collapse. THAT should of warned the board that big moves were dangerous, especially ones that alienated the current base of the business and current mood of the public, factors that should have been obvious to intelligent people.
They could have focused on things like improvements in food quality and subtle upgrades. But those don't stroke the egos of corporate managers. They also didn't pay any attention to the reality that their market is in middle America where more conservative customers are, i.e. they did not know or appreciate their market. This is a fundamental failing of management.
Time for some heads on a platter.
23 people like this.
My house could use a fresh coat of paint and a new couch.
But this redo seems to go beyond adding booths and new flooring.
It went to the core of the brand, which is nostalgia and family friendly..
I don't know if it is true that they plan to serve alcohol, but most people are not local - they are driving!
16 people like this.
Reply 8 - Posted by:
tootall 8/24/2025 7:25:26 AM (No. 1994662)
I think there needs to be a discussion about Corporate Governance and who votes the shares. What is their agenda and is it the will of the actual owners of the shares?
Its my understanding that Mutual funds, Separate accounts, and Private money managers are making the calls in Corporate boardrooms on policy and personnel ... which is policy!
I don't have answers, but think its time for a discussion.
Blackrock's Larry Fink said last week that the 'people' need to be motivated by pain to change their view points on any number of issues. This is very scary and dangerous
5 people like this.
Reply 9 - Posted by:
franq 8/24/2025 7:31:57 AM (No. 1994664)
Next headlines: Cracker Barrel to Close 150 Underperforming Stores.
Have they had time to "revamp" them all?
9 people like this.
Reply 10 - Posted by:
Penelope27 8/24/2025 7:35:49 AM (No. 1994665)
There is a great article at Redstate regarding this. This dismantling of Cracker Barrel started in the 90s, because they had the audacity to hold different beliefs from other people. After you read the article, you will remind yourself that there is evil in this world and it wields a lot of power…
11 people like this.
Reply 11 - Posted by:
Pucky1 8/24/2025 7:50:13 AM (No. 1994674)
Since "Cracker" refers to a certain class of people, I'm surprised that survived." A novice CEO, blind to the franchise attraction, goes all in to modernize it. Just WOW!
11 people like this.
Reply 12 - Posted by:
paral04 8/24/2025 8:11:16 AM (No. 1994686)
All the so called universities giving out degrees in Marketing have done their graduates a great disservice. Look what their "Brilliant" ideas did to Bud Light, Target and a few other businesses. If I had a degree in that trade I would due the College I went to.
9 people like this.
Reply 13 - Posted by:
slsusnr 8/24/2025 8:54:17 AM (No. 1994704)
#1 Some of us geezers might remember this. A good while back, McDonald's stopped toasting their buns. Can you imagine??? I bit into one of those burgers and gagged. I actually complained (nicely - I'm not a Karen) to the manager and was told that it was an actual change. I fired off a letter to corporate and was obviously not the only one. The mushy buns soon were toasted again.
6 people like this.
Reply 14 - Posted by:
mossley 8/24/2025 9:00:00 AM (No. 1994707)
Like a lot of chains, Covid hurt Cracker Barrel. To compensate, they lowered the quality of the food while jacking up the prices. That is its core problem. Instead of addressing that, the CEO is changing everything else.
For those wondering about the "woke", go to the company's website and read the diversity and inclusion statement. They've aligned with every alphabet, illegal immigrant group out there.
13 people like this.
Reply 15 - Posted by:
crashnburn 8/24/2025 9:21:35 AM (No. 1994714)
#14. I guess that means only Karens and Kens lead the company (into the toilet). At the risk of sounding trite, another example of go woke, go broke.
8 people like this.
Reply 16 - Posted by:
JSanders 8/24/2025 9:32:03 AM (No. 1994716)
Cracker Barrel has nothing to do with a description of any person or group of people. It is defining just what type of barrel the gentleman in the original logo was using as a place for his checkerboard set. Barrels of this type actually stored crackers in the old south and midwest.
13 people like this.
Reply 17 - Posted by:
Strike3 8/24/2025 9:32:21 AM (No. 1994717)
Cracker Barrel's Julie Masino made a huge mistake by taking a longtime, well-accepted brand and attempting to tell those customers what they want. I can see how she made the mistake based on her exerience with Starbucks, a relatively new and still-maturing business that is still a lump of clay in the business world. If young people have shown a short history of being receptive to drinks with five-syllable names, it's safe to give them a new one with six syllables without making waves. Messing with a successful and popular American tradition is a horse of a different color and her attempts to justify her first mistake with customers and stockholders is another big mistake. Cracker Barrel only has one way to fix this, say goodbye to Julie.
11 people like this.
Reply 18 - Posted by:
Encore 8/24/2025 9:47:00 AM (No. 1994725)
I’m afraid it’s a sign of the times. Young people working their way up into management positions are going to see things through a different lens. The over zealous ones, the ‘woke’ ones, are going to wreak havoc like any good activist. They don’t have a culture of character to fall back on. They are the ‘new wave’, the ‘new coke’, coexist, plastic generation. I don’t see this going away.
6 people like this.
Reply 19 - Posted by:
chillijilli 8/24/2025 9:50:13 AM (No. 1994727)
This is not a woke issue. It's a stupid issue. I don't like their stupid mustard yellow color. Big deal and so what.
10 people like this.
Reply 20 - Posted by:
hurricanegirl 8/24/2025 9:50:48 AM (No. 1994728)
I think I may have eaten at a Cracker Barrel once many, many years ago. It was okay--nothing to get excited about, so I don't care whether they go belly up or not. However, if a business is open to the public, doesn't that mean it's open to anyone who makes up the public--including any fringe groups out there?
Obviously, this fool felt the need to virtue signal! Hey, CEO, that might give you the warm fuzzies, but it'll tank your business.
4 people like this.
Reply 21 - Posted by:
FLCracker 8/24/2025 10:12:43 AM (No. 1994738)
I just had my comment to NY Post's original article rejected. Here's what I said:
"My problem with Cracker Barrel is that they no longer make Southern-style chicken and dumplings like they used to.
I think the Nutrition Police got to them."
Does anyone understand why this happened? I have lodged an appeal, just to see what NY Post may say.
It's not like I said the CB recipes are getting all Yankee-fied or something.
5 people like this.
Reply 22 - Posted by:
MindMadeUp 8/24/2025 11:03:04 AM (No. 1994759)
Marketing fiascos like Cracker Barrel, Jaguar, and Bud Light highlight the relatively small cultural bubble the wealthy elite live in. They must be truly blind to the fact that normal people don't share their stupid, woke values and keep trying to tap into a Leftist trend that doesn't exist in the population at large.
2 people like this.
Reply 23 - Posted by:
MickTurn 8/24/2025 11:30:26 AM (No. 1994776)
The Barrel is NOT GONE, it was moved to Niagara Falls so the CEO can go for a RIDE!
3 people like this.
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