Corporations put well credentialed idiots in charge of vast enterprises who would have difficulty poring water out of a boot unless the instructions were written on the heel. Cracker Barrel would have done better if they had placed a random Cracker Barrel waitress in charge.
The new name makes one ask: “What is a cracker barrel?”
“Where” is the Cracker Barrel?
Looks like it came back into focus.
I’m happy for the chain. Going woke has backfired for many a corporation and Sardar was one of many investors who said no. Not today. Sardar knows that it’s much easier shooting fish in a barrel than by putting out a rainbow worm on a hook.
This is the reason why going woke means going broke. You have a group of customers. They have defined themselves by coming to your business. You’ve made a lot of money serving THEM not the people that don’t come to you. Stop chasing an infinitesimal portion of the American public that haven’t come to you and won’t come to you. Seriously? Inclusion groups for a customer base that is obviously very traditional? Serve your customers. Make them your ambassadors. It isn’t rocket science.
Technically this wasn’t really ‘woke.’ It’s apparently a business trend. We know a fellow who is high up in the product marketing world for various businesses. The modern strategy is to redesign buildings and restaurants and other facilities in the most bland, sterile ‘gray shoebox with doors’ style. That way when it’s time to sell out or close down and sell the properties, it’s easier to move a new business in. In the old days, the idea was make the different locations unique – we all knew what a McDonalds or Pizza Hut looked like. But then it was tough when those sold and a new business came in. After all, we’ve all likely also seen some place and said ‘that used to be a Taco Bell.’ So now, these redesigned or new locations are built to be pretty interchangeable. Sort of corporate prenuptial agreements – assume someday they’ll go under, and then it will be easier to sell and buy the properties. It’s just that with Cracker Barrel, more than most, the design and atmosphere were often what kept people going, even if most agreed that quality and quantity for the buck had dropped over the years.
You hear the term ‘principal-agent’ problem. This woman and her marketing minions wanted to promote their social viewpoint with their shareholders’ money. The previous CEO had tendencies in this direction as well. Revamping the decor and the logos was a component of their disdain for their customers. There’s also been some complaint that they were taking production short cuts and these were damaging the quality of the fare.
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Chain restaurants commonly go into terminal decline for one reason or another. In my youth, you had in our part of the country Howard Johnson’s, Carrol’s, Arthur Treacher’s, Mr. Steak, Lum’s, Ponderosa, Friendly’s, and Perkins. Perkins has half the locations it once did, Friendly’s appears at death’s door, Ponderosa has closed > 95% of their locations, and the others are gone.
Personally, I don’t care what logo they hang on their building. Until they stop funding all ages pride events and lose the rainbow rocking chairs, I won’t be visiting.
Technically this wasn’t really ‘woke.’
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This dame and her predecessor have been up to plenty of woke. Because they don’t like their customers.
My last visit to a Cracker Barrel will continue to be my last. Two things incited my rage: “Pride Month” decorations and recent menu changes. If a restaurant wants to commit to meaningful diversity, it should forget LGBT and concentrate on GIBLETS. I really do miss the fried chicken livers.
R Bernonensis-
You’ll find gizzards at most independent gas station restaurants as you pass though South Dakota, should you be so fortunate to do so.
So, skip the drive thru chain on the exit ramp and go the extra mile into town and have them fry up some gizzards 🤠
I half believe that Cracker Barrel and Budweiser are *meant* to be suicide missions for the woke. Targeting a wholesome brand and destroying it from within would be a typical leftist move.
Optimist,
I’ve often thought about heading out there to see what the other Woonsocket is like, but it’ a bit of a drive for gizzards. Fortunately, there are a couple of African and Chinese places here, and my own kitchen, of course.
Gizzards and tiny hearts too….
in a LG. paper cup from a Gizzard emporium on the outskirts of Dewitt Michigan.
On our way north to Vacationland from Fort Wayne Indiana.
Those were the days.
This dame and her predecessor have been up to plenty of woke. Because they don’t like their customers.
I’m sure “woke” was there, and I think that is used by these corporations to continue this trend. Playing on the ‘anything old is bad’ narrative, it allows them to pretty much dismantle and redesign with impunity. But it is part of a larger trend, which is build for the future – insofar as the future is shutting down and closing down and selling out easier than before. Whatever it does to the employees or customers being of little concern. The mistake here was that unlike McDonalds or Pizza Hut, where decor and atmosphere are not the major draws, that was with Cracker Barrel. And many who still went there, even over concerns or objections, did so often for that reason alone.
This event will be cited in reputable business classes, along with New Coke and Bud Lite, as examples of “Those who do not know the past etc.”
Corporations are a refuge for the multi-degreed idiot. My employer put in charge (chief operating officer) a Harvard MBA who made a series of bad decisions to increase sales and as a result bought a bunch of bad business that caused a net loss in the tens of millions. They moved him into another job.
Five years ago my manager – now a VP herself – castigated me in front of a director and a vice president because I made a $745.00 mistake on a journal entry.
The company I do financial reporting for has a net worth of over $500 million.
“So, if we add up the hourly pay of everyone you just harangued, is it more or less than $745?
What do you mean you don’t know?”
Filed under stuff I would say if I had either a winning lottery or 6 months to live….
[…] Analysis, Punditry, and News:Corporate Folly – Donald R. McClarey, J.D., at The American CatholicBombshell muto proprio! Barrelrum […]
Five years ago my manager – now a VP herself – castigated me in front of a director and a vice president because I made a $745.00 mistake on a journal entry.
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Had a manager who pulled stunts like that routinely. Several employees were subject to lengthy rants on proper time management. Some got the 45 minute version and others the 90 minute version. That’s on top of the time squandered on superfluous all-hands meetings. Another employee was subject to a 1,000 word formal written reprimand. There were two filler paragraphs – at the beginning and at the end. There were three substantive paragraphs. The second paragraph was a complaint to the employee that said manager could not read the employee’s handwriting on an order form there was no reason for the manager to review. The employee had an office two doors down from hers, so it’s not as if it was inconvenient to ask the employee what the entry was referring to or to re-write it in block print.
“Never compromise on the quality of your ingredients.” -Chef Robert Irvine
Those who regularly visited Cracker Barrel say that, sometime in the last two years, the quality of the food has declined.
Hmm. The CEO took over in August 2023, two years ago.
One wonders if the several hundred million $$$ wasted on this rebrand had been put into improved food quality, and if that had been a focus of a new advertising campaign, what that would’ve achieved to drive Cracker Barrel productivity. (Making too much sense here.)