Do you believe in transubstantiation of the biscuits and gravy?
Splitter!
“For eight days a year, we’re Matzo Barrel!”
In all fairness, I would buy that that’s why the MAGA crowd thinks the logo was changed. Because us woke people are offended by everything, dontcha’ know. /sarcasm
Yes, I eat it and it transforms into love handles.
Welcome to the Gravy Cult.
I remember public grumbling back in 2005, when Southwestern Bell (SBC)—one of those scrappy “Baby Bells” from the 1984 breakup—gobbled up AT&T Corp. (the original parent Bell company), then used its name like it was upgrading to cooler outfit. With the takeover came a new logo: the old striped globe got buffed into a shiny 3-D “marble” that was supposed to scream modern global vision but mostly whispered gumball.
Old-timers still remembered Saul Bass’s 1969 “Ma Bell” logo. It was so iconic that more Americans recognized it than the sitting president. Swapping that for a candy-coated jawbreaker didn’t thrill the design crowd—critics called the new look bland, corporate, and very chewy-looking.
I’m actually reminded of the “Not your father’s Oldsmobile” campaign of the late 1980s. Although Oldsmobiles were still selling well in the 1980s, their customer base was aging, and they were beginning to be seen as an old person’s car. So they launched this ad campaign to try to bring in younger buyers. From what I understand, it backfired on them. It alienated their existing customers, and it failed to convince younger people to buy Oldsmobiles.
It seems like Cracker Barrel is in the same position. They’re seen as a restaurant where old people eat, and everything they do to try to bring in younger customers alienates their existing customers, and as far as I know hasn’t succeeded at bringing in younger ones.
Maybe it’s where we live, but our Cracker Barrel always seems to have more young families than geezers like us. Well, except when spousal unit and I go to dinner at 4… 
Plus it seems to be a popular gathering place for the people who work at the Navy base, including military folks. Many’s the time I’ve seen 3 or 4 tables pushed together seating lanyard-wearing customers.
In fact, the only place I recall seeing a predominantly elderly clientele was in Ocala, FL, which has a very large retired population. So what younger customers do they want - single 20-somethings? Prom night dates?
It seems like most Cracker Barrel restaurants are located just off the Interstate.
That’s great for attracting hungry drivers. But older people don’t take car trips as often.
People that live locally have to go out of their way to visit CB. It’s a 14 mile drive. I have to get on the Interstate and take the exit just like a tourist.
To be fair, like I mentioned earlier it’s probably been over 20 years since I’ve been to a Cracker Barrel (That’s at least in part because there simply aren’t any near me that I’m aware of). So I was basing that off of what I’ve heard/read about them, rather than any personal experience.
I wasn’t making a jab at you. I hear/read comments all over about the logo pissing off the geezer demographic, leading to stocks falling, cats and dogs living together, life as we know it coming to an end… But as I said, there’s not a big geezer demographic here and there are still occasionally wait times of an hour for weekend breakfasts, so I’m not sure if the older customer base is a significant part of the whining. Goodness knows, Donnie Junior had to toss his 2¢ in and I’m willing to bet he’s never been in this chain in his life.
In other words: no booze.
Not without the booze!
As has been mentioned, Cracker Barrel was founded in 1969. Customers below seventy could remember visits to the grandparents, maybe in small towns that actually had old general stores. Nostalgia for that was legitimate–it had the emotional intensity of Family and Youth and Summers of the Past.
Now (as also mentioned) customers are nostalgic only for their post-1969 visits to…..Cracker Barrel. Not to what Cracker Barrel was supposed to evoke (which was long gone). Like a photocopy of a photocopy.
You really can’t solve that problem. Not unless the Cracker Barrel experience itself is worth the nostalgia. And I’m not sure that experience was ever intense enough to work as a nostalgia-generator. Cracker Barrel wasn’t itself ‘summer vacations of your youth,’ it was just supposed to remind you of one facet of your ‘summer vacations of your youth.’
Politics might bring back a few right-wingers to patronize CB. For a while, anyway. That’s probably the best the chain can hope for: they’re NOT going to be attracting hordes of the young with what they’re offering.
I don’t know what CB’s policy is nationwide, but the store 15 miles from me (suburb of Wichita) serves beer. I can’t remember if other adult beverages are available.
ETA: this site would indicate that wine and a few cocktails are also available.
Interesting. I had assumed that “Family restaurant” means no liquor of any kind would be served.
The term “family restaurant,” growing up around here (Chicago) at least, never meant that. It just meant casual atmosphere, simple/comfort food catering to both adults and children, and you can expect stuff like high chairs/booster chairs, maybe a placemat and some crayons for the kids, that sort of stuff. There was always beer and more for the adults.
Generally speaking, this is true, at least for the big “family restaurant” chains, though as already noted by @Railer13, Cracker Barrel has recently started offering a limited selection of alcoholic beverages (beer, wine, and some pre-made cocktails).
The general description of what defines a “family restaurant” or “family dining” in the industry is (though any given “family restaurant” chain or restaurant may vary on this):
- Table service (as opposed to ordering at a counter, or going through a buffet)
- Affordable/“value-oriented” price points
- Wide variety of menu items, typically including breakfast (often all day) as well as lunch and dinner
- Child-friendly
- Casual atmosphere
- Focus on food, rather than beverages (so, many don’t offer alcohol at all, or only a limited selection, compared to a CDR like an Applebee’s or TGI Friday’s, which is more bar-oriented)
- Some may also be “family-style,” where food is served on big platters, allowing for sharing between party members
The other big “family restaurant” chains, beyond Cracker Barrel, are IHOP, Denny’s, Bob Evans, Waffle House, etc.
Maybe, and maybe not.
Alcohol consumption is actually going down nationwide, and particularly among younger adults.
This recent Gallup survey indicates that only 54% of Americans drink alcohol, which is as low as it’s ever been since Gallup started doing a survey on that question in 1939. It’s even lower (50%) among 18-34 year olds.
I had assumed that this was being driven by availability of cannabis, but Gallup indicates that that’s probably not the case. It appears to be more driven by health concerns.
That made me think how even by the 1970s that was dying out. At the end of A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving, it is revealed that Charlie’s grandmother lives in a condo.
Agree w your exposition of facts, but maybe not your conclusion.
Lots of Americans live in small towns & small cities today. And live a Kountry/southern sort of lifestyle heavy on carbs & fried foods. They don’t have true general stores other than WalMart. But they do visit restaurants and antique stores and whatever that still exude the “farm implements tacked to the walls” aesthetic. So that is still their lived reality. Old is normal in smallish cities.
Current-version CB fits just fine for them, whether they’re tweens, teens, 30-somethings, or elderly. Probably about time for CB to start tacking up old magazine ads dating from the 1960s & 1980s. Some, not too many. But retire the 1890s ones.
So CB can be a success, just like walmart, at being the chain restaurant for the rest of us Kountry folk. With locations in every 20K-150K city in the drawling part of the country. Conversely, it’s not going to succeed as “the restaurant along the interstate that reminds everyone of every social class of their youth”. Because those folks are now too old to drive. As you say.
I remember being in a Denny’s in the late 1980s in Dayton, Ohio, and I joked to the server that I’d like a beer. To my shock he said, “Oh, we have beer! Would you like a glass?” I said, “Uh, sure,” and he brought me a glass of beer from a keg they had in the back.