Cracker Barrel’s bizarre new dining rule makes no sense
Cracker Barrel’s latest dining rule is a big head-scratcher. The southern chain restaurant unveiled a new policy directed toward their own employees this week.
During a recent report from The Wall Street Journal, workers are being encouraged to have all their meals on the road come from Cracker Barrel. That policy seems…hard to enforce? Like how could employees only stick to Cracker Barrel locations? And, hysterically, it seems that alcohol on trips are not being reimbursed unless they get special approval. Things are clearly going great over at the old Cracker Barrel.
In the piece from the WSJ, Cracker Barrel officials sent an internal message that reads: “Employees are expected to dine at a Cracker Barrel store for all or the majority of meals while traveling, whenever practical based on location and schedule.”
Now, that doesn’t seem very wild. But, a quick Google search about how much the higher-ups at these companies take home should prompt some reflection. A number of strange decisions at this restaurant chain over recent years have wasted untold amounts of money. Add that all to the fact that most dining chains and restaurants writ large have been having a tough go of it for a couple of years running now. It’s no wonder that the people at the top of this business are looking for ways to save some money. As always, it’s just a curious phenomenon that it always begins with workers footing the cost of previous management mistakes.
Employees encouraged to eat at Cracker Barrel
Those of us who remember recent controversies once they exit the media cycle will recall Cracker Barrel’s rebrand efforts. Last year, the chain invested around $700 million in a rebrand effort to modernize the logos of the restaurants. One telltale post from President Donald Trump and it all went sideways. These kinds of thermostatic opinion changes are how everything works now. It could probably be said that the reason some of these dining requests now are due to goods costing more from tariffs now as well! But, they quickly backtracked and issued a statement.
“ We have heard clearly that the modern remodel design does not reflect what you love about Cracker Barrel, we had tested this design in only four out of 660 locations, and we won’t continue with it period of course. We will continue to invest in our restaurants to make sure that they are good shape and meet your expectations,” they wrote on their website. “The vintage Americana you love will always be here – the Rocking chairs on the porch, our fireplaces and peg games, unique treasures in our gift shop and antiques pulled straight from our warehouse in Lebanon, Tennessee. We want you to have a warm, welcoming space for friends and family to gather and enjoy our craveable food and country hospitality.”
What does the future look like for restaurants?
At the moment, it’s hard to predict exactly what the future looks like for eateries in Cracker Barrel’s lane. Cost of living complaints from consumers coupled with other economic realities have hurt the willingness for people to go out and grab a meal together. The rise of food delivery services like Doordash and Ubereats has also complicated matters as well. That small fact is actually kind of important because you can’t sell people on dessert with their dinner if they’ve ordered it from miles away and never step foot in the restaurant. All sorts of different issues end up intertwined without a clear answer.
For now we’re all just going to keep trying to do things like they were in 2019 or 2020, to varying degrees of success. (Read: Not successful at all?) Even with that fact pretty obvious to folks watching outside of the halls of Cracker Barrel HQ, people are gonna press forward anyway. The most likely scenario will end up being that a lot of these chains aren’t gonna make it and a lucky few that happen to be in the right place the right time carry themselves into an uncertain future. Hopefully, they serve scrambled eggs there!
(featured image: Getty Images)
Have a tip we should know? [email protected]
