Good morning. I pulled a plant close to house in case frost hit this morning. It is a bit warmer than that, however. I did have to chuckle when one woman complained about the cold, windy day and the next women I spoke with said she loves the cool down. How different we all can be!
Here’s another view on the Cracker Barrel “controversy” by Jonah Goldberg.
BTW, his quips about capitalism may seem anti-capitalist, but are meant ironically. His real point is that this is how capitalism actually works. That, I think, is more obvious in the rest of the piece, but I’m not sure if non-subscribers of The Dispatch can access it, so I have quoted more than I usually do.
(Sharing this here and on the politics thread because the subject came up on both threads.)
“The Cracker Barrel Crack-Up“
~ “I bring all of this up to provide some broader context to a particularly stupid controversy about Cracker Barrel. The company was launched in 1969 by a Shell Oil representative as a kitschy gas station eatery and Southern tchotchke joint. Fill up on some chicken-fried steak after you fill the tank, and maybe pick up a fun apron for Grandma that says, “Kiss My Grits.” It became successful, expanded, left the gas stations behind, and eventually went public.
[…] The funny thing about Cracker Barrels is that they’re little capitalist temples to faux authenticity. This is not some grand institution with deep cultural roots in the South, or any place else. Cracker Barrels in New York sell Reuben sandwiches, and Cracker Barrels in Texas serve salsa.
You know why? To make money. And consumers in Texas apparently want salsa, and customers in New York want Reubens. Indeed, as it expanded outside of the South, the decorations changed to fit the locales, too. It has an industrial-scale décor warehouse to provide “local flavor” to each restaurant.
Now, Cracker Barrel is updating its décor and branding—slightly. The bulk of the update is a brighter, less cluttered interior design, but the “controversial” decision is to change its logo. The company removed the old white guy in overalls sitting by a barrel, and now just has a text-only sign that reads “Cracker Barrel.”
And people are losing their minds, claiming that it has gone “woke.” What seems to have sparked this brouhaha is a tweet saying that the store has “scrapped a beloved American aesthetic and replaced it with sterile, soulless branding.” […]
Now, it’s true that Cracker Barrel has done some LGBT marketing stuff, probably as a result of being criticized for alleged discriminatory policies in the 1990s. But maybe also because gay people—and people who aren’t particularly horrified by gay people—might like good, affordable breakfasts, too. They’ve also tried to cultivate Hispanic customers. I’m not sure this means they’ve been taken over by the Latinx reconquista. […]
Oh, one last thing about all of these lovers of American heritage and culture—since, uh, 1969—Cracker Barrel’s new logo is actually pretty similar to its original logo, which was text-only.” ~
~ “Cracker Barrel’s core customer base is what demographers and marketing gurus call “old.” Lots of chain restaurants change things up to deal with the fact that old people have a high propensity to die in the near future, while young people have more prospective CLV (customer lifetime value). This is why McDonald’s sells more salads and snack wraps these days.
Many businesses and products are incapable of updating to new market demands, so they die. You know why no one drinks Tang anymore? I mean, aside from it being meh. The Baby Boomers stopped drinking the NASA-inspired elixir, and younger generations never touched it. Jell-O will never recover its glory days, because tastes change and chunks of fruit in aspic-like globules are gross. Ovaltine went the way of the Dodo when the generation raised on it died out. Ditto the once wildly popular Postum, which I’d bet most readers of this “news”letter have never even heard of. (Editor’s Note: This 25-year-old editor had to Google it.) When was the last time you had a burger at Howard Johnson’s? I loved that place as a kid.
So Cracker Barrel is trying to fend off similar forces of economic entropy. Maybe it’s a bad idea. Maybe not. But heaven forbid anyone blame capitalism, not when the bogeyman of wokeness is available.” ~
Kizzie, I appreciate all that article says. I had never been to Cracker Barrel until I was with two different friends , from two different settings, one church and one work, who rarely cooked, and they knew where to get good food. I was amazed that such a place existed that had that gift shop that everyone was forced to walk through. What a great marketing scheme! I loved that I could get grilled trout and veggies or just a veggie plate. And I was super surprised to find out they were one of the few places open on Thanksgiving Day.
For all they had going, they changed the food quality. People stopped going there for that simple reason. My only point in bringing up the signs was to say that a cheap change of a sign, a one time cost per location, does not in anyway make the food worth buying. I don’t go to restarants for the taste of a sign. It can be as tasteless as can be as long as the food is top notch.
Janice – Sorry if it seemed that my sharing that was aimed at you. The controversy over the Cracker Barrel changes had been mentioned by others, too, and is being discussed on social media quite a bit, from what I understand. (As for me, I am only on here and Facebook.)
We have gone there for a couple of Easter dinners in years past. I don’t know if the one in our general area (about 40 minutes or so away) has gone down hill in quality. I hope not, although we’ve never gone too often. My issue is that it is quite loud in the restaurant, often making it hard to hear what is being said at my own table.
What you said about your own experience reminds me of a German restaurant Hubby and I had gone to a couple of times. It was more of a “fine dining” establishment than a “family restaurant.” After having not been there for a while, we invited my parents to come along with us, knowing that they would enjoy it as much as we did.
We were all so disappointed in how the portions had been cut back pretty drastically, and the quality was not as good as before. What a disappointment!
BTW, when Hubby and I had first gone there, I had admired their coffee cups (with saucers). Hubby asked if he could buy one (cup and saucer), and was allowed to. It is sitting on a bookshelf, and I use it occasionally. Looking over at it now, I see also that it is very near a close-up photo of Hubby and I taken on his 60th birthday. ❤
What a sweet remembrance, Kizzie. I am so glad you noticed that♡
We probably can do Thanksgiving with my brother here since Miss Bosley passed. It will feel like eating crow instead of turkey though. However, we all enjoyed going to the mountain last year so I may think of something along those lines again.
It has been a cool rainy autumnal day here!!! 62 degrees!!
First thing today I fired Lowes. They have no idea where my dishwasher is…probably still in Germany! They have cancelled delivery last minute 3 times! I told them cancel and refund me the 1400.00 dollars I paid them 3 weeks ago. They said it would take 7-10 days and my reply… oh heck no… I’ll be disputing the charges with my CC company before I get to my car!! When I got home the refund was on my CC activity! I purchased the same DW from a small business in the Springs. It will be here next week! No more Lowes for us! 🫤
Wandering Views 
Good morning. I pulled a plant close to house in case frost hit this morning. It is a bit warmer than that, however. I did have to chuckle when one woman complained about the cold, windy day and the next women I spoke with said she loves the cool down. How different we all can be!
LikeLiked by 3 people
It’s cooler here, too, with a break in humidity. Right now the temp is 68°. I am very happy to have cooler weather, but frost can wait!
I walked over to a new friend’s home yesterday. I was glad I felt up to it. My longest walk in a while.
LikeLiked by 3 people
Here’s another view on the Cracker Barrel “controversy” by Jonah Goldberg.
BTW, his quips about capitalism may seem anti-capitalist, but are meant ironically. His real point is that this is how capitalism actually works. That, I think, is more obvious in the rest of the piece, but I’m not sure if non-subscribers of The Dispatch can access it, so I have quoted more than I usually do.
(Sharing this here and on the politics thread because the subject came up on both threads.)
“The Cracker Barrel Crack-Up“
~ “I bring all of this up to provide some broader context to a particularly stupid controversy about Cracker Barrel. The company was launched in 1969 by a Shell Oil representative as a kitschy gas station eatery and Southern tchotchke joint. Fill up on some chicken-fried steak after you fill the tank, and maybe pick up a fun apron for Grandma that says, “Kiss My Grits.” It became successful, expanded, left the gas stations behind, and eventually went public.
[…] The funny thing about Cracker Barrels is that they’re little capitalist temples to faux authenticity. This is not some grand institution with deep cultural roots in the South, or any place else. Cracker Barrels in New York sell Reuben sandwiches, and Cracker Barrels in Texas serve salsa.
You know why? To make money. And consumers in Texas apparently want salsa, and customers in New York want Reubens. Indeed, as it expanded outside of the South, the decorations changed to fit the locales, too. It has an industrial-scale décor warehouse to provide “local flavor” to each restaurant.
Now, Cracker Barrel is updating its décor and branding—slightly. The bulk of the update is a brighter, less cluttered interior design, but the “controversial” decision is to change its logo. The company removed the old white guy in overalls sitting by a barrel, and now just has a text-only sign that reads “Cracker Barrel.”
And people are losing their minds, claiming that it has gone “woke.” What seems to have sparked this brouhaha is a tweet saying that the store has “scrapped a beloved American aesthetic and replaced it with sterile, soulless branding.” […]
Now, it’s true that Cracker Barrel has done some LGBT marketing stuff, probably as a result of being criticized for alleged discriminatory policies in the 1990s. But maybe also because gay people—and people who aren’t particularly horrified by gay people—might like good, affordable breakfasts, too. They’ve also tried to cultivate Hispanic customers. I’m not sure this means they’ve been taken over by the Latinx reconquista. […]
Oh, one last thing about all of these lovers of American heritage and culture—since, uh, 1969—Cracker Barrel’s new logo is actually pretty similar to its original logo, which was text-only.” ~
https://thedispatch.com/newsletter/gfile/cracker-barrel-capitalism/
LikeLiked by 1 person
And on demographics:
~ “Cracker Barrel’s core customer base is what demographers and marketing gurus call “old.” Lots of chain restaurants change things up to deal with the fact that old people have a high propensity to die in the near future, while young people have more prospective CLV (customer lifetime value). This is why McDonald’s sells more salads and snack wraps these days.
Many businesses and products are incapable of updating to new market demands, so they die. You know why no one drinks Tang anymore? I mean, aside from it being meh. The Baby Boomers stopped drinking the NASA-inspired elixir, and younger generations never touched it. Jell-O will never recover its glory days, because tastes change and chunks of fruit in aspic-like globules are gross. Ovaltine went the way of the Dodo when the generation raised on it died out. Ditto the once wildly popular Postum, which I’d bet most readers of this “news”letter have never even heard of. (Editor’s Note: This 25-year-old editor had to Google it.) When was the last time you had a burger at Howard Johnson’s? I loved that place as a kid.
So Cracker Barrel is trying to fend off similar forces of economic entropy. Maybe it’s a bad idea. Maybe not. But heaven forbid anyone blame capitalism, not when the bogeyman of wokeness is available.” ~
LikeLike
Kizzie, I appreciate all that article says. I had never been to Cracker Barrel until I was with two different friends , from two different settings, one church and one work, who rarely cooked, and they knew where to get good food. I was amazed that such a place existed that had that gift shop that everyone was forced to walk through. What a great marketing scheme! I loved that I could get grilled trout and veggies or just a veggie plate. And I was super surprised to find out they were one of the few places open on Thanksgiving Day.
For all they had going, they changed the food quality. People stopped going there for that simple reason. My only point in bringing up the signs was to say that a cheap change of a sign, a one time cost per location, does not in anyway make the food worth buying. I don’t go to restarants for the taste of a sign. It can be as tasteless as can be as long as the food is top notch.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Still, a boring logo is a boring logo. If all logos become boring because that is what people want, so be it. Yes, that is capitalism.
LikeLiked by 3 people
I have gotten a kick out of the music stars borrowing the old logo, however. 😀
LikeLiked by 2 people
Janice – Sorry if it seemed that my sharing that was aimed at you. The controversy over the Cracker Barrel changes had been mentioned by others, too, and is being discussed on social media quite a bit, from what I understand. (As for me, I am only on here and Facebook.)
We have gone there for a couple of Easter dinners in years past. I don’t know if the one in our general area (about 40 minutes or so away) has gone down hill in quality. I hope not, although we’ve never gone too often. My issue is that it is quite loud in the restaurant, often making it hard to hear what is being said at my own table.
What you said about your own experience reminds me of a German restaurant Hubby and I had gone to a couple of times. It was more of a “fine dining” establishment than a “family restaurant.” After having not been there for a while, we invited my parents to come along with us, knowing that they would enjoy it as much as we did.
We were all so disappointed in how the portions had been cut back pretty drastically, and the quality was not as good as before. What a disappointment!
BTW, when Hubby and I had first gone there, I had admired their coffee cups (with saucers). Hubby asked if he could buy one (cup and saucer), and was allowed to. It is sitting on a bookshelf, and I use it occasionally. Looking over at it now, I see also that it is very near a close-up photo of Hubby and I taken on his 60th birthday. ❤
LikeLiked by 2 people
What a sweet remembrance, Kizzie. I am so glad you noticed that♡
We probably can do Thanksgiving with my brother here since Miss Bosley passed. It will feel like eating crow instead of turkey though. However, we all enjoyed going to the mountain last year so I may think of something along those lines again.
LikeLiked by 1 person
went out early to do my mile walk and came home very sweaty. Hiding inside from all of the heat. Thinking it is time for a trip to the coast
Jo
LikeLiked by 2 people
It has been a cool rainy autumnal day here!!! 62 degrees!!
First thing today I fired Lowes. They have no idea where my dishwasher is…probably still in Germany! They have cancelled delivery last minute 3 times! I told them cancel and refund me the 1400.00 dollars I paid them 3 weeks ago. They said it would take 7-10 days and my reply… oh heck no… I’ll be disputing the charges with my CC company before I get to my car!! When I got home the refund was on my CC activity! I purchased the same DW from a small business in the Springs. It will be here next week! No more Lowes for us! 🫤
LikeLiked by 2 people