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<\/p>\nAfter suffering a week of online backlash to its new streamlined logo design \u2014 and a 9% drop in its stock price \u2014 the Cracker Barrel restaurant chain finally responded to critics Monday in a statement admitting it \u201ccould\u2019ve done a better job sharing who we are and who we\u2019ll always be.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIf the last few days have shown us anything, it\u2019s how deeply people care about Cracker Barrel,\u201d the company said. \u201cWe\u2019re truly grateful for your heartfelt voices.\u201d<\/p>\n
It was an optimistic take on what has been by any measure a fraught period for the Southern-flavored chain.<\/p>\n
The trouble started last week when CEO Julie Felss Masino and her team unveiled the new logo \u2014 a simple gold shield with the restaurant\u2019s name in a brown, modernized font \u2014 as part of a rebranding campaign that also saw them flying social-media influencers to Manhattan to visit a slick pop-up location and attend a country music concert.<\/p>\n
Feiss, a veteran of Starbucks and Taco Bell, was recruited to shake up the retro roadside stop, which had been receiving middling marks on food, value, experience and convenience \u2014 and attracting 16% less traffic last year than in 2019.<\/p>\n
But her latest move backfired spectacularly, sparking a culture war firestorm that saw some fans accusing Cracker Barrel of abandoning its Americana roots in favor of a sanitized \u2014 even \u201cwoke\u201d \u2014 new look.<\/p>\n
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Cracker Barrel’s new logo. (Courtesy of Cracker Barrel)<\/p>\n
Much of the meltdown focused on the features Feiss ditched when she decided to update the Tennessee chain\u2019s longstanding logo: \u200bits rustic illustration of an actual barrel and \u2014 even more galling, according to detractors \u2014 the seated man in overalls who had been casually draping his arm over said barrel ever since the design was first sketched by a Nashville artist in 1977.<\/p>\n
The sweeping, $700 million makeover also included a revamped menu and \u201cdecluttered\u201d dining rooms, with fewer knickknacks on the walls.<\/p>\n
Feiss \u201cscrapped a beloved American aesthetic and replaced it with sterile, soulless branding,\u201d snapped the Woke War Room on X. \u201cShe should resign and be replaced with leadership that will restore Cracker Barrel\u2019s tradition.\u201d<\/p>\n
The criticism quickly became political after Donald Trump Jr. shared the Woke War Room\u2019s message. Soon conservative activists were accusing Cracker Barrel board members of being DEI activists<\/a> and telling followers they must \u201cbreak the Barrel\u201d through boycotts<\/a>.<\/p>\n