Cracker Barrel wayside restaurants are fixtures along Eastern America’s Interstates. Some folks consider them a necessary indulgence when travelling. But the chain’s new CEO says sales have flatlined. And Cracker Barrel needs a major update…
When I started driving my birth Dad down to his Florida winter home, after he became single again, I quickly learned what legions of other Snow Birds and migratory Americans already took as gospel. That was, there’s a Cracker Old Country Store restaurant at every major interchange. And it had something on its menu for everybody.
Not only that, but they arranged for you to browse in a well-stocked gift shop while waiting for your table. It was hard to leave without a full stomach AND a souvenir…
‘Country’ tradition
The locations are all pretty much the same. You enter via the gift shop/ves-tibule. And it’s full of folksy stuff like hand-made soap and little jute bags of oatmeal with recipes tagged onto them. They stock the requisite collection of branded merchandise.
The menu is one many folks love, not because it’s always featuring nifty new dishes, but because it hardly ever changes.
Chicken and Dumplings is a signature favourite. Steak and Eggs is a headline All-Day Breakfast item. They have a Bacon N’ Egg Hashbrown Casserole – with 980 Calories, for $11.99 – that could choke a horse. And don’t forget the Chicken Fried Steak, Grilled Catfish, or the spicy Bee Sting Chicken Sandwich.
But, apparently, the formula that’s kept Cracker Barrel at the top of many folks’ after-church brunch lists is in need of a facelift.
The CEO speaks
Cracker Barrel appointed a new CEO last year, and she’s advocating wholesale changes in the resto’s menu and concept.
“We’re just not as relevant as we once were,” CEO Julie Felss Masino said during a recent conference call to discuss her plans. She came over from Taco Bell. And, if the changes that The Bell has seen over the past few years are any indication, there’s a significant shakeup in the wind for The Barrel.
Masino says the chain, “has lost some of its shine,” and needs a, “transformation,” that will appeal to its existing customer base and draw in new diners.
What they’re doing
“”[W]e are not leading in any area,” Masino said. “[T]he reality is we’ve lost some market share, especially at dinner.” Under her guidance, Cracker Barrel has revved up its test kitchen and is currently working on 20 new dishes.
Potential new signature menu items now being tested at 10 carefully selected Cracker barrel locations include: Green Chili Cornbread, Banana Pudding, Premium Savory Chicken and Rice, Slow-Braised Pot Roast, and Hashbrown Casserole Shepherd’s Pie.
A decor facelift
Most shocking among planned Cracker Barrel’s ‘identity’ changes will be a move to, “a different color palette, updating lighting, offering more comfortable seating and simplifying decor and fixtures.” Say goodbye to barn board and garden-lattice section dividers.
“The goal, simply put, was to freshen things in such a way as to be noticeable and attractive but still feel like Cracker Barrel,” Masino says. Customer feedback at test locations has been positive.
Like other resto chains, most notably Fast Food brands, Cracker Barrel has been quietly pruning out less-profitable restos fro among its 600+ locations, and will start opening new locations this fall which are about 15 percent smaller than the standard, existing restaurants. Minimizing real-estate and physical costs is a central tenet of virtually all ‘restaurant of the future’ business models we’ve seen to date.
My take
I guess Cracker Barrel had to do something radical, considering their flat revenues and the fact that the brand’s stock has dropped 40 percent in value since the begi9nning of this year.
I’m all in favour of the new, brighter look. But will that and a few new menu items be enough to turn the tide? It’s probably time fast casual and family restaurants took a closer look at some of the innovations Fast Food brands are already introducing – if they want to stay ‘relevant’…
~ Maggie J.