Cracker Barrel executive insists restaurant remodels are 'what the guests asked for'

Fox News

16 hours ago

Nostalgia seems to have been replaced by modernism at Cracker Barrel Old Country Store restaurants.
That's according to vocal customers on social media – many of whom say it's a change nobody wanted in the first place.
But Cracker Barrel chief marketing officer Sarah Moore recently told Fox News Digital that the Tennessee-based restaurant chain's ongoing transformation incorporates not only customer feedback but also employee input.
"This is also centered on making our stores easier to operate," Moore said in May. (See the video at the top of this article.)
"We have 70,000 incredible team members," she said. "They're the ones [who] make the magic every single day – and creating an experience that makes it easier for them to navigate, for them to clean both front of house and back of house, is also part of this physical store expansion."
An eight-second video posted by @CoachDuggs earlier this month shows the interior of a remodeled Cracker Barrel.
The caption reads, "At a remodeled Cracker Barrel. I hate it."
The viral video has been viewed more than 6 million times since Aug. 2.
It led to a follow-up post directed at Cracker Barrel.
"The people have spoken. Stop it," @CoachDuggs wrote.
Duggs, a 37-year-old Florida resident who asked not to be identified by his real name, told Fox News Digital that he stumbled upon the remodeled Cracker Barrel during a trip to Tennessee.
"It didn't feel the same," he said.
Commenters on the post seemed to agree.
"Seriously, this is awful," a user named J.D. Griffin wrote, adding that his family has been Cracker Barrel supporters his whole life.
"But I won't eat at this version. It looks awful," the person added. "Everything good we loved about Cracker Barrel is gone in this version."
He concluded with a plea to Cracker Barrel.
"STOP! Give us the real Cracker Barrel back!"
Still, Moore told Fox News Digital that Cracker Barrel has been "listening to what the guests ask for – and examples of what the guests asked for are things like spaces that feel brighter, that feel less cluttered, more booth seating, more seating options, so our guests are more comfortable while they're dining with us."
"It really is about taking that feedback and testing into various levels of remodels that, again, represent exactly who we are but create a brighter, lighter, fresher experience," she said.
Moore noted that fan favorites like the rocking chairs, peg games and antiquities on the wall aren't going away.
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Neither are the retail stores.
"The things you love about us will stay," she said.
But Rachel Love, a Tennessee resident and self-proclaimed Cracker Barrel fan, told Fox News Digital in May that there were no antiques on the wall of a restaurant that she visited in her home state.
"The only antiques they [had] were on the fireplace mantle," she said.
"Everything we're doing is deeply rooted in who we are."
Duggs shared a similar experience.
"I would not refer to them as antiques," he said.
Rather, he thought what was on the walls "looks like something someone would have made if you had described the antique, but it wasn't actually the antique."
Love also said the exterior of the restaurant looked different, with white walls and a giant mural on the side of the building.
The startling makeover prompted her to post a TikTok video that she captioned, "When Cracker Barrel took away the last piece of nostalgia you had left."
It led to thousands of comments from other Cracker Barrel lovers, who mostly voiced their preference for the original look.
"Everything we're doing is deeply rooted in who we are," Moore said.
"It's just, how do we carry forward those things that have made us so beloved for the last 55 years? How do we set up for the next 55 years?"
Fox News Digital reached out to Cracker Barrel for additional comment.