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- [00:00]
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Foreign hello and welcome to this episode of Kennedy Saves the World. I have loved Cracker Barrel forever. I have been an outspoken Stan. A Cracker Barrel Stan, if you will, because I do stock them. And I am a massive fan. And I think this whole just own goal, unforced error was so obvious to anyone from the outside who knew anything about Cracker Barrel and how it feels and what people love about it. And the. The CEO, it's like, well, we needed a refresh. It's just a little bit. And it's like, how did you become CEO of Cracker Barrel? Like, this is the kind of place that you obviously hate. You know, she's the kind of woman's like, you know, I think NASCAR needs to be electric. I think we need to have a Metro vehicles. I think that would be a much better idea. It's just so much better for the earth. She gives people with big glasses a bad name. She was like Claudine Gay, who was the former president of Harvard. Remember when she was sitting for congressional testimony and she was wearing like the giant Urkel glasses? And I'm like, you know, you cannot steal my brand. I have been wearing big, annoying glasses since the early 90s, and I have not slowed down. I have loved Cracker Barrel even longer. But this. This whole thing, because at first, like everyone else, I was like, man, you know, these are people who just want to soften the edges and whitewash the rusticness out of a Cracker Barrel, which is really why people go there. They go there for the peg game and for their favorite delights. Because every. It's like McDonald's. And I. I know people who claim to be healthy say that they. They don't have a Cracker Barrel order or they don't have a McDonald's order. The McDonald's people are lying. Everyone has a McDonald's order because everyone has been driving late at night and the only option for food is McDonald's. So everyone, I don't care who you are. I don't care if it's something you door dash when you're drunk or you get when you're desperate. Everyone has a McDonald's order. And if you don' have a Cracker Barrel order, I don't want to be friends with you. Seriously, like, if you look down your nose at Cracker Barrel and you think you are better than that store and that brand, you don't deserve a place in my life or a part in this conversation. But I feel like the CEO is the same way. And this is. This is the kind of company that was like, God, you know, maybe we should just get a woman CEO for the sake of having a woman and not like, let's put all the candidates in front of us and pick the very best one. Because there's no way that this broad was the, the very best of the people they had to choose from because the, the corporate language that she spews and the contempt that she has for Cracker Barrel. So just looking at this like everyone else, I thought, oh, they just completely screwed up. They just did something that they live in their little politically correct bubble that's very insular. And, and they don't get a lot of outside guidance. They don't spend time in the middle of the country. These are not Midwesterners. And she spends a little too much time at the high end optometrist, which I'm not judging, but I'm resentful of because she is misrepresenting well intentioned four eye people everywhere, but also too much time at the cosmetic dermatologist. And that's very obvious. And she is filled with, her face was so much stuff. It has clouded her judgment and that is very clear. But she's looking at the brand. She's like, no, no, it's kind of kitschy and gross. It's like, then you should not be in charge of a company that you don't understand that you have a natural contempt for. But then the backlash was so swift and the stock tanked so precipitously and even the president has weighed in and said Cracker Barrel should just go back to doing what they were doing and you know, take the, the billion dollars in free advertising, revert to where they were and make good on the goodwill of their customers that they have stabbed in the back. Don't go anywhere more Kennedy Saves the World right after this.
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Listen to the all new Bret Baier podcast featuring Common Ground in depth talks with lawmakers from opposite sides of the aisle, along with all your Bret Baier favorites like his all star panel and much more available now at Fox News Podcasts and, or wherever you get your podcasts.
- [04:47]
A
When I saw that, I was like, maybe they did this intentionally. Like maybe they they surveyed the environment from Pepsi to Starbucks and Nike, American Eagle and of course Bud Light. And they looked at all of it and they, they looked at the backlash, they looked at the potential upside in, you know, the, the stock shifting either way based on customer and consumer reaction. And maybe they went, okay, listen, we're gonna take a short term hit, but all we're Doing is ginning up interest in our restaurants. And when we go back to doing exactly what we were doing before, the stock is going to shoot way, way up. There is now so much brand awareness. It's not the good kind that American Eagle had because they obviously ended up where a company wants to be in this, you know, wild news cycle. Obsessive flux. Cracker Barrel is on the opposite end of that pendulum swing. And if, if they want to go back the other way, if, if they saw this coming, it is an absolute stroke of genius. So if someone anticipated that we're going to take a hit, but let's just do exactly what we were doing before, and then, you know, just scrap the rebrand and it'll be great. And then people will go there forever because they love us and they're loyal and protective and they put out this sorry ass statement. It was one of those things where, you know, someone doesn't really say sorry. They go, I'm sorry, you're mad. Not, I'm sorry for what I've done. I'm sorry for calling you a flunky rube. Which is essentially what Cracker Barrel did. Because we, with the reorganization and the whitewashing and the tidying up and the softening of the edges, they don't understand what the point of Cracker Barrel was in the first place or why people went there, what their motivation was, what they were reconnecting with. And in not understanding that, one of the biggest complaints has been the quality of the food has gone down. And, you know, it's not what they remember from 10, 15, 20 years ago. I do love Cracker Barrel servers, but they have to have multiple stars on their aprons. They have to be Mildred or Marge and have at least four stars on their aprons in order for me to feel good about visiting a Cracker Barrel, which I do like. It's one of those things where I see a Cracker Barrel, I start to get, like, kind of itchy because they just. I want to go, I want green beans so bad. I just love them so much. And I want that ham. I want that Hoosier ham. I'm composed. Maybe I should be CEO because I have a much better understanding of who goes to Cracker Barrel and why. And we would go visit my grandmother in Brownstown, Indiana, every single summer, and we would always go to cracker barrel, 10 miles away in Seymour. And we looked forward to it, and it was delicious. And then all the Cracker Barrels, when we would go back home to Oregon, they all closed because of violence. So maybe that's your problem. Maybe you're putting them in the wrong places. You maybe Cracker Barrels should spring up where there are food deserts and food insecurity so people can go and get delicious home cooked peasant food that makes their hearts happy and clogs them at the same time. Having said that, let's not judge. But if this was their intention all along, and now you can go back to Cracker Barrel and have it be exactly what it was before, with better food and better service, then the chain will enter into legendary status. But if they're not smart, and if this was a dumb rebrand where they're making it look like every other corporate chain that you could find anywhere in America, in any mall, then they will absolutely fail. Because brand loyalty is so hard to cultivate when you have a fragmented society and when you have hyper focus in different areas and when that focus is trained against you and you don't anticipate it like you didn't see this coming, and you also don't respond appropriately, which so far they have not, then you are destined to fail. And your CEO was just a DEI hire. And if that's what your company is based on and your entire customer base is resentful of the DEI faction of society and the way it is hollowed out enjoyable things and jokes and movies and TV shows, then they don't want any part of it. And we are not in the era where you can project DEI onto people like their stupid imprintable pieces of Silly Putty. They're not having it anymore. They. They want the world as they see it. They want the world to be wholesome and fun, a little bit edgy, a little bit dirty. So leave Cracker Barrel the way it was. And if you can do that and you, if you have my three point plan, revert to Uncle Herschel on the logo, have better quality food and really focus money on training the people who work there and elevating their game to its absolute highest capability, then you have a recipe for success. But the way you're going now, with the CEO out there sticking her dumb foot in her mouth constantly, you are destined to fail because of your own forced stupid mistakes. Would I go to a Cracker Barrel now? Yes, I absolutely would. Out of genuine curiosity. Because you know, if she's saying 87% of respondents say the changes are amazing, I. I would like to go see it for myself. So far, the public version of this is far from amazing. It is abhorrent. But you are not. You're delightful And I would buy you Cracker Barrel. And I would let you buy me all the green beans I can eat. This has been Kennedy Saves the World. I'm Kennedy. Listen ad free With a Fox News podcast plus subscription on Apple Podcast and Amazon prime, members can listen to this show and ad free on the Amazon Music app. Oh, go ahead and leave me a review while you're there. I'd love to hear what you have to say. You've been listening to Kennedy Saves the World on the Fox News Podcast Network.
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This is Jimmy Phela inviting you to join me for Fox Across America, where we'll discuss every single one of the Democrats dumb ideas. Just kidding. It's only a three hour show. Listen live at noon Eastern or get the podcast@foxacrossamerica.com.