Sometimes a blog post starts with an idea. Other times, it starts with curiosity.
The other night, I found myself heading down a rabbit hole, all because of Cracker Barrel. I wanted to check a few things for the piece I’d been working on about their new direction. I’d heard rumblings about redesigns, about longtime customers being unhappy, and even a CEO quote that didn’t sit right with me. So I went digging.
First stop: stock prices. Were investors seeing something the rest of us didn’t? A quick check showed that the market hasn’t exactly been kind to the restaurant chain lately. That raised a flag — if customers aren’t happy and the stock price is slipping, how much of this “everybody loves it” narrative is spin?
Then I looked at the CEO’s statement itself. I wanted to know if she really said what was being passed around online. Sure enough, there it was: a confident claim that everyone loves the redesign. Reading it in context didn’t make it sound any less tone-deaf. It reminded me of other companies that made changes nobody asked for, and then doubled down when customers complained. (Southwest Airlines comes to mind: once known for free bags, cheap tickets, and open seating — now charging for things they used to hang their hat on.)
Along the way, I also came across another quote being shared online: that CEO Julie Masino supposedly said MAGA people wouldn’t be missed if they stopped eating at Cracker Barrel. That one didn’t sound real to me. So I chased it down, looking for a legitimate source. After a lot of searching, I confirmed what I suspected — it was fake news. Masino may sound out of touch when she insists everyone loves the redesign, but she hasn’t said any comments about MAGA. What seems to have happened is that critics of Cracker Barrel’s changes decided to make it political, when in reality it’s not about politics at all. It’s about bad business decisions.
By the time I closed my laptop, I realized I hadn’t just done a quick fact-check. I’d traced a bigger story — one of corporate spin, customer loyalty, and the danger of believing your own press releases.
In a way, this whole saga feels a lot like New Coke. Coca-Cola made a massive change that people didn’t want, and the backlash was swift. The difference is that Coke could — and did — roll back its mistake. Cracker Barrel doesn’t have that luxury. Once you’ve ripped out every fireplace and spent millions on a full redesign, you can’t just snap your fingers and bring the old atmosphere back. That’s why Masino’s words sound so tone-deaf: when you insist that “everybody loves it” while customers and investors are saying otherwise, you’re not just out of touch. You’re locked in.
Copyright © 2025 Doug DeBolt
