Cracker Barrel
Cracker Barrel Old Country Store, Inc., trading as Cracker Barrel, is an American chain of restaurant and gift stores with a Southern country theme. The company's headquarters are in Lebanon, Tennessee, where Cracker Barrel was founded by Dan Evins in 1969. The chain's early locations were positioned near Interstate Highway exits in the Southeastern and Midwestern United States, but expanded across the country during the 1990s and 2000s. As of August 10, 2023, the company operates 660 stores in 45 states.
This article is about the restaurant chain. For the cheese brand, see Lactalis. For the cheese brand in Australia, see Warrnambool Cheese and Butter.Cracker Barrel
US22410J1060
September 19, 1969
660 (2023)[1]
United States
Southern Cuisine
(breakfast foods • seafood • chicken platters • Dumplings • Steaks • Kids Menu • Pork Dishes • Salads • Sandwiches • Beef Platters • Desserts) [4]
US$153 million (FY 2022)
US$131.88 million (FY 2022)
US$2.295 billion (FY 2022)
US$2.295 billion (FY 2022)
73,000 (2022)
Logan's Roadhouse (1999–2006)
Rocking Chair, Inc. (2002–present)[6]
Maple Street Biscuit Company (2019–present)
Cracker Barrel's menu is based on traditional Southern cuisine, with appearance and decor designed to resemble an old-fashioned general store. Each location features a front porch lined with wooden rocking chairs, a stone fireplace, and decorative artifacts from the local area. Cracker Barrel partners with country music performers. It engages in charitable activities, such as its assistance to victims of Hurricane Katrina and injured war veterans.
The company was criticized for anti-LGBT policies in the 1990s, which it reversed in response to backlash from the public and shareholders. In the early 2000s, Cracker Barrel was the subject of several civil rights lawsuits and a U.S. Justice Department investigation, all of which were settled. Cracker Barrel licensed products are sold in grocery stores under the name "CB Old Country Store" following a 2013 trademark-infringement lawsuit brought by Kraft Foods, which sells cheese under the brand name Cracker Barrel.
History[edit]
Founding–1979[edit]
Cracker Barrel was founded in 1969 by Dan Evins, a representative for Shell Oil, who developed the restaurant and gift store concept initially as a plan to improve gasoline sales.[7] Designed to resemble the traditional country store that he remembered from his childhood, with a name chosen to give it a Southern country theme,[8] Cracker Barrel was intended to attract the interest of highway travelers.[7] The name comes from the barrels of soda crackers that could be found for sale in small-town stores across the American South in the early 1900s; people would stand around the barrels chatting and catching up, similar in purpose to contemporary office water coolers.[9]
The first restaurant was built close to Interstate 40, in Lebanon, Tennessee.[10] It opened on September 19, 1969,[11] serving Southern cuisine including biscuits, grits, country ham, and turnip greens.[10]
Evins incorporated Cracker Barrel in February 1970,[7] and soon opened more locations. In the early 1970s, the firm leased land on gasoline station sites near interstate highways to build restaurants.[8] These early locations all featured gas pumps on-site; during gasoline shortages in the mid to late 1970s, the firm began to build restaurants without pumps.[7]
Corporate affairs[edit]
Leadership[edit]
Company founder Dan Evins led the company until 2001, when he was succeeded by Michael Woodhouse.[55] In September 2011, Sandra B. Cochran became the company's CEO and president. Cochran was the second woman in Tennessee to hold that office in a publicly traded company.[56][57] She held the position until August 2023, when Julie Felss Masino was named as Cochran's successor.[58][59]
Investment and business model[edit]
Cracker Barrel restaurants are aimed at the family and casual dining market as well as retail sales.[12] The chain also advertises to people traveling on the interstate highways, as the majority of its locations are close to highway exits.[14] The company has promoted its cost controls to investors.[60][61] The company has stated its goals are to keep employee turnover low and to provide better trained staff.[61] Since the 1980s, the firm has offered a formal training program with benefits for progressing through it to all of its employees.[7][62]
Partnerships and sponsorships[edit]
Cracker Barrel sponsored the NASCAR Atlanta 500 race at Atlanta Motor Speedway from 1999 to 2001[63] and the Grand Ole Opry from 2004 to 2009. The company was the first presenting sponsor of the Grand Ole Opry.[64] This sponsorship allowed the company to make connections within the Nashville music industry, following which it entered into partnership with a number of country music performers.[65]
Cracker Barrel has frequently collaborated with country musician Dolly Parton. The company first worked with Parton in 2009 on the collector's edition of her album Backwoods Barbie. Since then, the company has released collector's editions of other Parton albums. It also brought together Parton and the a cappella group Pentatonix to create a remix of Parton's song Jolene, which won a grammy award for best country duo/group performance in 2017.[66] Parton also performed as part of Cracker Barrel's appearance in the 2020 Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.[67]
In 2009, the company worked with country musician Alan Jackson to release an album, called Songs of Love and Heartache, along with a collectible collection.[68] In 2019, the company launched its 'Five Decades, One Voice' campaign, which highlighted female country music singers such as Loretta Lynn, Trisha Yearwood, and Brandi Carlile after a study found female country artists receive less radio time than male artists. The initiative included producing covers of classic country songs and creating all-female playlists for the company's restaurants.[69][70]
In 2011, The Oak Ridge Boys recorded a 30th anniversary edition of their album "It's Only Natural" for the company.[71] In 2020, Cracker Barrel brought together Ingrid Andress, Kimberly Schlapman, and Karen Fairchild to collaborate on a version of Andress' song "More Hearts Than Mine."[72] Cracker Barrel is on the Corporate Advisory Board for the Texas Conference of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP),[73] and is a corporate sponsor of the NAACP Leadership 500 Summit.[74]
Litigation[edit]
Civil rights cases[edit]
In 1999 and 2001, federal lawsuits were filed against Cracker Barrel in Georgia. The former was brought by a group of employees who claimed the company had discriminated against them on the grounds of race, and the latter by customers making the same accusations.[100] Both lawsuits were supported by the NAACP. Regarding both accusations, Cracker Barrel officials disputed the claims and stated that the company was committed to fair treatment of its employees and customers.[100][101] In October 2002, a federal appeals court in Atlanta ruled that the NAACP and an additional 40 plaintiffs could not join the lawsuit brought by customers in 2001, and in January 2003 a federal magistrate recommended that the lawsuit brought by employees not be given class-action status.[102] Both lawsuits were settled by the company in September, 2004.[103]
The U.S. Justice Department filed a suit against Cracker Barrel in May 2004, after its own investigation had found evidence that the company allegedly violated Title II of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 by discriminating against minority customers at its restaurants. The company settled the lawsuit by signing a five-year agreement to introduce "effective nondiscrimination policies and procedures",[104] and hiring an outside auditor to ensure compliance with the terms of the settlement.[105]
Kraft Foods vs. Cracker Barrel[edit]
In November 2012, Cracker Barrel licensed its name to Smithfield Foods' John Morrell Division to sell a line of meat products through retail channels. In response, Kraft Foods, which has sold a line of cheese under the Cracker Barrel brand since 1954, filed a trademark-infringement lawsuit in February 2013. Kraft asked that the Smithfield Foods deal be nullified by the U.S. District Court in the Northern District of Illinois. A judge granted an injunction against the sale of the Cracker Barrel branded meat products. The injunction was upheld by the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals and Cracker Barrel agreed to sell its products under the brand name "CB Old Country Store".[106][107][108]
