Alex Bitter/BI
Cracker Barrel cooked up a new logo as part of its turnaround plan. Some diners say it’s not what they ordered.
The restaurant chain launched the new logo on Tuesday as part of a fall marketing campaign. The logo includes the Cracker Barrel name in brown letters against a yellow background.
Gone is the man wearing overalls and resting his arm on one of the chain’s namesake barrels — an image the company said was designed to create a “feeling of nostalgia”
Cracker Barrel
The new emblem is the fifth version of Cracker Barrel’s logo, the chain said. While simpler, the yellow background is shaped like a barrel, which makes it “now rooted even more closely to the iconic barrel shape and word mark that started it all,” the company said.
Shares of Cracker Barrel were trading down 12% on Thursday afternoon.
The logo is the latest part of the Southern food chain to get a makeover. Cracker Barrel has renovated some restaurants to include a streamlined selection of antiques on display and brighter paint jobs.
Cracker Barrel’s menu has also changed, with the chain bringing back some items it served years ago and trying out new dishes.
The goal of the changes is to get more customers coming into Cracker Barrel’s restaurants, executives have said. Last year, CEO Julie Masino said on an earnings call that Cracker Barrel was “not as relevant as we once were.”
Some people on social media have reacted to the changes, including the new logo.
I don’t think crackerbarrel’s new logo is winning any awards. #branding #logodesign#greenscreen
In a TikTok post, one user said the old logo was more recognizable since Cracker Barrel had used it for decades. Until Tuesday, Cracker Barrel had used that logo since 1977.
The new logo is also too simple, the poster said. “I’m all for minimalism, but this is too much,” the person speaking on the video says. “We went too far.”
The new logo also drew ire from the president’s son, Donald Trump Jr. “WTF is wrong with Cracker Barrel?” Trump posted on Wednesday on X.
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