Cracker Barrel Gets Rid Of Its New Logo After Fierce Customer Backlash

Late August, in the food news biz, is usually all about Labor Day barbecue recipes, back-to-school lunch ideas, and speculating on when Starbucks will drop the PSL. This year, however, we've had something even more fun to focus on — the scandal I'm calling Cracker Barrelgate. It all started when the company changed its logo, which is something businesses do all the time. The logo change went along with plans to revamp the restaurant interiors to take on a more contemporary look. Seemingly out of the blue, however, customer complaints sparked a huge controversy. While some found the new logo bland and corporate, others, especially conservatives, seemed to interpret it as the company trying to distance itself from a "country" image. The backlash first led corporate officials to defend the new changes, but ultimately, the company wound up reversing them.

Yes, you heard right — Cracker Barrel is caving in to the pressure. As it announced on X, "Our new logo is going away and our 'Old Timer' will remain." There's been no word on any of the other design changes, however. To date, several restaurants have already been given makeovers to include features such as bookcases and more modern lighting. Whether any further remodeling efforts will go forward remains to be seen, but we're betting Cracker Barrel won't dare mess with any of the more nostalgically "country" elements such as rocking chairs, pegboard games, and mounted deer heads.

Cracker Barrel credits the will of the people with being the reason it walked back its logo change, but some voices may have sounded louder than others. Specifically, the president's, since Donald Trump spoke out against the switch on Truth Social: "Cracker Barrel should go back to the old logo, admit a mistake based on customer response (the ultimate Poll), and manage the company better than ever before." Once news of the reversal came out, he again took to Truth Social to congratulate and offer some business advice: "Make lots of money and, most importantly, make your customers happy again!"

Well, the former Big Boss of "The Apprentice" may have hit the nail on the head with the first part of that sentence. Cracker Barrel's decision was most likely prompted not by politics or concern for public opinion, but by the bottom line. Within less than a week of the new logo dropping, the company's stock had lost over $143 million in market value. Whether or not the company realizes the "Billion Dollars worth of free publicity" promised by the POTUS if Cracker Barrel execs "play their cards right," the latest announcement may at least manage to stop the bleeding.