If It Ain't Broke, Don't Fix It

 I'm sure just about everyone else in this country has heard that slogan at least once in their life, right?  

Well, maybe everyone but Julie Felss Masino, that is.  She's the new CEO of Cracker Barrel Old Country Store, and she's made some changes to the chain that aren't going over well.  This is her:

I don't know about you, but I can take one look at her and tell that she's a screaming liberal.  The giveaway for me is the glasses - NO conservative that I know of would wear glasses like that.  Combine that with the changes she's made to a much-loved and revered brand, and it all becomes clear.  Her reasoning behind the changes is that the brand "isn't as relative as it used to be" and needs to be "revitalized."

Anyone who has been paying attention over the past 4 1/2 years or so knows what THAT bullshit means.  It means a liberal wants to change the way something has always been just because THEY don't like it, because it's not "modern enough."

What this woman fails to understand is that the draw of Cracker Barrel was just that - it wasn't modern.  When you walked into the country store lobby of a Cracker Barrel you took a step back in time to a place where the world was simpler, less complicated, and enjoyable.  Seniors would go there because it reminded them of their world when they were growing up, and younger people would go there because they just liked the decor and the feel of the place.

And the food.  The food was always top-notch, especially the biscuits and gravy.

But not anymore.  You won't find that item on the new menu.  Neither will you find the country store-like entrance, as that has been done away with as well, all in the name of "modernization."

We don't want "modern," Julie.  We want "old fashioned."  We want our biscuits and gravy.

The first thing she did was change the logo, the one that the company has been using for 48 years.  Here's the old and new logo side by side:

I don't know about you, but I think that the new logo has all of the charm and appeal of a dead fish.  There's no substance to it, no soul, no meaning.  It's just another corporate logo in a sea of corporate logos.  In other words, it's just another dead fish in a sea of dead fish.  But if you think that's bad, take a look at what she'd done to the inside.

Here's the old Cracker Barrel we all knew and loved:

And here's the new version:

Now I don't know about you, but that new version has all of the charm and family appeal as a McDonald's.  It's lost ALL of the country charm that made Cracker Barrel as popular as it was.

So now it looks like Cracker Barrel is going to go down the same path that Bud Lite took two years ago, and that's too bad.  I refuse to set foot in any of the "new" restaurants, no matter what.

This is a prime example of "if it ain't broke, don't fix it."  And if Cracker Barrel wasn't broke before, it sure as hell is now.

Deo Vindice

IHC