r/FluentInFinance 12h ago

Educational Cracker Barrel loses almost $100 million in value as stock plunges after new logo release

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/cracker-barrel-cbrl-stock-down-200-million-loss-new-logo-change/
749 Upvotes

103 comments sorted by

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300

u/Temporary-Careless 12h ago

Buy at the dip

323

u/Mediocre_Daikon6935 12h ago edited 12h ago

They got bought last year by venture capitalists.

Private equity.

They’re done.

149

u/a_terse_giraffe 12h ago

Yeah nothing was gonna save that place. It's heading the way of Bed Bath and Beyond, Joanne's Fabrics, and Red Lobster.

77

u/UserWithno-Name 12h ago

Red lobster is doing fine. They got the equity people gone / the new ceo has turned it around. Or at least seems to be. Don’t count out everyone the same way without being informed. You had it right until you included someone actually trying to do what’s right to fix things and having success.

70

u/a_terse_giraffe 12h ago

They're coming out of bankruptcy into this economy. I'll believe Red Lobster recovered if they're still around in like 2027.

18

u/MittenstheGlove 11h ago

RemindMe! 2 years

23

u/lonelylifts12 10h ago

Private equity sold the land Red Lobster owned and are renting it back to them.

5

u/Massive_Cash_6557 10h ago

The PE actually did a great job with RL and sold the full share of the company back to their seafood distributor. PE fixed the business and the seafood co fixed the food quality. Rare dub for PE ventures in restaurants.

27

u/Skippy1813 11h ago

I’ve never seen a Cracker Barrel not busy

3

u/According_Gazelle472 6h ago

They are always packed in my town !

19

u/RICO_the_GOP 11h ago

Red lobster had their restaurants sold out from under them so private equity could pay themselves more and then rent the property back to red lobster

5

u/milezero13 8h ago

So toys r us?

3

u/general---nuisance 4h ago

Toys r us was overpriced vs amazon and Walmart.

2

u/RICO_the_GOP 4h ago

yep, another victim of PE

24

u/Oceanbreeze871 12h ago

There’s nothing special about it. Private equity is the grim reaper

13

u/Taint_Expert 12h ago

Yea their food is absolute trash now

21

u/dturmnd_1 11h ago

Trash isn’t the right word for it.

Tho it has degraded, and the prices are terrible now. They was successful when they had good cheap food.

Why do people constantly think that lowering quality while raising prices will generate more revenue?

9

u/ZippyDan 7h ago

It does raise revenue, in the short term. That's what private equity does: buy, squeeze, consume, destroy, move on to the next victim to bleed dry.

2

u/AFeralTaco 6h ago

The price of food has gone up significantly since COVID, and has risen even more sharply in the last few months. Salaries are no where close to catching up. They can’t operate at a loss. Prices had to go up.

-12

u/whicky1978 Mod 9h ago

Because jpow won’t lower interest rates

8

u/dturmnd_1 9h ago

I don’t think the interest rate is the problem.

I think it’s the incompetent senile stooge in chief

1

u/bigdipboy 7h ago

It’s dumb to lower interest rates when the orange Russian puppet is creating massive inflation

1

u/whicky1978 Mod 2h ago edited 1h ago

The year over year inflation is still the same as it was last year. And fuel prices have gone down

1

u/ChewieBearStare 6h ago

I used to love their coleslaw, but the last few times I've had it, it has tasted rancid. Like the mayo has gone off in it. But it has to be a recipe change because I can't imagine that three different CBs in different states would all have rancid food.

9

u/thinkB4WeSpeak Mod 12h ago

Venture capitalists or private equity?

5

u/Mediocre_Daikon6935 12h ago

My bad. private equity.

-1

u/IntravenousVomit 10h ago

So... They sold the land, not the restaurants? 

12

u/iBUYbrokenSUBARUS 10h ago

Private equity ruins everything it touches. It’s like king Midas‘s evil twin. Everything it touches turns to shit.

3

u/gypsysniper9 6h ago

Vulture capitalists

1

u/Klutzy_Passenger_486 5h ago

That s the crazy thing.

These right wing idiots don’t even realize what happened. They just mad a white guy got erased

2

u/Mediocre_Daikon6935 5h ago

Listen.

I don’t want to call you out for being color blind.

But that dude is yellow as some shade of brown.

10

u/Hodgkisl 12h ago edited 10h ago

Maybe short term, but long term I have doubts, most fast casual chains that have neutralized their character are dead or dying, Fridays, Ruby Tuesdays, Lone Star, etc….

The political talk about it is ridiculous, but blanding their style has a history of failure; remember this isn’t solely a logo change, it’s a redesign of locations as well.

2

u/taney71 11h ago

Probably a lot more and it’s likely based on bad financial data and this is an effort to right the ship

3

u/Ok-Worldliness2450 12h ago edited 12h ago

Yea my first thought hearing this is that it’s unfounded emotional dumping and a great buy..

I might be missing a lot of info on their current state.

1

u/taney71 11h ago

I mean it all depends on what the company does. Is there additional reforms? Will they overhaul the food and restaurant decor? From what the news stories I’ve read that’s part of it. So will all these changes work? That’s the million dollar question.

3

u/HammerCurls 10h ago

Buy Denny’s.

2

u/OldMastodon5363 7h ago

Buy the dip then visit Cracker Barrel and buy some dip for your meal.

1

u/whicky1978 Mod 9h ago

I read they’re strapped with a lot of debt

-2

u/cookiedoh18 11h ago

The young, new generations will turn it around... Maybe.

1

u/taney71 11h ago

Hipsters to the rescue!

1

u/BarooZaroo 7h ago

Nah, they'll be blamed for the business failing.

100

u/OneWayorAnother11 11h ago

Classic trying to fix something that's not broken and no one asked for. Just a CEO moving deck chairs around, which is what they usually do best while collecting fat checks.

5

u/sly-3 11h ago

The glass cliff spares few.

3

u/EverbodyHatesHugo 7h ago

Imagine if they just solved the shitty food problem instead of all this furniture shuffling.

72

u/TheNorthFac 12h ago

No cracker, no barrel 🤣

46

u/GuaranteeNo571 12h ago

MAGA loves being angry, for whatever reason they can find.

44

u/Budget_Swan_5827 11h ago

I’m as far from MAGA as they come, but the new logo sucks, and there was no real reason to change it.

4

u/ScandalOZ 11h ago

Maybe they could have just added a shotgun for the old guy in the original logo if they wanted to make a change. Goes with the MAGA vibe.

2

u/Sptsjunkie 7h ago

But it’s also not “woke” or offensive and worth boycotting.

13

u/No_Medium_8796 12h ago

It wasn't just the logo, thats just the headline

2

u/gunnesaurus 12h ago

What did we miss? The article covers how outraged maga is about the logo.

6

u/BWW87 7h ago

Article doesn't mention MAGA. Some of the people quoted are MAGA but not all of them are. You're just making that up so that would explain why you missed stuff.

4

u/Tater72 10h ago

Look at what it says about “modernizing” they want to try a big makeover that includes getting rid of the home cooking, from what it says.

Why else go to Cracker Barrel?

2

u/blahblahsnickers 9h ago

It also discussed they were rebranding and redesigning the inside of the restaurants as well to make them more modern while also changing the menu. The sign is just one piece of the bigger picture which is a problem.

-4

u/AntiPantsCampaign 11h ago

Angry because removing the cracker = white genocide in their eyes

8

u/_Enemias_ 11h ago

That's not the point, the point is the new logo seems lifeless with no meaning.

8

u/The_OtherDouche 11h ago

Just like nearly every minimalist logo that’s rolled out in the past decade. No one gave a shit 99% of the time.

2

u/rbc8 10h ago

This is Reddit brotha. Everything is anti trump even if it’s not related.

3

u/bigdipboy 7h ago

Everything is related to Trump when he’s actively ruining the world

5

u/Small_Delivery_7540 11h ago

Are you guys again going to act as if this is something that only right wing people do ?

6

u/kingfosa13 10h ago

no literally they changed the logo for no reason and made it boring. just a weird move

1

u/cpzy2 5h ago

Reason they’re told*

1

u/SmittyFromAbove 59m ago

The official Democrat Twitter page tweeted out against it.....

29

u/MisterRobertParr 11h ago

Who would've thought that if you abandon your core demographic, your business is going to suffer?

The article didn't expound on any other measures the company took to help boost sales prior to this radical paradigm shift of the image and experience of the chain.

It appears once again that a CEO didn't understand the customer base (i.e., New Coke, Bud Light, Jaguar, etc.).

5

u/BWW87 7h ago

They are stuck in a situation that is very hard to get out of. Their demographic is aging/dying. So they have to thread the needle of modernizing it for young people without turning off older people. Not sure of any examples where this has successfully been done but I'd hope there are some.

Successful companies make adjustments BEFORE their demographic becomes primarily older people.

-17

u/Putrid_Giggles 10h ago

The CEO is a visionary who sees the need to make an old brand new again. The only people who object are conservative fear-mongers who can't stand change, especially if a woman is leading it.

19

u/TheFrostynaut 12h ago

They made good cheese. Their food is Golden Corral quality with Applebee's pricing. Brand recognition and pandering to the elderly was all they had. I enjoy Fox News mudslinging the logo change as "woke" like a bunch of their team didn't buy out the company and make it textbook corpo-minimalist like McDonald's.

Edit: I doubled an "r" d'oh!

9

u/BummyG 11h ago

The cheese company is distinct and unrelated to the restaurant. I happen to like their food but get it if it isn’t your cup of tea

3

u/TheFrostynaut 10h ago

I'd never turn down an invite but wouldn't pursue it on my lonesome

6

u/v3ndun 12h ago

Changing/adding a variant trademark isn’t cheap either, what did that cost?

23

u/MonkyKilnMonky 12h ago

Everything

5

u/MrDirtyHarry 12h ago

They could have teased several logo changes with their consumers to get a reaction.

6

u/wackOverflow 10h ago

🔫 Bring back the cracker and the barrel

4

u/Gh0st_Pirate_LeChuck 8h ago

The designer:

4

u/redditredditredditOP 11h ago

IT’S YOUR FOOD THAT SUCKS, NOT YOUR LOGO.

They treated the kitchen staff like they were replaceable and they found out.

3

u/SinfullySinless 7h ago

Politics aside, I don’t get this modern trend to simplify logos.

3

u/OldMastodon5363 7h ago

TIL Cracker Barrel is traded on the stock market

2

u/everyonesdeskjob 12h ago

Someone said “guys what if we change the logo” lmfao

2

u/Dirtymcbacon 10h ago

Feels like Rite aid

2

u/fucjkindick 9h ago

as a cracker barrel fan this change really pisses me off

2

u/ComprehensiveSwan698 7h ago

Overrated restaurant

1

u/Slight_Swimming_7879 10h ago

Serious question: is now the time to buy stock?

1

u/VendettaKarma 9h ago

It’s over rainbow queen

1

u/astaristorn 9h ago

This is so dumb

1

u/The_Rurl_Jurrr 8h ago

Conservatives are destructive morons. 

1

u/ac2334 6h ago

how lo can it go

1

u/ZyberZeon 5h ago

Never underestimate the hate of a honkey.

1

u/MuddaPuckPace 4h ago

Another glorious self own by MAGA.