Cracker Barrel Quietly Made Yet Another Change – This One To Its Iconic Peg Game

Now they’ve gone too far.

Cracker Barrel has been facing quite a bit of backlash lately thanks to the modern rebrand currently being undertaken by the iconic restaurant chain.

Earlier this week, Cracker Barrel announced that they would be changing their logo for the first time in nearly 50 years, ditching the old man sitting next to a barrel and instead going with a more minimalist approach:

The move comes as part of a broader rebrand that’s turned the restaurants from the homey, country-inspired spaces that everybody’s familiar with to something that looks like it was designed by Chip and Joanna Gaines and would be found selling $23 burgers to hipsters in East Nashville.

And it hasn’t been going well for them. The backlash has been overwhelming on social media, and the company’s stock dropped 14% drop after the logo change was announced, amounting to $100 million in value. (It’s since recovered a bit but still has a 9.9% drop over the past five days).

While some have tried to turn it into a political issue or accuse Cracker Barrel of “going woke,” it seems like both sides of the aisle agree: They hate it.

Meanwhile, the company’s CEO, Julie Felss Masino, has thus far defended the rebrand, telling Good Morning America that the feedback has been overwhelmingly positive:

“People like what we’re doing. Cracker Barrel needs to feel like the Cracker Barrel for today and for tomorrow — the things that you love are still there. We need people to choose us, and we want people to choose us.”

And she also claimed that the backlash is coming from a “vocal minority” while most people support the changes…which seems like corporate speak because I’m not sure even she could believe that at this point.

This latest change, though, might be the straw that breaks the camel’s back.

Actually this change isn’t entirely new, but it’s seemingly flown under the radar until now. But a few months ago, Cracker Barrel quietly made a change to their iconic peg game that’s found on every table in the restaurant.

We’re all probably familiar with the triangular game made of a block of wood and some golf tees. You have to jump over every tee and try to clear the board, leaving only one tee. And the board contains a scoring chart showing your intelligence based on how many tees you manage to leave:

“Leave only one – You’re a genius
Leave two and you’re purty smart
Leave three and you’re just plain dumb
Leave four or mor’n you’re just plain eg-no-ra-moose”

Well, at least that’s what it used to say.

Apparently Cracker Barrel wanted to make a change to the game, and make it less insulting to players who can’t seem to clear the board, because the instructions now read:

“Leave only one – You’re a genius!
Leave two – Rocking the chair but not the game
Leave three or more – No reason to be embarrassed, try again!”

What a disgrace.  Changing the instructions to make them nicer because you didn’t want to call somebody “eg-no-ra-moose?” I don’t want the game to be nice to me, I want to be mocked when I fail.

This new Cracker Barrel is too soft. What are we doing here?The post Cracker Barrel Quietly Made Yet Another Change – This One To Its Iconic Peg Game first appeared on Whiskey Riff.