Cracker Barrel CEO Julie Felss Masino has explained why the Southern-themed restaurant chain tried and failed to redesign its signature logo.
In August, Cracker Barrel removed the image of a seated man in overalls leaning on a barrel from its logo, opting to simply display the words “Cracker Barrel” against the classic gold background.
The move sparked outrage among prominent figures in President Donald Trump’s “Make America Great Again” movement, and the company saw a massive drop in customers, with Cracker Barrel losing $94 million in one day as a result of the fallout.
Masino said Tuesday at an investment conference in New York City that the redesign had nothing to do with ideology, but rather with hungry travelers being able to read their logo.
She said the company was trying to make its logo easier to read on highway billboards.
“Part of this transformation is creating long-term success,” Masino said.
But Cracker Barrel got a rude awakening when the MAGA base railed against the company for the move, calling the redesign “woke” and “boring.”
Florida Congressman Byron Donalds, who once worked for Cracker Barrel, wrote on
Right-wing commentator Matt Walsh wrote: “Yes, let’s remove everything charming and distinctive from the logo and make it as generic and boring as possible.”
“WTF is wrong with Cracker Barrel??”, Donald Trump Jr., the president’s eldest son, wrote in response to a post from the Woke War Room account attacking Masino and her “DEI regime.”
Even the president himself agreed: proverb in a Truth Social post that Cracker Barrel “needs to go back to the old logo, admit a mistake based on customer response (the ultimate survey) and manage the business better than ever before.”
And Cracker Barrel listened. Just days after announcing the redesign, the company said it would return the old logo.
“We thank our guests for sharing your voice and love for Cracker Barrel. We said we would listen, and we did. Our new logo is going and our ‘Old Timer’ is here to stay,” says Cracker Barrel wrote at the time on X.
But Cracker Barrel’s shares are still down about 30 percent this year, putting its value at about $825 million, according to the Wall Street Journal.
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