You might think your job is stressful, but there’s no chance it’s tougher than being the PR person for my 16-year-old self’s former employer right now.

The Old Country Store that tried to reinvent itself and accidentally lit $94 million in market value on fire is back with a new corporate brainwave: employees on business trips should eat at Cracker Barrel… mostly Cracker Barrel… and preferably nothing but Cracker Barrel.

According to an internal memo scooped up by the Wall Street Journal (who’s doing the Lord’s work, at least on this occasion), employees are “expected to dine at a Cracker Barrel store for all or the majority of meals while traveling, whenever practical based on location and schedule.”

Translation: If there’s a Cracker Barrel within eyesight of the interstate exit, better get used to grits and gravy… because that’s lunch, dinner, and probably breakfast tomorrow.

Wanna take a sip of alcohol? That’s a no unless you want to pay out of pocket or submit a permission slip to senior leadership like you’re asking your parents if you can stay out past 10.

(Source: The Sun)

This is what happens when a rebrand burns 57 years of goodwill in the blink of an eye… eventually the cost-cutting shows up in places like employee meal policies.

After unveiling a minimalist logo that erased Uncle Herschel (the barrel-leaning mascot who looked like he smelled faintly of coffee and wisdom) the company watched its stock get nuked in a single day. MAGA influencers screamed “woke,” cable news took turns yelling about it, and Donald Trump (who’s probably never stepped foot in “The Barrel” in his life) personally suggested the company undo whatever this was supposed to be.

Fortunately for what few shareholders they had left, Cracker Barrel blinked. Fast. They promised the rocking chairs would stay. The peg games would survive. The gift shop junk you never meant to buy but always do would remain untouched. CEO Julie Felss Masino later summed up the experience by saying she felt “fired by America.” (Which, good on her for falling on the sword… one that still somehow pays $6 million a year.)

If you thought the logo debacle was the end of it, think again. Regulars revolted over menu changes too… batch-made cookies instead of fresh dough, oven-cooked sides instead of stovetop, and a perfect green beans recipe that they somehow decided to f*** up as well.

Exactly how bad are things getting? Well, some diners responded by bringing their own maple syrup into the restaurant. Talk about a cry for help.

Sales numbers reflected how angry all the rednecks were. In the quarter following the controversy, revenue fell 5.7% year-over-year. Comparable restaurant sales dropped 4.7%. Retail sales? Down 8.5%. The porch was still rocking… the registers were not.

Now, instead of wooing customers back, Cracker Barrel seems to be starting closer to home: its own employees.

Travel expenses are getting squeezed. Alcohol reimbursements are basically gone. And meals on the road? The company would really appreciate it if you kept those dollars in-house.

After the backlash went viral, Cracker Barrel did walk it back slightly, clarifying the policy isn’t mandatory and isn’t new. Translation: “at this point, it’s starting to feel like a witchhunt.”

This is what cost control looks like when confidence is gone and foot traffic hasn’t recovered. Consultants call it “discipline.” Employees call it “why am I eating meatloaf again.”

There’s even a name for this flavor of corporate penny-pinching now: travelscrimping… the art of turning business trips into endurance tests where the per diem disappears.

But hey, this level of scrutiny deserves some form of credit. Not only did Cracker Barrel’s modernization experiment completely backfire… but they managed to annoy its customers, push away investors, and now mildly imprison its traveling workforce inside its own restaurants.

At the time of publishing this article, Stocks.News doesn’t hold positions in companies mentioned in the article.