After all, as Jake Bartlett, an analyst at Truist Securities, points out, foot traffic at the restaurants has been dropping for years, and Masino, who joined in 2023, promised investors a grand transformation that will pay off in 2027. “They do need to widen their demographic appeal,” he says, “and make sure that they’re appealing to young families and younger consumers.”
To that end the company had been testing a range of updated, less cluttered interiors at a fraction of its shops and talking to investors and customers about the experiments for months. Masino also recently appeared on Good Morning America and addressed some criticism of the new look; despite social media posts featuring customers calling the remodels bland and charmless, the CEO said most feedback has been overwhelmingly positive. She also reassured fans that the Cracker Barrel of their childhoods is still intact. “The soul of Cracker Barrel is not changing,” she said. “The rocking chairs are still there. The fireplace is there, the peg game, all the things that make Cracker Barrel, Cracker Barrel.”
