Cracker Barrel shares soared 7% on Wednesday after the Southern dining chain vowed to kill its controversial logo redesign – but customers are still demanding the CEO who led the “woke” turnaround be fired.
“Until you fire the CEO and anybody else that’s on the left, I will not return,” one customer wrote in a post on X.
Another jabbed: “Cracker Barrel’s new logo isn’t an accident – it’s CEO Julie Felss Masino’s project. She scrapped a beloved American aesthetic and replaced it with sterile, soulless branding.”
Dozens of social media posts called for Masino – who took over the chain in July 2023 and spearheaded the rebranding – to resign after Cracker Barrel reversed course on its logo change.
“We thank our guests for sharing your voices and love for Cracker Barrel,” the company said late Tuesday.
“We said we would listen, and we have. Our new logo is going away and our ‘old timer’ will remain.”
Fans had bashed the company for erasing beloved folksy farmer Uncle Herschel from the logo and ditching old-timey restaurant decor in favor of white paint – causing Cracker Barrel to shed $100 million in market value last week.
Even President Trump weighed in, demanding in a Truth Social post that Cracker Barrel “go back to the old logo, admit a mistake based on customer response (the ultimate Poll), and manage the company better than ever before.”
Despite the logo reversal, customers are holding a grudge against Masino.
Nearly 60,000 users on X liked a post that read: “Like this comment if you think the CEO of Cracker Barrel should be fired.”
Masino and her board of directors allegedly missed an opportunity to avoid the fervent backlash.
They dismissed at least four warnings from Sardar Biglari, a top investor, that the rebranding was “obvious folly” before pushing forward with the remodeled stores and new logo, according to a Fox Business report.
Biglari, who serves as chief executive of Steak ‘n’ Shake, mocked Cracker Barrel this week by posting images of red MAGA-style hats on X.
One read “Fire Cracker Barrel CEO,” while another declared: “Biglari was right about everything.”
It seemed the CEO – who previously held top positions at Taco Bell and Mattel – believed the backlash would eventually blow over.
“People’s immediate reaction to things is like, ‘Oh this isn’t the way it was,’” but they tend to come around, Masino said during a Wall Street Journal Global Food Forum in June.
The company initially announced its plans to modernize restaurants last summer, after Masino admitted the chain is “just not as relevant” as it used to be.
