I saw the jokes about the name change a few times, and went looking for what the name even meant. I didn’t expect it to be so literal, it feels like an odd format to ship crackers in
The name specifically ties into the history of what Cracker Barrel is trying to replicate: An old country store. Back when small towns often only had a few businesses, country stores were not just for selling food and supplies; they were a community gathering place. During this time, soda crackers, which are another name for saltines, were shipped to these stores in big wooden barrels to prevent them from breaking during transit. After the crackers were taken out, the barrels would be repurposed as tables that locals could sit around as they socialized. They were even used to hold checkerboards, which remain a Cracker Barrel staple.
Tangentially related memory: In the early nineties, my grandparents took my sister and me to their favorite Cracker Barrel (and we went to a lot of Cracker Barrels with them), somewhere in or around Pennsylvania.
It was more or less the same, notably bigger, and right when you walked in, there was a big, old busted barrel, with a plaque that claimed this to be the cracker barrel for which the chain was named. It had several broken planks, and if you looked inside, you could see chewed-open boxes of crackers… And as soon as you looked, a mouse would zip out of the cracker box so fast it’d make you jump, and everybody in the gift shop would laugh their asses off.
Then they let you in on the joke, and the cashier showed you they press a button behind the counter that triggers the mechanical mouse, and you join the in-group of people in the gift shop waiting for the next unsuspecting victim to walk through the front door.
The chewed open boxes should have been a big clue. The barrel was the packaging. I’m also guessing they weren’t crawling with maggots, as would be found in a traditional cracker barrel.
/c/hailcorporate
My headcanon is still that the guy in the pic is white, and would always sit outside the store leaned over a barrel, and everybody knew the store by seeing that guy and the barrel.
Also, Cracker Barrel was founded in 1969. It was always fake nostalgia bait for white people. Who else was pining for the 1800s at that point? People are talking about the logo change erasing their culture or whatever, which I guess is true if your culture is a truckstop restaurant with knickknacks on the walls.
The Wild West was super popular around that time. Little House on the Prairie, was published in the 30’s/40’s, so the push for more old west stuff 30ish years later (when the adapted the books I to a show) kind of marks the end of the nostalgia driven media from that generation.
I had never thought about it, but cracker barrel being from that 60/70’s cowboy craze makes a shitload of sense.
Yea my great grandfather was born around 1930 and he was a really big John Wayne fan
hey, i’ll have you know some damn good food comes out of truck stops. best worst bbq chain i know started in one. best tacos next town over are served at one.
The PR for Cracker Barrel is off the hooks as of lately. Previously I had no idea what Cracker Barrel was and I had never heard of it. But now… I still have no idea what it is, but I have heard of it.
Gift shop/restaurant with a country-ish theme. Like the restaurants have big wooden porches with big rocking chairs, if that tells you anything about the vibe.
It’s also where the phrase “bottom of the barrel” came from - by the time you reached that, they got nasty!
I think it refers to salted herrings, which were transported in barrels.
I used to watch The Food that Built America quite a bit and I could swear it was mentioned in the Nabisco/cracker episode. The reality is, there were probably quite a few foods in barrels, few of which would have been good by the time you reach the bottom.
Not specific to soda crackers
Yeah that sounds more like some kind of protein or produce. Maybe on a ship.
Not necessarily, it was just the way most goods were shipped and stored back then. I read the memoirs of a guy who grew up around the mid 19th century, and his posh city family bought a barrel of butter from the countryside, because that was supposedly the best one. They stored it in the cellar and the barrel lasted a year, so that bottom of the barrel butter unsurprisingly became vile.
Obviously it could apply to anything. The more perishable the more applicable. Crackers seem like they might last a lot longer than these other items we are mentioning.
Fun fact: most Cracker Barrel restaurants are built just off an interstate exit. They use GIS for planning and hope to catch travelers as they stop for gas and food.
McDonalds are built on intersections to discourage people from walking in.
The idea was so only car owners would visit and discourage people who didn’t own cars.The franchise owners sometimes go the trouble of getting on councils and closing down roads and pedestrian crossings to discourage pedestrian access.
Why would they prefer drivers? The greater portion of drivers, the more they have to spend on car infrastructure, and even then there is a pretty limited max throughput
That’s my main memory of Cracker Barrel. It was a place we’d sometimes stop and eat at when I was a kid during the family road trips. In that sense, I have some good memories associated with them, but I’m not particularly nostalgic for the brand and I’ve not been to one in years.
Sorry, isn’t that the plan for most food joints? I mean I understand they’re at other locations, but just off exits is big for this reason.
Most food joints just go for market saturation. Cracker Barrel specifically targets travelers.
Literally never seen a cracker barrel store in my life. Hope they go out of business before I get the chance, they sound like a shitty corporate restaurant.
The restaurant has a gift shop. I haven’t been in a very long time but it was always overpriced Americana crap made in China. And it’s not like a counter you can buy a tshirt at, it’s a whole ass store attached to the restaurant. They’re ultra proud of that bullshit.
Soda crackers just make your soda soggy and salty. I don’t get the appeal.
Is…is your soda not normally soggy and salty?
What is a soda cracker?
I think it’s a white person that likes Mt dew?
Like a Saltine
Ah okay!
[Saltine](Saltine cracker https://share.google/7bbPxAmRfSf2UQQVA)
The name wasn’t ever changed though, just the logo.
Where is this brand common?
In the deep south before the Civil Rights Act
Also the Midwest, because they spread a bit after the Civil Right Act.
They’re in 43 states.
They’re actually smart about their locations. Almost always off a freeway. Say what you want about the food but when you’re traveling and the alternatives are truck stops and gas stations, seeing that cracker barrel sign is a godsend!
I’ll take the Hardee’s at Loves over Cracker Barrel.
yeah at least the loves is clean
is one of them horror?
Yes, midwestern here. Most of the meat in the midwest comes from travelers who stop at places that aren’t Cracker Barrel. We leave the Cracker Barrels alone because we also find the people who eat there disgusting.
A bunch in the south east.
And the food is great. The shops are better if you’re a child. Lol
There’s one in southwest Utah.
Kansas has a few.
I assumed they had gone out of business until the failed rebrand. If this is some kinda 4d chess to get people talking about them it’s working great.
Until people look at their menu and don’t want to eat there. Then their whole marketing stunt fails. And all of their existing customers die in two to five years.
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Huh, and here I thought it had to do with the cracker and the barrel on the logo.
Soda crackers/saltines have always just been called crackers here. Sometime people from out of town call them saltines but that just gets a small delay in response while we realize what they were referring to.
