30 Facts About Cracker Barrel

Cracker Barrel Old Country Store, Inc, doing business as simply Cracker Barrel, is an American chain of restaurant and gift stores with a Southern country theme.

Cracker Barrel's menu is based on traditional Southern cuisine, with appearance and decor designed to resemble an old-fashioned general store.

Cracker Barrel was founded in 1969 by Dan Evins, a sales representative for Shell Oil, who developed the restaurant and gift store concept initially as a plan to improve gasoline sales.

Cracker Barrel became a publicly traded company in 1981 to raise funds for further expansion.

Cracker Barrel has since begun expansion to the West Coast: in 2017, their first store in the region opened in Tualatin, Oregon, and their first store in California was opened the next year in Victorville.

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In 2019 Cracker Barrel purchased Maple Street Biscuit Company for $36 million cash.

In 2007, Cracker Barrel announced plans to remove artificial trans fats from its menu items.

Much of its early history, Cracker Barrel decided to locate its restaurants along the Interstate Highway System, and the majority of its restaurants remain close to interstate and other highways.

Cracker Barrel is known for the loyalty of its customers, particularly travelers who are likely to spend more at restaurants than locals.

Cracker Barrel restaurants are aimed at the family and casual dining market as well as retail sales.

Cracker Barrel has stated its goals are to keep employee turnover low and to provide better trained staff.

Cracker Barrel has frequently collaborated with country musician Dolly Parton.

Cracker Barrel first worked with Parton in 2009 on the collector's edition of her album Backwoods Barbie.

Cracker Barrel has supported a wide range of charities through one-off donations, promotional events, and partnerships with charitable organizations.

Cracker Barrel has formed a partnership with the Wounded Warrior Project, a charity for injured veterans.

Cracker Barrel sponsored the NASCAR Atlanta 500 race at Atlanta Motor Speedway from 1999 to 2001 and the Grand Ole Opry from 2004 to 2009.

Cracker Barrel was the first presenting sponsor of the Grand Ole Opry.

Cracker Barrel spent two million dollars to restore the home and used it as its corporate headquarters from 1999 to 2013.

In 2016 Cracker Barrel partnered with nonprofit Operation Homefront to launch Operation Rocker, which provided Cracker Barrel rocking chairs to families involved in Operation Homefront's Homes on the Homefront program, and Star Spangled Baby Showers, a program for expectant military families.

In November 2021, Cracker Barrel launched an initiative called Food for Families aimed at addressing food insecurity, hunger and reducing food waste in rural and underserved communities and in middle Tennessee.

Board of directors of Cracker Barrel has repeatedly been at odds with the largest shareholder, Biglari Holdings Inc According to SEC filings, as of 2013, Biglari Holdings controlled a 19.

Cracker Barrel has responded by claiming Biglari has a "hidden agenda" and a conflict of interest by holding shares in other restaurant chains such as Steak 'n Shake.

Cracker Barrel achieved the lowest score of all rated food and beverage companies in the Human Rights Campaign's 2008 Corporate Equality Index, a measure of LGBT workplace equality.

In 2019, Cracker Barrel earned a score of 80 on the index, and maintained that score in the 2020 and 2021 reports.

In 2018, Cracker Barrel developed a limited edition of the chain's signature rocking chairs featuring an LGBT rainbow pattern.

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In 2004, an investigation by the U S Justice Department found evidence that Cracker Barrel had been segregating customer seating by race; seating or serving white customers before seating or serving black customers; providing inferior service to black customers, and allowing white servers to refuse to serve black customers.

Since the early 2000s, Cracker Barrel has provided training and resources to minority employees to improve its image on diversity.

Cracker Barrel is on the Corporate Advisory Board for the Texas Conference of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, and is a corporate sponsor of the NAACP Leadership 500 Summit.

In November 2012, Cracker Barrel licensed its name to Smithfield Foods' John Morrell Division in a deal to create a line of meat products to be sold in supermarkets and through other retail channels.

The corporation said that Cracker Barrel stores have not made significant sales of retail food products beyond their restaurant menu, and asked that the Smithfield Foods deal be nullified by the U S District Court in the Northern District of Illinois.