Secrets Cracker Barrel Doesn't Want You To Know

Behind the nostalgia, the Southern stereotypes, the pancakes, grits and tchotchkes, Cracker Barrel has collected some

secrets

even uglier than its logo. Here's everything Cracker Barrel

doesn

't

want

you to

know

. In 2017, Bradley Reid Byrd of Milltown, Indiana, posted a simple question on Cracker Barrel's Facebook page: "Why did you fire my wife?" The question became a meme about uncovering the truth behind the firing, which Byrd said came out of the blue after his wife had worked there for 11 years as a retail manager. According to Heavy, Byrd accused them of letting her go right before the holidays arrived. The incident inspired a hashtag and petition on Change.org that garnered a staggering 10,000 signatures.

Cracker Barrel never explained the firing, and according to Inc., keeping quiet was probably their best decision. Any legitimate reason for the dismissal that the company could have given would probably have been interpreted as defamation, or simply not believed after all the fuss. Cracker Barrel has a fairly long history of legal problems. A recent example comes from August 2018, when the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission announced that the chain had violated some pretty big laws two years earlier. One lawsuit claimed that Cracker Barrel refused to hire an applicant for a dishwashing position solely because he was deaf.

According to the EEOC, "the store manager was visibly uncomfortable interacting with the applicant" and she ultimately declined an interview. When the prospective dishwasher showed up for his scheduled interview, the store manager told him that the manager conducting the interview was not there. Three other applicants were hired, none of whom were deaf. EEOC District Attorney Jamie R. Williamson said of the incident: "Hiring decisions should be made based on qualifications, not fears or biases against people with disabilities." Yet another lawsuit from 2018 involved an item for sale at the famous Cracker Barrel gift shop. According to the Tennessean, Earl "Peanutt" Montgomery, who co-wrote 73 songs with country music legend George Jones, sued the network for a reported $5 million.

The dispute arose when Cracker Barrel and Concord Music Group released a posthumous album of Jones' music that had long been shelved. According to Montgomery, Jones

want

ed them to record the album together, with all ownership rights and profits going to Montgomery as, quote, "his retirement package for all his years of service and friendship." The album was finished, but was lost in decades of ever-changing record contracts. It ended up in Concord's possession after Jones' widow sold the singer's assets following his death in 2013. Montgomery said neither Concord nor Cracker Barrel had the rights to release the recordings, but they did so anyway.

A lawsuit dating back to 2014 claimed that a Cracker Barrel location's handicap parking spaces were unregulated and too steep for wheelchair access, according to Business Insider. And the plaintiff, Sarah Heinzl, of the United States women's wheelchair basketball team, won her case. More problems arose at trial. The court found that at least 107 locations in seven states had similar problems. As part of the final ruling, all those parking lots had to be repaired within a period of two and a half years. Further orders were given to inspect the rest of the restaurant's locations, and Cracker Barrel had to fix any further problems the surveys found within seven years.

In April 2012, a terrifying situation unfolded at an Ohio Cracker Barrel. According to Cleveland.com, Kevin and Katherina Allen were having dinner with her daughters when Katherina told her husband that she was leaving him. Kevin threatened their lives before leaving. Katherina immediately called a friend and then the police. "She said he was in her car, wandering around the parking lot. She thought he was waiting for her." She also appealed to the store manager and asked for permission to hide in the restaurant's cold rooms. The manager refused. Kevin Allen returned to the restaurant with a shotgun and opened fire.

His wife and one daughter died instantly. The other daughter died from her injuries a month later, Ohio.com reported. Responding police officers shot him to death. Katherina's family sued Cracker Barrel for refusing to help. Cracker Barrel argued that he should not take responsibility for, quote, "unforeseeable" events. But the judge ruled the lawsuit could move forward, and the family's attorneys argued that staff had more than enough information to realize the family was in grave danger and prevent the tragedy. In 1991, Cracker Barrel was proud to be an example of traditional American values. One way to demonstrate that distinction was a new hiring policy designed specifically to prevent the hiring of gay employees and, according to a company memo, allowed for the firing of current employees who did not display, quote, "normal heterosexual values." At least nine people who lost their jobs said their sexuality was the reason for their dismissal.

At the time, only Massachusetts and Wisconsin specifically prohibited discrimination based on sexuality, so workers had little legal recourse. But the court of public opinion spoke. After a wave of public outcry and backlash, Cracker Barrel backtracked and canceled the policy, but not before irreparable damage was done to the brand. Former Cracker Barrel employee Bonnie Usher claimed that her harassment complaints not only went unheard, but led to her losing her job. In a 2003 complaint filed with the New Hampshire Human Rights Commission and in a 2006 lawsuit, Usher alleged that while she worked for the company she was verbally abused, sexually assaulted and discriminated against because of her gender and sexual orientation.

Usher was fired in 2004, and instead of any of the normal reasons for losing a job, like not having time, stealing, or spitting in food, she believes she was fired simply for complaining about the way she was treated. The outcome of the lawsuit has not been widely reported, but it still brought bad press for the network. A 2004 U.S. Department of Justice investigation concluded that Cracker Barrel's values ​​were more than a little outdated. They were absolutely outdated. The Justice Department found evidence of a range of discriminatory practices at 50 restaurants in seven states, with suggestions that managers were complicit.

The behavior included segregating customers based on race, seating white groups before black groups, and making black customers wait longer for service that was often inferior. Cracker Barrel agreed to adopt a long list of improvements and changes, but that didn't stop customers who were victims of discrimination from suing the company. Cracker Barrel settled and agreed to pay customers $8.7 million, although Cracker Barrel somehow managed without having to admit to any wrongdoing. After shelling out $8.7 million to settle that racial discrimination lawsuit, one would think Cracker Barrel would have taken steps to prevent a repeat experience. But the company received another discrimination lawsuit in 2006, this time from the U.S.

Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, long before the incident with the deaf applicant. In this case, 51 employees from three restaurants in Illinois participated. The case revealed allegations of racially charged language and discriminatory practices, as well as inappropriate touching and sexual comments directed at female coworkers. Cracker Barrel settled the case, paying $2 million to be shared among employees. The company was also prohibited from retaliating against those employees and agreed to provide additional training to workers at the three Illinois restaurants in hopes of preventing similar behavior in the future. When Susan Mosher stopped by her local Cracker Barrel in Texas in 2011 to have lunch with her husband, she ordered a classic BLT with fries.

Halfway through her meal, she noticed an inexplicable special sauce on her fries that was red, but it wasn't ketchup. Upon closer examination, the marks were found to be blood fingerprints. Guilty? Well, Mosher knew she hadn't cut herself. No, one of the cooks had cut himself and had broken company protocol by continuing to work and handle food while she was bleeding. She was supposed to leave the kitchen completely. Mosher recently survived cancer, and despite her understandable fear of contracting a blood-borne disease, Cracker Barrel offered her little more than an apology, a free meal, and two $50 gift cards for her troubles. .

What are the chances that those gift cards were used? For a company that has had as much bad press as Cracker Barrel, what would be better than amplifying a heartwarming story of human kindness? However, when Joe Koblenzer, a 73-year-old Vietnam veteran and Cracker Barrel employee, gave a corn muffin to a man who appeared to be homeless, Cracker Barrel opted to fire its friendly employee and bask in the inevitable bad press that followed. he continued. "The general manager told me, 'Bad news for you, Joe. We're going to have to let you go.'" The corporate justification was that giving away food was against company policy, and that this was not true. the first time Koblenzer did it.

But when you compare the cost of a corn muffin to the price of an avalanche of bad publicity, you wonder what Cracker Barrel's top brass were thinking. The restaurant and gift shop parts of Cracker Barrel have separate management and are

know

n internally as separate entities, but their earnings are still reported as if they were a single company. That probably

doesn

't matter one way or another for most people who just want some warm cookies, but it's a big deal for at least one shareholder. According to Sardar Biglari, CEO of Biglari Holdings, this structure denies shareholders the information they need to judge the relative performance of each side of the business.

The "Old Country Store" could be allowed to operate at a large loss and the difference would be covered by the restaurant, or vice versa, and no one would notice. Biglari is famous for buying companies that he believes are not performing at their best and turning things around in hopes of improving performance. But Cracker Barrel stood firm and refused to make the information public. Which makes it seem like there's something to hide. Every Halloween, countless parents across the country worry about the same thing: sharp things in candy. But despite the efforts of fear mongers everywhere, there is very little evidence that people actually get hurt this way on Halloween.

The same can't be said for Cracker Barrel. In 2007, the chain was forced to recall frozen burgers from 313 restaurants after a 56-year-old customer, Irene Grann, cut her mouth on a piece of metal from her burger. After the woman was taken to the hospital, the restaurant manager allegedly found a piece of razor blade protruding from the burger, and investigators later found another object buried deeper inside. Mrs. Grann and her husband were regular visitors to the restaurant and, surprisingly, declared their intention to return soon, as it was one of her favorite places to eat. That's brand loyalty. "Ha ha ha, here I go, you fool, to have a great southern meal at Cracker Barrel!

Because I'm so stupid!" There are actually two Cracker Barrels in the food industry, and the restaurant was not the first of its name. That award actually goes to Kraft Foods and its Cracker Barrel brand of cheese, which has been sold in grocery stores since 1954. When the restaurant came on the scene 15 years later, Kraft didn't make a fuss because the two businesses were quite different. that did not enter into direct competition. But then in 2012, the restaurant decided to market a line of branded foods for sale in grocery stores, leaving Kraft no choice but to sue. Kraft feared that the two brands were so similar that if the restaurant somehow angered its customers (not that they would ever do that, right?), those customers might avoid Kraft products in the mistaken belief that they were manufactured by the restaurant chain.

But the restaurant was interested in expanding its brown and yellow empire in the name of profit and wasn't going to back down. At the end of 2013, an agreement was reached that satisfied both parties. To differentiate the brands on grocery store shelves, the restaurant chain agreed to market its products under the revised CB Old Country Store brand. Kraft didn't have to change anything about its brand. Check out one of our newest videos right here! Plus, there will be more Mashed videos on restaurant chains coming soon. Subscribe to our channelYoutube and press the bell so you don't miss a single one.