are right. They did not hire McKinsey. They hired three other consultants.

I’m not surprised. (Well, maybe a little as they claimed to have done it “in house.”) It’s not unusual to get “new eyes” on a situation, especially when it comes to graphics design, restaging restaurants, etc. I have done it myself, but at the end of the day it was “all inside” who decided what to do.

My impression of McKinsey is that it is hired by weak CEO’s, and when the report comes back - usually generated by a few 20-something MBAs - the weak CEO says “Well, this is what McKinsey says, so that’s what we’re gonna do.”

Cracker Barrle had a definite image, both in the logo and in the restaurant. The tchotchkes on the wall, the signage, the layout all spoke to “rural restaurant”. That was great right up until it wasn’t. Pivoting for that to something more contemporary is a near impossible task (even assuming it’s the right thing to do) because of image momentum. Everybody already knows what Cracker Barrel is, and now you get to change their mind, except they’re not going because they think they know what Cracker Barrel is. They had already demonstrated that wasn’t a growth segment, so what to do?

As I have said, the new logo was just blah. Colorless, lifeless, generic, nothing, and now they’re locked back into the old one. I’ma guess wiping the chicken fried steak drippings off the menu isn’t going to be enough for a turnaround