'I feel like I've been fired by America': Cracker Barrel CEO nearly brought to tears over redesign backlash

Cracker Barrel CEO Julie Masino told BlazeTV's Glenn Beck that the company was trying to correct for lighting and comfort when it presented its redesign.

Masino was at the center of controversy in August when the old country store was blasted for changing its logo, branding, and interior design. Customers particularly took issue with the removal of the country man sitting on a chair next to a barrel, as well as the barrel itself, leaving just black "Cracker Barrel" text on a yellow background.

'Were you surprised you weren't fired?'

Beck sat down with Masino inside a Cracker Barrel, tucked away in a corner booth along with the company's senior vice president of store operations, Doug Hisel. During the hour-long conversation that saw Masino almost shed tears at one point, the CEO expressed anxiety about agreeing to the interview due to feeling that her position throughout the ordeal had been misconstrued.

"I want to set the record straight," she said. "I want people to know that this is the brand that they've always known and loved, and that our job is to take care of it and just set it up for the next 55 years."

Beck cut the noise and directly asked, "Were you surprised you weren't fired?"

"I feel like I've been fired by America," Masino replied.

"That's probably worse," Beck noted.

The CEO explained that her intentions were only to help Americans love the brand, "the way I love this brand ... the way everybody who works here."

Pointing to the some 70,000 employees at Cracker Barrel, Masino said she knows the responsibility she has on her shoulders and that she must ensure her employees are taken care of, and in turn are able to put a roof over their head and food on their table.

"My job is to make sure that Cracker Barrel helps them do that," she added.

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Surrounded by classic Americana synonymous with the store, Beck asked the execs about the disconnect in terms of the rebranding; Masino rejected that there was ever a plan to remodel.

"Was [the rebrand] ever intended to get rid of all this?" Beck asked, kindly referring to the bleakly remodeled restaurants that were shown online.

"I think a lot of people think that Doug and me and other people sit around are like, 'Let's remodel Cracker Barrel.' Nothing could be further from the truth," Masino claimed.

The real reason for the recalibration, she cited, were customer experiences that described visits as being "real dark" and not being able to read the menu. She then recalled not one but two stories where she spotted customers using a stadium cushion while eating at the restaurant.

"I love your food; I love it here, but your chairs are so uncomfortable," she remembered one man telling her.

"That's really where it all started," Masino said. "How do we make the stores more comfortable?"

"How do we get the right balance of investment, of comfort, of nostalgia, of the tradition that everybody knows and loves here? But in a way, that's easy for our teams to take care of," she went on.

Masino said it was her expectation that customers would take issue with the presence of too many booths, but "it wasn't that. It was the black and white and the decor."

"So that's why, when people got upset about it, we were like, 'Oh gosh, that's not the intention. We can revert them,'" she added.

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Glenn Beck (L) interviews Cracker Barrel CEO Julie Masino (M) and Doug Hisel (R), senior vice president of store operations. Image courtesy Blaze TV / Glenn Beck

Beck was able to extract a lot of the boardroom reasoning behind the branding blunder from the CEO. Masino told him that the remodeled stores in question were all company-owned and have since been reverted back to their original design, save for four in Florida that are dealing with permitting laws; but the company is working on that.

During this line of questioning, Beck pointed out that he could feel Masino's genuine nature and that she was "hurt deeply" and "personally" from the backlash the company received.

"You're so human, and you're fighting it. Why?" Beck asked.

"I don't know," Masino replied, appearing to tear up. At this point, Hisel jumped in to reassure Masino that she is a good person, doing her best.

The productive conversation concluded with a brief mention of Hisel and Masino reaffirming that "everybody is welcome at Cracker Barrel."

"It's America's store," Hisel said. "Come as you are. If you play checkers, we can do pancakes and country fried turkey. Come as you are."

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