The Secret History Inside of Cracker Barrel

00:00:10
Speaker 1: And we’re back with Our American Stories. Cracker Barrel has been an American favorite for many decades, with its classic old country theme. There are currently over six hundred and sixty stores throughout the country, the first one having been born in Lebanon, Tennessee. But many people don’t know that the decor you find on the walls and all throughout the restaurant are unique and authentic antique items that have been handpicked for each store. Here to tell the story of how the idea of this restaurant came to be is Joe Stewart, the Decor Manager of Cracker Barrel Old Country Store.

00:00:55
Speaker 2: Dan Evans was the founder of Cracker Barrel Country Store. The spot that was determined where the Cracker Barrel was going to be built, he and some contractors actually used a stick and kind of drew it out in the dirt. Back in nineteen sixty-nine, the interstate was expanding, and there was really no place for people to have a relaxing time to get off the interstate or a place to eat. So he had a vision to build an old country store to meet that need. The name Cracker Barrel came from where crackers were sold in a barrel. You know, there were a lot of things back in the day that were sold in barrels, like pickles, candy, different things. The cool thing about the Cracker Barrel is that once the crackers were empty, that was usually flipped over, and a checkerboard was usually placed on top. The reason that we have a checkerboard in our stores. The first store actually opened on September nineteenth, nineteen sixty-nine, and it was located off of I-40, the interstate here, on Highway 109 and 11, so that was kind of how it was born. There was actually a couple in town who had an antique store. Their names were Don and Kathleen Singleton. Their son’s name was Larry Singleton, and around that time in nineteen sixty-nine, Larry was probably around twelve years old, and he used to go hunting and picking and buying different things with his parents. So Danny asked them if they would supply the decor for the first store, which was right up their alley, since that’s what they did. You know, they specialized in vintage, retro, antique items. Our store was always built on a mission of pleasing people with not just a great meal, but, you know, serving the guests with warmth. You know, the old country store theme is just scattered throughout our building, about, you know, what used to happen in an old country store, about, you know, the conversations that were had, the things that were on the wall, the things that we sell. There’s a lot of different stuff that in Cracker Barrel, you name it, a country store had it. So that’s kind of how we built our decor around. So in a country store, you could find toys, you could find farming equipment, hunting equipment, sporting equipment. There was jewelry, candy is one real big thing, the vintage metal signs, things like that. So it’s more about trying to put together designs with, you know, everything and anything a country store would sell. We have a twenty-six-thousand-square-foot warehouse, and it is full. It’s got about one hundred thousand pieces in it currently, and it’s full of just everything you can possibly imagine that’s related to a country store. So there’s a process people don’t realize, but there’s a process to this decor, from procuring it to installing it. Ninety-nine point nine percent of all the decor that we have in the stores and currently in our warehouse was bought by the Singletons. You know, they got this role naturally because that’s what they did for a living. When Don and Kathleen could no longer do purchasing, and whenever they retired, their son Larry kind of took over. So he took over probably around nineteen eighty-four, eighty-five from his mom and dad. So I started in nineteen eighty-nine. And the fun part about starting in nineteen eighty-nine was that Larry Singleton took me under his wing. So the first three weeks I was working here, he and I went to shows, went to a lot of flea markets, antique shows, and he gave me the firsthand knowledge of what to look for, how to buy. There was one particular event that happened probably in the mid-nineties. Larry and I went to an advertising auction up in Cleveland, Ohio, and there were multiple, multiple items for sale, and the auctioneer wound up putting Larry into each bid automatically because Larry was buying so many things. Well, everybody was coming to me because I was loading everything, asking if they could purchase a sign, you know, or get one of these, because that’s why they came to the auction. Well, of course, you know, I said no, and, you know, we’re buying for Cracker Barrel. They’re going to be used in Cracker Barrel stores. But the one thing about that is that everybody that asked if they could buy a sign wound up becoming a vendor that sells to Cracker Barrel. So our warehouse is pretty expansive, so we have quite a few pieces, and the fun thing about doing an individual Cracker Barrel is researching the area that we’re going to and trying to find the pieces that are in our warehouse that fit that area. And you come across some interesting facts and finds in some of the towns that you’re going to. Fort Payne, Alabama. When you research Fort Payne, even to this day, it’ll say it’s the sock capital of the world. So Fort Payne, Alabama, had factories there that produced probably about half the world’s socks back in the nineteen hundreds. So in that store, since that was called the sock capital of the world, we thought that in one particular spot of that store, we should design it with socks, with clothing, with knitting machine sock stretchers. Bakersfield, California, was a recent store that we opened in Bakersfield, California. When you do the research, it says it’s the second birthplace of country music. It’s where they introduced the electric guitar. So there’s one wall dedicated to nothing but music. There are country music ads, advertising, and there’s a shadow box with an electric guitar. So that’s kind of how we do our decor. That’s how we choose; that’s how we install. I travel a little bit, and I go to Cracker Barrel, and it’s always really fun to notice that the people, when they sit down, they start pointing to our decor. And I’ve even heard them, you know, ask each other, you know, “What is this piece?” “What did it used to do?” So there’s a lot of conversation to be had with our decor. We had a tendency not to, you know, give anything away or sell our decor, and it’s still true today. We do not sell any of our decor. But I guess I’ve got a soft spot for people’s family stories. It happened not too long ago where there was a sign in one of our Wisconsin stores, and the name of it was Peeler’s Farm, and it had a man’s name on there of David Chapman. An eighteen-year-old son was—I think he was actually hunting in Wisconsin—and he saw this sign and knew that that was his grandfather, so he showed a picture to his grandfather. His grandfather said, “Yeah, I used to work at that farm.” That was the one I ran. It was a dairy farm in North Carolina. So he contacted me several times and wanted to know, if, you know, what he could do to get this sign for his grandfather. And it happened to be that his grandfather was ill, was sick, so I thought that this should probably be something that comes back to this family because it was him. They had pictures that they showed me of whenever this man was in the business of the dairy farm. So it all worked out. About six months later, I met three generations of this family. They came to the warehouse to get the sign, and the stories they had were absolutely amazing. It’s becoming interesting what people are seeing and what they’re finding out there. There are a few calls on occasion where people are saying, “This is my grandmother’s birth certificate,” or “their grandmother’s diploma,” or even “their picture.” So that old country store, that relaxed atmosphere, and the sense of nostalgia was something where we felt that guests, you know, would make them feel at home. And it’s wonderful that I see a lot of people have conversations about things that are on the wall. I don’t think much has changed, you know. Our mission was pleasing people, you know, having that place to come in, you know, off an interstate exit, to have a good meal, to see things on the wall that remind them of, you know, a simpler time or remind them of something that they did as a child. I’m partial to toys, so I try to buy as many toys as possible because I think everybody was a kid at some point, right? So they see a toy on the wall that kind of reminds them of their childhood. One time someone told me that they thought that each store was a mini-museum of American history, which kind of resonated with me because, you know, some of that’s probably true in a sense. So I think that the concept is still alive.

00:09:38
Speaker 1: And a terrific job on the production by our own Madison Derricott, and a special thanks to Joe Stewart, who was a Decor Manager of Cracker Barrel Old Country Store. And what a mission to have: pleasing people, serving people with warmth. What a beautiful story about a beautiful company: the story of Cracker Barrel Old Country Store. Here on Our American Stories.