Cracker Barrel’s massive public meltdown didn’t happen by accident. Behind the scenes, the company was bleeding institutional knowledge, taking disastrous advice from DEI strategists, and making decisions that alienated the very customers who built the brand. A major board shake-up, the quiet removal of DEI frameworks, and the sudden resignation of a key DEI-linked board member reveal how deep the problems ran — and how desperate the company was to course-correct. This breakdown uncovers what really went wrong, how Cracker Barrel was influenced internally, and why the Glenn Beck interview triggered major internal moves that the public was never supposed to see.
Transcript
Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors
GLENN: So, Stu, you can just questions about the special tonight.
STU: Yeah, for sure. I'm interested in this.
It's a big -- you know, a big special. You're back and forth with it. With them there. Was kind of fascinating. Right?
You have a situation where they -- they do seem to be sort of avoiding the question there on DEI. Is that how you read it? Oh, we lost connection with Glenn. Is that what's about to go?
Well, that's how I read it at least. You know, you listen to that clip of them going back and forth and it does appear to be them just sort of avoiding the question. We should get back to Glenn. Because I know he has this breaking news on this happen. Should we go to another clip on the Cracker Barrel thing, while we're waiting for Glenn to reconnect? Because it sort of sets the stage. You know, it was interesting to see their approach here, which is to try to explain themselves and try to work themselves through what is one of the biggest PR disasters probably in our lifetimes.
And let's go to this next clip.
VOICE: If we came out of COVID, A, trying to hire 50,000 people, we have a lot of our employees, original -- we did -- we lost a lot of very long tenured employees. A lot of them, a little bit older, and scared to come back into the -- into the environment.
And so --
GLENN: That's a lot of institutional knowledge.
VOICE: Oh, it hurt. I mean, it really hurt.
And in '22, as we started opening back up, we had the new menu that we had. So we lost a lot of people. We put a ton of training into that new menu.
Now we're coming back to open up, guests, any way we can get them. We had patio dining. We were testing a rock garden.
They were going to sit out in the landscape. And I always say that co-ed even made Cracker Barrel start drinking alcohol.
Because that's how -- it was out of COVID, that it was like, how are we figuring out how to drive top line sales and try to get a guest in.
GLENN: Okay. So that is a good example of you don't know any of the story. You think Cracker Barrel has never served alcohol before. Why are you shoving alcohol? That's a cultural. So it's easy to think, you're selling people alcohol now. What other values are you --
VOICE: And it's fair.
GLENN: That one, is at least understandable. Now that I understand the story.
VOICE: Yeah. Exactly. And so as we got into '23, I came out of my office administration role, and came into operations.
And I was leading field operations. And the best way for me to describe it, we were throwing Velcro balls at a wall to see what would stick.
STU: And it's understandable. You know, it's easy to kind of look at the Cracker Barrel situation and get lost at how badly it went.
A lot of these decisions come down to the information they had at the time. Right?
And they're looking at the time as a place that maybe people aren't coming into as much as they would like.
They are trying to -- maybe it's fading a little bit. Maybe some people find it's stale.
They think the situation at Cracker Barrel is not one that they're not necessarily trying to get involved with on a week to week basis, like they used to.
Maybe they had those warm feelings of the past. But they're not going in it anymore. Well, we'll freshen it up. We will do all these new things.
This will be great! And you realize, sometimes, when you're in that moment, you hit a -- you hate a vein. Right?
You're trying to do something positive for the company. And you hit a vein, and everything starts bleeding all over the place.
Let me give you another piece of this interview. Glenn Beck, up in the headquarters of -- of Cracker Barrel.
And somehow, I will give Glenn credit. Not eating throughout the interview.
I kind of thought, when they put food in front of him. He would just be shoveling it down his gullet the entire time.
You wouldn't be able to hear him. It would be like talking with his mouth full.
He got through it, without taking as many bites. Here is Glenn with the CEO of Cracker Barrel.
GLENN: Let's just get this out.
VOICE: Okay.
GLENN: What happened to the choices that were made?
I said on day one of this. I remember when they rolled out new Coke. And I thought, that was the dumbest marketing move, the dumbest thing I've ever seen.
We're taking the original formula and ditching it. And let's start over with a brand that people love.
The day this broke, I said on the air, new Coke!
That's what this is. And it was -- no offense. Stupid!
Just stupid from start to finish.
Can you walk me through how that happened?
VOICE: Yeah. Sure.
Look, our guests have every right to be upset.
GLENN: Yeah. You want to watch this. And I -- you know, what I really want to you watch for is a moment where I said to her, are you surprised you haven't been fired yet.
That spoke volumes. Her answer, and I hope it is captured on camera.
But that answer was the first non, you know, when you're a CEO. You know, I've -- Stu, do you remember when we used to have to do really important interviews.
And our PR people would be like, drill, drill, drill.
No, don't say that. Don't say that. And we would be like, yeah. Whatever.
And when you are in charge of a Fortune 500 company. And you're in the trouble that they're in, you do -- you know, you follow the people that you have hired to make sure crisis management. You don't make any more mistakes.
And so everybody was very, very careful.
They were very honest. But, you know, like that DEI thing.
She didn't really answer the question.
Of course, we want everybody to be welcomed. Yeah. I know. But that's not answering the question.
When I asked her, are you surprised you still have a job, and you haven't been fired yet. Her answer spoke volumes.
Now, the other thing that you need to know, that while she didn't answer me on the DEI thing. And I -- I -- you know, I can't tell you exactly how this happened.
I just know that they knew, that they didn't answer the question.
And somebody has been in touch with my people. And said, hey. You might want to watch the board meeting that is happening.
We can't tell you that anything is going to be happening. But the DEI thing may be solved. At the board meeting. That happened this morning. And they were going to release something at 11:15 today.
We didn't know exactly what it was.
We had -- we had an indication that it might be about DEI.
And what they've done, at first.
Remember, in August. You know, they just deleted the Pride pages. And the DEI pages.
And they just got rid of it all, at Cracker Barrel. That is just hiding who you are. The real problem was, they had a guy who was on the board of directors. Named Gilbert Davila.
And he's just resigned from the board, today!
Okay? They had a meeting with the board, and shareholders and everything else. And they voted on all of these people. And they did not renew him. And so he is -- he has resigned.
Now, his job -- he was a member of the standing board committee.
And his job was to assess the social and political risk to the company's business.
Well, who is he?
Well, he's also the CEO of a company called DMI Consulting.
That's a DEI strategy firm, that's been in business since 2010.
So he's one of the guys. He was the guy who, his job as the CEO -- as the CEO of DMI, is to promote, you know, DEI.
To make sure everybody is living up to the DEI standards. So Robby Starbuck, who is a friend of the program and, you know, great conservatives, who has been responsible for -- you know, getting a lot of these people out of these companies, or at least drawing attention on what these companies are really standing for.
He's been asking trial. What does he do to deserve this seat on the board?
Well, that's it. He owned a DEI consulting and strategy firm. That was pushing DEI and DEI advertising. So what's happened here is I think while she couldn't answer that question at the time, because the board hadn't acted, I think it's -- I think it's not not coincidental that the day the interview with her drops. With us.
Which they've known for a couple of weeks. This is when this interview would drop.
They -- they announced that morning, that seat has been eliminated. DEI is gone from Cracker Barrel. So I think that's really, really good news if you're a fan of Cracker Barrel.
And the things that I saw at Cracker Barrel, I'm -- I'm going to tell you some stuff tomorrow.
I just have to make sure that it's exactly accurate. Because I don't want to cause more problems.
For us!
And I want to make sure that I get it exactly right. But there were some things that I learned in the show prep.
And, you know, studying up for this interview.
That no one was prepared to talk to me on camera about. And always says to me, oh, well, there's something there.
And so we have done even more homework on it. And tomorrow, I will tell you about something that you might have heard about. This guy who owns, what is it?
Steak and Shake?
STU: Yeah. He's a big activist shareholder, isn't he?
Kind of against some of the leadership there at Cracker Barrel. I think I read about that.
GLENN: Correct. Yes. Yes.
And he has an interesting history.
And I want to -- I want to take you through some of that tomorrow.
I think by tomorrow, you're going to understand, what you saw with the DEI vote on the board today. Get that gone. That's gone.
The interview that you'll see tonight with Julie. The CEO. She's not who you think she is.
It doesn't mean she didn't make huge mistakes. She says she makes huge mistakes. But she's not who you think she is.
You may not agree with her or whatever. But it's important you know who she is. And what she said.
And the key tonight is that question: Are you surprised that you haven't been fired yet.
And really, what happened after she answers the question. And she's very uncomfortable. Answers the question.
And then she immediately switches topics. And I'm like, wait. Wait. Wait.
Stop. Stop. Go back. Why are you switching topics here?
Because it was an amazing moment. Is she immediately changes the subject. After she answers. And then she comes back, and she he says a few things. You'll see.
And then I bring it back to her again. And she switches topics again. And I'm like, why are you doing that?
Why are you doing that?
And she said a very interesting answer on all of that.
That is one of the most honest things I think I've ever seen a fortune five company or CEO ever say.
It was really uncomfortable. But really, really honest.
I think once you see this. And then I tell you tomorrow about the -- the board member, on the things that I can verify. I'm not sure what we can verify yet.
But the things that I've heard. And the things I think I can verify tomorrow. You will see that -- that I think they made stupid moves. They have really bad advice from DEI people.
And they were set up.
To some degree.
They were set up.
The company was. Not individuals. The company was set up.
I think it will -- I think you will have every question you needed to know about Cracker Barrel and what happened answered.





