Cracker Barrel closes Medford, OR location

[storewanderer]

Sacramento is now out of business too.

Rocklin is still open. But let's check on that tomorrow or later this week..

This chain... never should have bothered with the west coast. Reno can be their furthest west unit.

Rialto, Camarillo, Bakersfield, Victorville still open. I think three of those may be viable for this concept but is it worth having 3 locations in CA?

[storewanderer]

Sacramento location is referring customers to Rocklin, which would imply that location is safe.

Strange because I am pretty sure the Sacramento location was actually busier than the Rocklin location.

Some employee posted on Reddit the Sacramento location closed due to "theft." Not sure what that is all about. Cannot imagine the junk they sell in their "gift shop" was being heavily stolen. But with lack of space, clutter, too tall of displays, too many blind corners, security in their "gift shop" would be very difficult. Or maybe too many people were leaving the restaurant without paying- but there are ways to address that- collect payment at the table, put the cashier in the dining room (instead of buried in the gift shop), require prepay like a Sizzler...

[Alpha8472]

I would say the theft would be customers eating and not paying. Pay first would be a better idea.

However, the gift shop has many items that are easily stolen to sell online. They need to take steps to prevent theft.

[ClownLoach]

Sacramento is now out of business too.

Rocklin is still open. But let's check on that tomorrow or later this week..

This chain... never should have bothered with the west coast. Reno can be their furthest west unit.

Rialto, Camarillo, Bakersfield, Victorville still open. I think three of those may be viable for this concept but is it worth having 3 locations in CA?

And Santa Maria is confirmed that it closed just yesterday. I would imagine that was arguably a "Grade A" location and they probably have a replacement tenant lined up that they sold the lease to. Someone will be able to be very successful there.

https://keyt.com/lifestyle/business-mat ... t-closure/

I refuse to believe Camarillo is going to remain open. I don't know enough about Rialto. So that leaves Victorville which is a place I can't stand but admittedly it seems that pretty much any concept can survive there.

[FrankMoore99]

Sacramento location is referring customers to Rocklin, which would imply that location is safe.

Strange because I am pretty sure the Sacramento location was actually busier than the Rocklin location.

Some employee posted on Reddit the Sacramento location closed due to "theft." Not sure what that is all about. Cannot imagine the junk they sell in their "gift shop" was being heavily stolen. But with lack of space, clutter, too tall of displays, too many blind corners, security in their "gift shop" would be very difficult. Or maybe too many people were leaving the restaurant without paying- but there are ways to address that- collect payment at the table, put the cashier in the dining room (instead of buried in the gift shop), require prepay like a Sizzler...

The Sacramento location was strange, not being near the freeway and in a massive city. Rocklin makes much more sense being on I-80 and next to Bass Pro Shops. Why is theft being used so much as a reason to close a store?? Especially for a restaurant?? Because there are stores that are staying open and thriving in areas with major theft issues. If it wasn't, all stores in those areas would be gone. I hope that is not what will happen going forward.

How many of these Cracker Barrel's are profitable?? Please don't end up like the 99 cent store!!

[ClownLoach]

Sacramento location is referring customers to Rocklin, which would imply that location is safe.

Strange because I am pretty sure the Sacramento location was actually busier than the Rocklin location.

Some employee posted on Reddit the Sacramento location closed due to "theft." Not sure what that is all about. Cannot imagine the junk they sell in their "gift shop" was being heavily stolen. But with lack of space, clutter, too tall of displays, too many blind corners, security in their "gift shop" would be very difficult. Or maybe too many people were leaving the restaurant without paying- but there are ways to address that- collect payment at the table, put the cashier in the dining room (instead of buried in the gift shop), require prepay like a Sizzler...

The Sacramento location was strange, not being near the freeway and in a massive city. Rocklin makes much more sense being on I-80 and next to Bass Pro Shops. Why is theft being used so much as a reason to close a store?? Especially for a restaurant?? Because there are stores that are staying open and thriving in areas with major theft issues. If it wasn't, all stores in those areas would be gone. I hope that is not what will happen going forward.

How many of these Cracker Barrel's are profitable?? Please don't end up like the 99 cent store!!

Theft was probably a sarcastic joke someone was making since it is the current running excuse for everyone to close in California. Or a joke about how high the rent was. I wouldn't take it seriously. The police won't show up when someone runs multiple cart loads out of a store without paying, yet they'll gladly show up for "defrauding an innkeeper" charges as long as the restaurant has video and a license plate for the perpetrators. I can't wrap my head around it but that's the way it goes.

The number one determinant of success in restaurants is location. And the best locations where they will be the most successful are the most expensive. So it makes perfect sense to see the "better" sited locations close first due to higher rent costs and greater loss. The lower quality locations will close last as the entire chain isn't viable here.

I'm sure they have no profitability issues outside of the West Coast. This is not West Coast food, nobody eats grits here or knows what they are. Canned vegetables warmed up are not served anywhere here because we can get them fresh. Our taste is adjusted and generally we don't like super-salty foods in our restaurants like Cracker Barrel with their high sodium menu of country gravy and such. They are the epitome of the bad Southern food stereotypes. They needed a very different menu here to succeed and that would probably have alienated the few fans or visitors that might visit but would not have been able to keep the doors open. The general preference these days for Southern style food on the West Coast is Barbecue and even then I groan when I read reviews from people who don't understand why they aren't being served a platter of sauce with meat in it (since most authentic barbecue is not sauced), and they don't understand why more can't be cooked in a couple of minutes because the cut they want is sold out (after 12 to 18 hours of smoking or more). It is a regional issue, the appetite for Cracker Barrel type restaurants isn't here.

[storewanderer]

Sacramento location is referring customers to Rocklin, which would imply that location is safe.

Strange because I am pretty sure the Sacramento location was actually busier than the Rocklin location.

Some employee posted on Reddit the Sacramento location closed due to "theft." Not sure what that is all about. Cannot imagine the junk they sell in their "gift shop" was being heavily stolen. But with lack of space, clutter, too tall of displays, too many blind corners, security in their "gift shop" would be very difficult. Or maybe too many people were leaving the restaurant without paying- but there are ways to address that- collect payment at the table, put the cashier in the dining room (instead of buried in the gift shop), require prepay like a Sizzler...

The Sacramento location was strange, not being near the freeway and in a massive city. Rocklin makes much more sense being on I-80 and next to Bass Pro Shops. Why is theft being used so much as a reason to close a store?? Especially for a restaurant?? Because there are stores that are staying open and thriving in areas with major theft issues. If it wasn't, all stores in those areas would be gone. I hope that is not what will happen going forward.

How many of these Cracker Barrel's are profitable?? Please don't end up like the 99 cent store!!

These restaurants are too big, too labor intensive, and serve the wrong food. They thought what works along interstates throughout the US would work out west. It didn't for a wide variety of reasons including customer tastes, competition, operating costs, etc. Then they did stupid things like trying to serve liquor out west thinking that would somehow make them more appealing to customers.

The chain is publicly traded and you can see their financial results. The company is profitable but stock is down a lot from high.

Hopefully they will not be attempting any further wasted money on expansions into CA.

[jamcool]

I know a lot of restaurants and other retailers who won’t go into California.

[storewanderer]

I know a lot of restaurants and other retailers who won’t go into California.

Well they are still there. They will have 5 locations still... Rocklin is still open...

For a publicly traded company I can understand the temptation to want to expand into CA. They need to show growth and tell a growth story to Wall Street.

They just never ran the same way as they run elsewhere. Their unit in the South part of Las Vegas runs like a machine; that is an incredible operation with excellent employees. The OR and Sacramento area operations are/were just... slow... sad... and so overpriced for what they were selling.

[wnetmacman]

They just never ran the same way as they run elsewhere. Their unit in the South part of Las Vegas runs like a machine; that is an incredible operation with excellent employees. The OR and Sacramento area operations are/were just... slow... sad... and so overpriced for what they were selling.

Based on personal experience with SEVERAL Cracker Barrel restaurants in the south, their home terrirtory, Las Vegas is the exception, not the rule. My local location has issues with retaining and training good staff (Lots of no star waitstaff where they used to pride themself on getting 3 or 4), quality controls in the kitchen (the inability to cook even basic food correctly; my wife once got a piece of grilled chicken that was pink and almost clucking), and security issues in the parking lot (sandwiched between a nice Drury Inn and a hole of a half abandoned motel).

Cracker Barrel is not the darling charming place it used to be, and they show no signs of improvement. Adding alcohol didn't help their case.