Southern-based fast-food chain Cracker Barrel was blasted for going “woke” by some of its biscuits-and-gravy-eating customers after posting an image of a rainbow rocking chair to celebrate Pride Month.
Aside from serving oversized portions of country staples, the chain is beloved for the Tennessee-made rocking chairs that line the porches at all Cracker Barrel trinket-filled Old Country Stores.
Thus, the chain honored Pride Month in June with an Instagram photo of a rocking chair with each wood slat painted a different color of the rainbow in nod to the Pride flag.
“Everyone is always welcome at our table (and our rainbow rocker),” Cracker Barrel captioned the photo.
The post immediately outraged social media users, with more than 2,000 comments in less than 23 hours.
“Just run your business and stay out of politics!” one commenter posted, while others accused the brand of “rainbow washing” — when a brand promotes pro-LGBTQ messaging for Pride Month in the spirit of marketing, but doesn’t authentically support the movement.
“Where was your appreciation for veterans? Yet you celebrate a month of someone’s sexuality? Kind of weird,” another wrote, though Cracker Barrel shared a post honoring its veteran employees on Nov. 11.
Others took to Twitter to say they were “quite shocked” that Cracker Barrel, which is based in Tennessee, would make such a post.
“I used to love Cracker Barrel, but I can go without them,” another wrote. “Of course everybody should be welcome so why specifically align your business with one group?”
Yet another angered user quipped that the chain has “gone crackers, that’s for sure!”
Another tweet, meanwhile, called for a boycott to ensure Cracker Barrel suffers the same fate as Bud Light, which has seen sales tank since it celebrated trans social media star’s “365 Days of Girlhood” on April 1.
“Does Cracker Barrel have any idea who its customers are? It’s as easy to stop going to Cracker Barrel as it is to stop buying Bud Light,” the post said.
Bud Light saw sales plunge 23.9% for the week ended May 27 as a result the ongoing boycott — slightly better than the 25.7% drop a week earlier, according to data from Bump Williams Consulting and NielsonIQ.
The devastating fall puts the struggling beer brand on track to lose its No. 1 status in the US to Modelo, which has been outselling the embattled beer brand for weeks now.
Cracker Barrel critics wondered why the chain, which has more than 660 locations nationwide, hasn’t “learned from others who have made this mistake.”
“Stupid stupid stupid decision,” another commented on the controversial Instagram post.
Cracker Barrel also shared the pro-Pride image on Facebook, which offers “sad,” “angry” and “love” buttons besides the traditional “like.” More than 4,000 marked that the post made them sad while over 2,000 onlookers were angered by it.
Among more than 10,000 comments, many bid Cracker Barrel adieu for “going woke.”
“Goodbye. I enjoyed you in the past, but your values have changed,” one commented, while another said the chain “lost a customer” because of the post.
Another said they were “tired of having this crap forced on us,” again nodding to companies like Bud Light maker Anheuser-Busch, plus retailers Target, Walmart and Kohl’s, that have all recently come under fire for their Pride Month celebrations.
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