August 26, 2025 • 9 mins
Real Americans understand exactly why Cracker Barrel made a huge mistake by messing with a winning formula. They went woke and now they will go broke. Here's why....
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:01):
Our economy is crashing. Inflation is out of control.
Why are conservatives bad, Mommy?
Because I thought we were supposed to conserve.
Now you actually breathe in my nostrils to make me move.
Russia has joined with China. The USA is a mess.
(00:21):
It's. Not real, It's just a dream.
Please, please wake up. Well, it's good to be back.
Thank you so much for having patience.
Jim Watkins. It is America today.
I took a couple of well deserveddays off and but, but believe
me, I was watching the news and keeping track of things as I
(00:42):
like to do. I like to keep you safe and let
you know what's going on in the world.
That's what we do here at America Today.
Give you snapshots of trending lines and where we're headed.
And I'll tell you what has gotten everybody's attention.
And I've read a lot was on this Cracker Barrel phenomena, which
we brought up last week. And I said, you know, don't,
(01:02):
don't make the mistake, go woke,go broke.
And that's exactly what's happening in this Molina gal.
She is defending her position. She's the CEO and she decided
she wanted to make the restaurant more inclusive, which
is code word for, we think that white people make black people
not want to eat at our restaurant, which is
(01:24):
preposterous because nobody was complaining about it.
They were looking for a problem to solve.
And the problem was that they, their food had gotten bad.
This is the report that after COVID, they started cutting back
because like everybody else, Denny's, IHOP, all these
restaurants, Waffle House, they were struggling and the first
(01:45):
thing they did was start to cut corners on the quality of the
food. Then they tried to slide in a
fast one with impossible meat ontheir menu.
Now, if you've ever tasted impossible meat, it's horrible
and, And why would you, if you're a vegetarian, answer me
(02:06):
this Riddle. If you don't like meat, why
would you want to use a substance to camouflage itself
as looking like meat? If you don't like sausages, why
would you want a fake sausage that looks like a sausage?
I mean, if you're going to go all the way with your veganism,
then make it into something completely different, why would
(02:27):
you want to emulate the very food that you don't like?
And so people were going to Cracker Barrel, the biscuits
were falling apart. Maybe they weren't serving as
much, you know? And so this started to have an
effect on the customer base. And with COVID, everybody was so
used to, this is what COVID has changed in our society.
(02:50):
It's turned us all into text bots where all we do is tech
people. We don't actually pick up the
phone and call them. Two, we, we got used to the idea
of having food delivered to us in 20 minutes or less.
And I have to say, I will raise my hand and say I'm guilty.
I'm guilty, you know, I order probably 2-3 times a week out of
(03:13):
convenience. You know why?
Because it's getting more crowded on the roadway.
So it's a natural evolution of commerce that we've gone from
going out to get stuff to havingit brought to us.
And we don't mind paying the extra fee.
Throw in a little tip, it's OK. But we got used to it after
COVID, and now it's become almost standard, you know?
(03:35):
I know you do it too. And so now we've got this
situation where you have restaurants everywhere because
that's what people used to do, is go to restaurants while they
were out shopping. Now Amazon brings it all in.
Have you seen them all lately? There's still some giant malls
that do pretty well, but by and large, I would say probably 20
to 30% of our purchases now are online, which means that 20 to
(04:00):
30% less people are going out, which means that have you been
to the movie theater lately? Now, part of that is because the
movies are not worth going to. But when you do go to a movie,
they give you a signed seat, which nobody likes because how
are you going to know? How do you, how do you, how do
you know where you're going to sit?
And then what if you're sitting and watching a movie and you
find out that you're in the wrong seat and somebody else
(04:21):
comes in the middle of your movie and says, hey, can you
move over? It's like an airline situation.
You know when you're in the wrong seat when you try to grab
the window seat Anyway. So all of these these changes
started to occur at rapid fire speed.
And it consequently made a lot of restaurant empires nervous
because they were losing their base, their margins were growing
(04:42):
thin. And so just like everybody else,
they tried to modernize. They thought, OK, well, let's
get kitschy. Let's come up with some new
angles. Let's mess with the the message
and traditionalists like myself,we understand that every once in
a while you have to change the signs.
Every once in a while you have to modernize and keep up with
(05:05):
the youngsters. We get it, we understand it.
But why remove Grandpa I, you know, I tell you something.
I haven't had Aunt Jemima in a long, long time.
I don't even care. But I grew up with it.
I grew up with pancakes with Aunt Jemima.
And I thought nothing of it was IA racist?
I don't think so. So I I was why I was probably
(05:29):
having Aunt Jemima pancakes while I was watching Julia back
in 1965 when it was a movie about a black nurse single
mother raising her black child. And I thought nothing of it.
See, it's always the perception by the left, and I've said this
before, the, the coastal elites,they, they get ahead of
themselves. They, they, they start thinking
(05:50):
in their little boxes in their little apartment buildings far
away from the families and the, the cultural legacy of, of
middle America. And they start out thinking the
rest of us. And they come up with these, you
know, brilliant ideas on how they're going to make things
better when nobody's been complaining about it at all.
Nobody ever complained about Grandpa Herschel sitting there
(06:12):
with smoking a pipe. The biscuits were good.
And, and frankly, after hearing about how good it was before
they made the changes, I kind ofwish that I'd gone into a
Cracker Barrel once in a while. My preference was always Denny's
in the Grand Slam. So it look, by the way, if you
are Denny's and you are Waffle House, please take notice of
(06:36):
what these numbskulls over it atthe Cracker Barrel have done.
Because they're going to lose their shirts, they're going to
get fired, and they're going to do it because they betrayed
their audience, just like Bud Light.
I don't know anybody drinks Bud Light anymore, but talk about a
sting. But the the lesson here, and
it's an important lesson, is that the middle America is
(06:59):
emerging as the majority rule. I think I could be wrong.
There are other aspects of of cultural idiocy that are going
on now that scratch my head. One of them that we might talk
about with only fans and what's going on with Instagram.
We'll get to that later. We also have Michael Letts
coming in. He's going to join us and get us
up to date. Now Trump wants to take the
(07:22):
National Guard and he wants to do what he's done in DC and and
move over to Chicago and Brandonover there says, no, we don't
need you. So we'll talk about that with
Michael Letts. I I have to express some grave
disappointment in the way thingsare turning out in Ukraine and
where it's headed. We'll talk about that.
It's important strange lying from the left again, the the
(07:48):
Democrat politicians, they thinkthey've figured it out and and
they're not going to win. I, I have some predictions to
make about the New York race, about Gavin Newsom's future.
And it's not good. It's it's in fact, I would tell
the if I was their political advisors, I would tell them to
run. Anyway.
(08:10):
We got a lot to cover lots in the news.
This segment of the program is brought to you by Southwest
Florida dreamhome.com. My wife and I were traveling.
We went up to Tampa this weekendto visit our son and his fiance.
They have a a new place, a new new new residence.
So it was good to get out and drive around in the rain was
horrible, but it's Florida. Florida's a beautiful state and
(08:32):
Southwest Florida Dream Home is a great place to to go if you
are considering either an investment property or maybe a
change in your life. Maybe now that the cold weather
is starting to hit the Midwest, some of you folks in Minnesota
or Billings you might want to think about, hey, maybe a nice
winter home in Florida is not a bad idea.
(08:53):
Anyway. Southwest Florida dreamhome.com
backed by Miles Robishon Real Estate Cape Coral, and they'll
treat you right. They're one of the largest real
estate companies in Southwest Florida, serving you from
Sarasota to Naples. Oh yeah, sweet too.
We are also going to talk about an article that I found
absolutely shocking and it takesa look at the new demographic
(09:16):
that is becoming the norm in theUnited States.
And no, I'm not talking about illegal immigrants.
We'll we'll tackle that tough issue, but somebody's got to say
it as we continue right here on America TODAY.
Jim Watkins here. Hang on to your horns.
We'll be back in a second. You're listening to America
TODAY. Don't forget to join us online.
You can also communicate to us through Jim watkins.org.
(09:38):
That's Jim watkins.org.
Our economy is crashing. Inflation is out of control.
Why are conservatives bad, Mommy?
Because I thought we were supposed to conserve.
Now you actually breathe in my nostrils to make me move.
Russia has joined with China. The USA is a mess.
(00:21):
It's. Not real, It's just a dream.
Please, please wake up. Well, it's good to be back.
Thank you so much for having patience.
Jim Watkins. It is America today.
I took a couple of well deserveddays off and but, but believe
me, I was watching the news and keeping track of things as I
(00:42):
like to do. I like to keep you safe and let
you know what's going on in the world.
That's what we do here at America Today.
Give you snapshots of trending lines and where we're headed.
And I'll tell you what has gotten everybody's attention.
And I've read a lot was on this Cracker Barrel phenomena, which
we brought up last week. And I said, you know, don't,
(01:02):
don't make the mistake, go woke,go broke.
And that's exactly what's happening in this Molina gal.
She is defending her position. She's the CEO and she decided
she wanted to make the restaurant more inclusive, which
is code word for, we think that white people make black people
not want to eat at our restaurant, which is
(01:24):
preposterous because nobody was complaining about it.
They were looking for a problem to solve.
And the problem was that they, their food had gotten bad.
This is the report that after COVID, they started cutting back
because like everybody else, Denny's, IHOP, all these
restaurants, Waffle House, they were struggling and the first
(01:45):
thing they did was start to cut corners on the quality of the
food. Then they tried to slide in a
fast one with impossible meat ontheir menu.
Now, if you've ever tasted impossible meat, it's horrible
and, And why would you, if you're a vegetarian, answer me
(02:06):
this Riddle. If you don't like meat, why
would you want to use a substance to camouflage itself
as looking like meat? If you don't like sausages, why
would you want a fake sausage that looks like a sausage?
I mean, if you're going to go all the way with your veganism,
then make it into something completely different, why would
(02:27):
you want to emulate the very food that you don't like?
And so people were going to Cracker Barrel, the biscuits
were falling apart. Maybe they weren't serving as
much, you know? And so this started to have an
effect on the customer base. And with COVID, everybody was so
used to, this is what COVID has changed in our society.
(02:50):
It's turned us all into text bots where all we do is tech
people. We don't actually pick up the
phone and call them. Two, we, we got used to the idea
of having food delivered to us in 20 minutes or less.
And I have to say, I will raise my hand and say I'm guilty.
I'm guilty, you know, I order probably 2-3 times a week out of
(03:13):
convenience. You know why?
Because it's getting more crowded on the roadway.
So it's a natural evolution of commerce that we've gone from
going out to get stuff to havingit brought to us.
And we don't mind paying the extra fee.
Throw in a little tip, it's OK. But we got used to it after
COVID, and now it's become almost standard, you know?
(03:35):
I know you do it too. And so now we've got this
situation where you have restaurants everywhere because
that's what people used to do, is go to restaurants while they
were out shopping. Now Amazon brings it all in.
Have you seen them all lately? There's still some giant malls
that do pretty well, but by and large, I would say probably 20
to 30% of our purchases now are online, which means that 20 to
(04:00):
30% less people are going out, which means that have you been
to the movie theater lately? Now, part of that is because the
movies are not worth going to. But when you do go to a movie,
they give you a signed seat, which nobody likes because how
are you going to know? How do you, how do you, how do
you know where you're going to sit?
And then what if you're sitting and watching a movie and you
find out that you're in the wrong seat and somebody else
(04:21):
comes in the middle of your movie and says, hey, can you
move over? It's like an airline situation.
You know when you're in the wrong seat when you try to grab
the window seat Anyway. So all of these these changes
started to occur at rapid fire speed.
And it consequently made a lot of restaurant empires nervous
because they were losing their base, their margins were growing
(04:42):
thin. And so just like everybody else,
they tried to modernize. They thought, OK, well, let's
get kitschy. Let's come up with some new
angles. Let's mess with the the message
and traditionalists like myself,we understand that every once in
a while you have to change the signs.
Every once in a while you have to modernize and keep up with
(05:05):
the youngsters. We get it, we understand it.
But why remove Grandpa I, you know, I tell you something.
I haven't had Aunt Jemima in a long, long time.
I don't even care. But I grew up with it.
I grew up with pancakes with Aunt Jemima.
And I thought nothing of it was IA racist?
I don't think so. So I I was why I was probably
(05:29):
having Aunt Jemima pancakes while I was watching Julia back
in 1965 when it was a movie about a black nurse single
mother raising her black child. And I thought nothing of it.
See, it's always the perception by the left, and I've said this
before, the, the coastal elites,they, they get ahead of
themselves. They, they, they start thinking
(05:50):
in their little boxes in their little apartment buildings far
away from the families and the, the cultural legacy of, of
middle America. And they start out thinking the
rest of us. And they come up with these, you
know, brilliant ideas on how they're going to make things
better when nobody's been complaining about it at all.
Nobody ever complained about Grandpa Herschel sitting there
(06:12):
with smoking a pipe. The biscuits were good.
And, and frankly, after hearing about how good it was before
they made the changes, I kind ofwish that I'd gone into a
Cracker Barrel once in a while. My preference was always Denny's
in the Grand Slam. So it look, by the way, if you
are Denny's and you are Waffle House, please take notice of
(06:36):
what these numbskulls over it atthe Cracker Barrel have done.
Because they're going to lose their shirts, they're going to
get fired, and they're going to do it because they betrayed
their audience, just like Bud Light.
I don't know anybody drinks Bud Light anymore, but talk about a
sting. But the the lesson here, and
it's an important lesson, is that the middle America is
(06:59):
emerging as the majority rule. I think I could be wrong.
There are other aspects of of cultural idiocy that are going
on now that scratch my head. One of them that we might talk
about with only fans and what's going on with Instagram.
We'll get to that later. We also have Michael Letts
coming in. He's going to join us and get us
up to date. Now Trump wants to take the
(07:22):
National Guard and he wants to do what he's done in DC and and
move over to Chicago and Brandonover there says, no, we don't
need you. So we'll talk about that with
Michael Letts. I I have to express some grave
disappointment in the way thingsare turning out in Ukraine and
where it's headed. We'll talk about that.
It's important strange lying from the left again, the the
(07:48):
Democrat politicians, they thinkthey've figured it out and and
they're not going to win. I, I have some predictions to
make about the New York race, about Gavin Newsom's future.
And it's not good. It's it's in fact, I would tell
the if I was their political advisors, I would tell them to
run. Anyway.
(08:10):
We got a lot to cover lots in the news.
This segment of the program is brought to you by Southwest
Florida dreamhome.com. My wife and I were traveling.
We went up to Tampa this weekendto visit our son and his fiance.
They have a a new place, a new new new residence.
So it was good to get out and drive around in the rain was
horrible, but it's Florida. Florida's a beautiful state and
(08:32):
Southwest Florida Dream Home is a great place to to go if you
are considering either an investment property or maybe a
change in your life. Maybe now that the cold weather
is starting to hit the Midwest, some of you folks in Minnesota
or Billings you might want to think about, hey, maybe a nice
winter home in Florida is not a bad idea.
(08:53):
Anyway. Southwest Florida dreamhome.com
backed by Miles Robishon Real Estate Cape Coral, and they'll
treat you right. They're one of the largest real
estate companies in Southwest Florida, serving you from
Sarasota to Naples. Oh yeah, sweet too.
We are also going to talk about an article that I found
absolutely shocking and it takesa look at the new demographic
(09:16):
that is becoming the norm in theUnited States.
And no, I'm not talking about illegal immigrants.
We'll we'll tackle that tough issue, but somebody's got to say
it as we continue right here on America TODAY.
Jim Watkins here. Hang on to your horns.
We'll be back in a second. You're listening to America
TODAY. Don't forget to join us online.
You can also communicate to us through Jim watkins.org.
(09:38):
That's Jim watkins.org.
Host
JIM WATKINS
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