Cracker Barrel's Dramatic Fall: Discrimination, Reputation, & Loss of Customers - Essay Sample

Introduction

When the cracker barrel restaurant surfaced in 1969, it was an icon in the hotel industry. It flocked with customers, and until 2004, it was at the top of the industry, enjoying all the possible benefits and preference by many customers. However, reports of discrimination hit the media, and the reputation of the hotel started to experience a blow. Their sales and market share went down substantially, and the restaurant started to lose many of its customers in all their joints. This situation has raised a concept of industrial evaluation, where Cracker Barrel can be evaluated for substitutes. This paper is a case study on industry evaluation, proposing substitutes of the Cracker Barrel restaurant.

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Walmart is one of the possible companies that can substitute Cracker Barrel. This company has, in its entire history, kept a consistent policy of change. They offer dynamic services to its customers, an aspect which has helped the company retain its customers and win more others. On account of industrial performance, Walmart has maintained a constant rise in their sales and market share. One of its outstanding services is the banking system that they use. They have an application that helps their customers from less developed areas with digital banking. Secondly, in the 2019 fiscal year, they have realized a significant rise in sales where they had total revenue of $514.4 billion, translating to a 2.8% increase from the 2018 revenue collection (Clemons, 2019). This is quite an achievement considering that the values cover three quarters, with the last quarter of the year not accounted for. Lastly, Walmart has well elaborate delivery service where customers order their preferred products from the comfort of their homes and have them delivered efficiently within the shortest time possible.

The second company that can substitute Cracker Barrel is McDonald's. This is a company that has had its glory spread across the globe. McDonald's has branches in all the continents of the world, and its customers are global (McDonald, 2015). Their services are outstanding, a factor which gives them a relative advantage over Cracker Barrel restaurant. To start with, McDonald's assets stood at a value of $46,200 million by June 2019. This figure translates to a 45% growth rate per year in their history of existence. Secondly, in this fiscal year, 2019, the company has realized a total sale of $5.6 billion, with the last quarter of the year unaccounted for (Kraak, RinconGallardo, & Sacks, 2019). Thirdly, the company's increased sales have helped them to attract more investors every year, increasing the company's growth potential significantly. Lastly, the fact that the company is widespread in the globe, customers have an easy time to locate their joints, giving them a higher preference over many hotels.

The last company with a high possibility of substituting Cracker barrel restaurant is the Love's gas stations. This company has operational convenience stores for travelers and gas stations. The focal aspect that gives this company an advantage over the Cracker barrel is the multiple services they offer. They have gas stations for fueling and convenience stores where customers can shop for their necessities. This year alone, the company has operated on revenue of $19 billion (Zohner, 2019), which is an 18.8% increase from the past fiscal year.

The above three companies have significant potential to act as substitutes for the Cracker Barrel restaurant, which is currently not doing so well. Their outstanding services and performance in the industry give them the advantage of preference over Cracker Barrel.

References

Clemons, E. K. (2019). Resources, Platforms, and Sustainable Competitive Advantage: How to Win and Keep on Winning. In New Patterns of Power and Profit (pp. 93-104). Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. Retrieved from https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-030-00443-9_6

Kraak, V. I., RinconGallardo Patino, S., & Sacks, G. (2019). An accountability evaluation for the International Food & Beverage Alliance's Global Policy on Marketing Communications to Children to reduce obesity: A narrative review to inform policy. Obesity Reviews. Retrieved from https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/obr.12859

McDonald, M. (2015). Marketing accountability. Wiley Encyclopedia of Management, 1-8. Retrieved from https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/9781118785317

ZOHNER, K. Switching over. Retrieved from https://scholars.fhsu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1455&context=university_leader