A Cracker Barrel former employee who has a history with the company made an allegation about a situation that, if true, would definitely raise some alarm bells.
The tale came courtesy of creator Kara (@karalynnmartin), who unveiled a four-part video (with a very compelling aside) on Friday. Part one got more than 523,000 views by Monday.
The creator laid out the situation: She had worked at Cracker Barrel for what she described as “years and years,” married to someone who was a general manager at the company for 12 years. Her story involved giving birth to twins who needed NICU hospitalization, and her husband eventually needing to quit his job.
“You feel like you’re in a cult when you’re in,” she said of Cracker Barrel employment. “I mean, like when you get out, you’re like, ‘Wow, that was crazy.’”
In the midst of the ordeal, Kara reveals her husband said, “This is not the company that I once knew. This is not the company that hired me.”
Her four-part video (billed as Parts 1 through 3 and then leaping to Part 5) involved a co-worker she believed got promoted unfairly and created conflict that led to her being written up unfairly. She says she ended up getting fired after allegedly condoning a “derogatory comment” from another employee.
But, as an aside that only had 13,000 views as of Sunday night, Kara dropped a bombshell that should give Cracker Barrel customers pause—provided they believe her account.
“I am screaming right now,” she declared. “One of our girls found a roach in the bottom of a biscuit that was like cooked into it. She found it whenever she had flipped it over into the basket. They didn’t even throw the pan out; they just kept using the same pan.”
Are Cracker Barrel customers satisfied?
According to Yelp, which has chronicled nearly 87,000 customer reviews nationwide, the national chain has an average rating of 2.9. Per Yelp’s assessment, this “indicates that most customers are generally dissatisfied.”
“I always come to Cracker Barrel, but this is the first time that I come to this place and I got very bad experience,” said a Dumfries, Va., customer. “We waited for an hour for our food to arrive and we were very hungry and the people next to us got their food really fast and we waited for a long time.”
“Food was delicious, but service was terrible,” said a Good Hope, Ala., customer. “Not attentive at all. Brought wrong drink. Didn’t have correct food. No refills. Brought wrong drink again as to go drink. Saw them standing inside door talking….I guess that was more important than customer service.”
After giving a mixed review of his own meal, one said, “EVERY time we’ve eaten at this CB in the last three years we said it was our last time. EVERY TIME! That’s a shame as when I moved to Huntsville in 2015, I used to eat at this CB routinely and it was good. WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED, CRACKER BARREL?!!!! We’re done with this CB and we mean it this time.”
Viewers swear off Cracker Barrel
Kara’s take led to some strong reactions.
“This sounds more like a personal grievance because you had a child while employed more than CB issues,” said one in response to the Part One video.
“They use to be my number one favorite restaurant,” declared another. “Then [their] food quality went down and they changed [their] menu and it’s horrible now and I have [not] been back in over a year.”
“Well, I am ruined when it comes to Cracker Barrel,” said one responding to the roach allegation video.
Someone else declared, “I will never eat at Cracker Barrel ever again!”
@karalynnmartin Replying to @Lesbianfriends #crackerbarrel #fyp ♬ original sound – Kara
The Daily Dot has reached out to the creator via TikTok direct message and to Cracker Barrel via email.
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