Cracker Barrel, a cool concept

The Cracker Barrel concept combines a restaurant with a nostalgic shop. During a visit in the USA in 2011, I looked at how food, old objects and childhood memories could become one complete experience.

The Cracker Barrel concept with a restaurant and shop

Outside stood rocking chairs. Inside, you could buy Christmas goods, Halloween items, toys and other products in an old-fashioned American style.

The shop was joined to a restaurant serving traditional American food. Old tools, signs and other objects helped create the atmosphere. So it wasn’t just a restaurant with some products on the side.

I was also welcomed by several employees. I noticed that because I’d often talked about my good experiences with American service.

A complete experience that sparks ideas

I didn’t know a similar concept in Denmark. That made the visit interesting: How can two different kinds of business complement each other and make walking in more fun?

I showed the shop and restaurant as inspiration. I hadn’t investigated their finances or what a Danish version would require. It was the experience and combination that caught my attention.

Retro sweets from your own childhood

In an extra video, I show boxes of sweets from different decades. A customer could choose a box of products that reminded them of childhood.

I imagined something similar with Danish sweets. My thought was that nostalgia and memories could be an interesting starting point for a product. My expectations about the crisis and the idea’s potential were assessments from 2011, not documented sales results.

A visit to Cracker Barrel’s nostalgic world

I described Cracker Barrel as a series of restaurants combined with country-style shops. You could eat old-fashioned American food while buying nostalgic American things. I thought it was a very popular and fun concept.

Outside, I showed the row of rocking chairs. Inside the shop, two employees welcomed me, and I thanked them. It made me comment on American service once again. I made a crude joke that in Denmark you almost had to be grateful not to get a kick up the backside. That was my way of underlining the difference.

Christmas featured heavily during the visit, and there were also autumn themes and Halloween products heading towards late October. I showed toys the kids liked and old American farm tools up near the ceiling.

We also looked into the restaurant. There was an old-fashioned shop counter, old signs and other objects continuing the shop’s atmosphere. For me, the combination of food, products and nostalgic surroundings made the place interesting.

I didn’t know anything similar in Denmark. It was inspiration from the 2011 visit I wanted to show.

Nostalgic sweets in boxes from different decades

The shop had sweets from the fifties, sixties, seventies and eighties. You could buy a box filled with things from the decade you grew up in.

Of course they were American sweets. To do it in Denmark, you’d need to find the Danish products we remembered. I mentioned Yankee bars as an example of something that could bring back memories for us.

Naturally, you could only include things that still existed. But the idea was to open a box and find some of the sweets you’d eaten as a child. For an older customer, it could be memories of the fifties. For others, the sixties, seventies or eighties.

I thought the crisis would make nostalgia more interesting

My expectation at the time was that Denmark faced an even bigger crisis. That was my assumption in the video, and I also said you could agree or disagree.

I thought people in crises might want to return to something familiar. I compared it with periods when you stayed home, played board games, enjoyed yourself and almost returned to childhood. You gathered at home and felt it was us against the world.

I thought we’d see more of that in Denmark in the following years. So I felt childhood sweets fitted that thinking well.

An idea for a Danish version

I was very enthusiastic about the concept and thought it could work well in Denmark. I didn’t have sales figures or a tested Danish project. It was an idea I’d had while looking at the American boxes. Also read Iværksætter til jeg dør about my experiences of developing new business ideas.

Perhaps someone could use it. A box of sweets you remembered from childhood certainly seemed a fun place to start.

Here’s the original extra video about retro sweets:

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Best wishes, Martin