Nearly six years ago, industry leaders and foodies heralded the arrival of Cracker Barrel Old Country Store to Victorville, the first in California.

Since then, the excitement continued to build as Cracker Barrel opened six additional locations in California, including stores in Sacramento, Santa Maria, Rocklin, Camarillo, Rialto and Bakersfield.

In a surprising move, the southern-themed chain recently shuttered its Sacramento and Santa Maria restaurants, which were marked as "permanently closed" on Google.

Cracker Barrel stores in Medford, Oregon and Columbia, South Carolina were also closed. The Medford restaurant was Cracker Barrel's last store in Oregon following the closure of three other locations in March 2023.

However, Cracker Barrel Old Country Store on Amargosa Road in Victorville remains open.

"The decision to close a store is never one we take lightly, and our focus right now is on assisting our impacted employees during this transition," Cracker Barrel officials said in a statement.

"Despite our best efforts to maintain our business in these locations, we've been unsuccessful. We are heartbroken to close these four locations, but we are grateful to our employees and guests who have supported us over the years," Cracker Barrel said in a statement.

Cracker Barrel woes

Industry leaders have commented that since the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020, businesses, especially restaurants, have struggled to stay open.

Some of the reasons include rising inflation, higher operational costs and now a $20 per hour minimum wage for many restaurants in California.

In April, the food-themed Mashed cited six reasons why Cracker Barrel may be struggling, including “higher prices and fewer diners.”

Cracker Barrel recently had to raise its prices by 8.7%, according to the company website.

The price of restaurant food has risen by 5.1% in the last year as of February 2024. Perhaps this is why only 58% of consumers ate out at restaurants in June 2023, which was 9% less than in May of that same year, Mashed reported.

On a September 2023 call with investors, the then Cracker Barrel CEO Sandy Cochran said, "We had expected the traffic would improve in June and July with the onset of the summer travel season. Unfortunately, this didn't materialize."

Other restaurants, including IHOP, the Cheesecake Factory, and Applebee's, all saw downturns in their business last summer, according to Mashed.

Losing Baby Boomers?

Another speculation as to why Cracker Barrel is losing business is that older customers are still staying away from restaurants post-pandemic, Mashed stated.

With more than a quarter of guests at the company’s flagship store over 65, it’s apparent that Baby Boomers love Cracker Barrel.

Unfortunately for Cracker Barrel, it is exactly this generation of consumers that has not yet recovered from the effects of the pandemic, Mashed stated.

In 2023, former CEO Sandra Cochran explained that one factor in Cracker Barrel's low revenue number is that the restaurant simply doesn't have the traffic that it did pre-pandemic.

"The over-65 group is particularly value-conscious," Cochran said, "We just haven't seen the recovery of that group."

There are still more than 660 Cracker Barrel locations across the U.S.

Daily Press reporter Rene Ray De La Cruz may be reached at RDeLaCruz@VVDailyPress.com. Follow him on X @DP_ReneDeLaCruz

This article originally appeared on Victorville Daily Press: Cracker Barrel closes California locations, Victorville spared