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Cracker Barrel released a new logo earlier this month and, to put things lightly, it didnt go over well. The restaurant chain lost nearly $100 million in market value as it faced outrage from across the internet. The backlash was so intense that Cracker Barrel, which operates nearly 660 locations, reversed course less than 10 days later. We thank our guests for sharing your voices and love for Cracker Barrel, the company announced on its social media. We said we would listen, and we have. Our new logo is going away and our Old Timer will remain. Cue the adage, if it aint broke, dont fix it. How has Cracker Barrel stock responded to reversal? The late Tuesday announcement brought a spike in Cracker Barrels stock (Nasdaq: CBRL), with share prices increasing by about 6% through after-hours and into premarket trading Wednesday morning. The shares had already closed up 6.35% after President Trump called on Cracker Barrel to make the change. Unsurprisingly, the White House quickly took credit after Cracker Barrel announced it would bring back its old logo. Corporate rebrands are often not well received Minimalist rebrands have become increasingly common (companies ranging from Yahoo to Intel to to Burberry have rolled out more simplified logos over the years), but backtracking on a new logo so quickly is rare. Still, Cracker Barrel isnt the only American company to do a quick turnaround afterward. Two of the most notable instances took place 15 years ago. First, there was Tropicana, which back in 2009 replaced its iconic straw in an orange logo and distinct topography with a generic glass of orange juice. Customers were very underwhelmed. PepsiCo, its owner during the fiasco, completely undid everything except the orange lid. In 2024, Tropicana underwent another rebrand, this time emphasizing its best features with a retro typeface and bright colors. Then theres Gap, which debuted a new logo in 2010. It lasted for a matter of days before the retailer removed it and began crowdsourcing for an alternative.
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E-Commerce
Massive walls of dust and debris called haboobs that roll through the U.S. Southwest can be awe-inspiring and terrifying, especially for motorists caught in their path.Thunderstorms spawn the phenomenon and can create a wall of dust thousands of feet tall and several miles wide, reaching speeds of 60 mph (97 kph) or more.Here’s what to know. How do haboobs form? Thunderstorms can produce strong downdrafts that hit the ground at 50 to 80 mph (80 to 129 kph) and then spread in all directions, said Sean Benedict, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service’s Phoenix office.The winds stir up loose dust and dirt, including from arid areas and farm fields, that get blown along in front of the approaching storm cell.If thunderstorms don’t keep developing, the dust dissipates. But rain-cooled air in front of a storm can keep pushing warm air upward, generating new storms and more downdrafts, Benedict said.When that happens, the haboob can keep growing, and some travel as far as 100 miles (161 kilometers), he said.“It’s all dependent on whether they’re moving through an area that’s prone to [generating] dust,” said Benedict, noting that there’s a prominent dust corridor between Phoenix and Tucson.Haboobs also can form in arid areas of Nevada, New Mexico, and Texas. It’s unclear whether haboobs will become more frequent Scientists say localized bursts of rain in the U.S. Southwest during the monsoon season in summer have become more intense since the 1970s as the atmosphere heats up due to human-caused climate change.At the same time, it’s raining less often as droughts last longer and some arid areas expand. Climate change increases the odds of both severe drought and heavier storms that could set the stage for more intense dust storms in the future.Benedict said it’s difficult to say whether haboobs will become more frequent. The storms require a specific set of circumstances, and land use, such as farming, can affect how much dust gets picked up, he said.Not all dust storms are haboobs, which are specifically associated with downdrafts from thunderstorms.The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says the Phoenix area experiences one to three large dust storms a year. How to stay safe The National Weather Service issues dust warnings if it anticipates that thunderstorms and high winds moving through dust-prone areas could reduce visibility to a quarter mile or less. That’s especially important when conditions are favorable for clusters of storms, Benedict said.Haboobs can form quickly, catching drivers by surprise, blotting out the sun, and reducing visibility to zero. Experts recommend that motorists pull off the roadways as far as possible, stop their vehicles, and turn off their lights.“People on the roads, when they can’t see anything, they’re just gonna try to follow those taillights in front of them,” and run into parked cars, Benedict said. “If there is an accident, you might not know, and you just get these big pileups. So it’s definitely very dangerous when the visibility drops down that low.” The Associated Press’s climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters, and funded coverage areas at AP.org. By Tammy Webber, Associated Press
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E-Commerce
How many apps do you use to chat with other people? I dont mean tweeting out into the ether. I mean actually interacting with a fellow human in a one-to-one way. For most people, the number is one or two. And it’s probably fewer than five. In the U.S., you likely keep in touch with friends and family through Apple or Google Messages, and touch base with colleagues on Slack or Teams. (For Europeans, that’s texting via WhatsApp.) If youre a particularly rabid Swiftie, you might also have a raucous group chat through X or Instagram DMs; if youre a gamer, you keep up with people on Discord. But for all the time we hopscotch across apps like TikTok, YouTube, Snapchat, and Instagram to consume content, the number of platforms we actually use to interact with others remains minimal. So whats the point of Spotifys new direct messaging feature, unveiled this week and rolling out to select markets? The feature allows users to click a “Share” button while listening to a song, podcast, or audiobook and instantly start a conversation with a friend, seeded with a link to whatever theyre listening to. Why nobody wants a do-it-all app In the press release announcing the feature, the music streaming giant promises that “Messages are for the conversations youre already having about music, podcasts and audiobooks with your friends and family.” But the flaw is right there in the pitch: if youre already having those conversations on WhatsApp or iMessage, why would you uproot them into a side-channel inside Spotify? At best it duplicates whats happening elsewhere, and at worst it fractures the conversation into yet another notification stream. (Fortunately, users can turn off the function, too.) Besides the fact that friends who insist on foisting their musical tastes on you are often the most infuriating, the feature looks destined to join the long list of rarely used, half-baked add-ons app makers tack onto their products. (Fast Company has reached out to Spotify for comment.) Spotifys move highlights how wayward app makers decision-making has become, and how easily feature bloat clutters our smartphones. On paper, adding DMs to Spotify makes sense, just as adding AI autosuggestions does for LinkedIn, or layering shortform video onto YouTube does for Googles video platform. The goal is to become an everything appthink of a more modest version of Chinas WeChatthat secures a permanent slot on your home screen. The problem: That never actually happens. Attempts to provide everything to everybody end up providing nothing to anyone, and the app inevitably flops. And flop, this one will. With the exception of YouTube Shortswhich simply extended YouTubes core video offering with another formatmost attempts to ride the zeitgeist are shallow grabs at relevance. The best features, in the best apps, are developed with deep thought about how to benefit users. About that Q2 earnings report Spotify is just the latest entrant in the copycat race, a space where Big Tech borrows whats proven popular in smaller apps. Meta has been one of the most aggressive, and its results hardly inspire confidence. Crowbarring one apps feature into another rarely works. Take Spotify: Its user-loop involves search, pressing play, listening, maybe saving, maybe sharing. Messaging apps, meanwhile, follow a loop of open thread, type, send, await reply. Those loops are fundamentally different. Smush them together and you create friction in both. Do I really want to share that Im listening to the same song for the billionth time? Theres also the matter of network effects. Messaging is winner-take-most because your friends, not you, determine the platform. Thats why people tolerate green bubbles versus blue, or hop between WhatsApp and iMessage depending on the conversation. A new chat feature inside a vertical app fragments your attentionand worse, your conversation. The song you send in Spotify DMs is now marooned from the rest of your life in WhatsApp or iMessage. It creates context silos for no good reason. If an app genuinely wants to be an everything app, it needs a foundation deeper than FOMOwhich seems to be Spotifys rationale here. WeChats everything-ness is anchored in identity, payments, and ubiquity, all under unique market conditions. Silicon Valleys obsession with replicating it is misguided. Every app except WeChat that tries to become an everything app ends up as an anything appa junk drawer of half-ideas. Spotifys new feature feels like more clutter, more cruft, dumped onto an already junk-filled smartphone notification screen. A cynic might say the new messaging feature amounts to a ploy to distract from Spotifys latest earnings miss: a swing to a second quarter $100 million loss despite topping forecasts on subscribers and revenue. The mismatchusers growing, but profits shrinkingunderscores why the company keeps reaching for engagement gimmicks. If it cant squeeze more money out of music, maybe, the thinking goes, it can invent new ways to keep you glued to the app. But yet another inbox on our phones wont make Spotify more essential. It’s just more noise.
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E-Commerce
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