Lessons from Crackerbarrel

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Our economy is crashing.
Inflation is out of control.

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Why are conservatives bad,
Mommy?

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Because I thought we were
supposed to conserve.

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Now you actually breathe in my
nostrils to make me move.

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Russia has joined with China.
The USA is a mess.

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It's.
Not real, It's just a dream.

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Please, please wake up.
Well, it's good to be back.

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Thank you so much for having
patience.

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Jim Watkins.
It is America today.

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I took a couple of well deserved
days off and but, but believe

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me, I was watching the news and
keeping track of things as I

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like to do.
I like to keep you safe and let

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you know what's going on in the
world.

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That's what we do here at
America Today.

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Give you snapshots of trending
lines and where we're headed.

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And I'll tell you what has
gotten everybody's attention.

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And I've read a lot was on this
Cracker Barrel phenomena, which

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we brought up last week.
And I said, you know, don't,

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don't make the mistake, go woke,
go broke.

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And that's exactly what's
happening in this Molina gal.

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She is defending her position.
She's the CEO and she decided

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she wanted to make the
restaurant more inclusive, which

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is code word for, we think that
white people make black people

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not want to eat at our
restaurant, which is

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preposterous because nobody was
complaining about it.

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They were looking for a problem
to solve.

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And the problem was that they,
their food had gotten bad.

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This is the report that after
COVID, they started cutting back

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because like everybody else,
Denny's, IHOP, all these

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restaurants, Waffle House, they
were struggling and the first

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thing they did was start to cut
corners on the quality of the

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food.
Then they tried to slide in a

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fast one with impossible meat on
their menu.

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Now, if you've ever tasted
impossible meat, it's horrible

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and, And why would you, if
you're a vegetarian, answer me

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this Riddle.
If you don't like meat, why

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would you want to use a
substance to camouflage itself

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as looking like meat?
If you don't like sausages, why

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would you want a fake sausage
that looks like a sausage?

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I mean, if you're going to go
all the way with your veganism,

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then make it into something
completely different, why would

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you want to emulate the very
food that you don't like?

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And so people were going to
Cracker Barrel, the biscuits

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were falling apart.
Maybe they weren't serving as

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much, you know?
And so this started to have an

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effect on the customer base.
And with COVID, everybody was so

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used to, this is what COVID has
changed in our society.

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It's turned us all into text
bots where all we do is tech

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people.
We don't actually pick up the

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phone and call them.
Two, we, we got used to the idea

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of having food delivered to us
in 20 minutes or less.

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And I have to say, I will raise
my hand and say I'm guilty.

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I'm guilty, you know, I order
probably 2-3 times a week out of

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convenience.
You know why?

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Because it's getting more
crowded on the roadway.

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So it's a natural evolution of
commerce that we've gone from

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going out to get stuff to having
it brought to us.

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And we don't mind paying the
extra fee.

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Throw in a little tip, it's OK.
But we got used to it after

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COVID, and now it's become
almost standard, you know?

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I know you do it too.
And so now we've got this

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situation where you have
restaurants everywhere because

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that's what people used to do,
is go to restaurants while they

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were out shopping.
Now Amazon brings it all in.

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Have you seen them all lately?
There's still some giant malls

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that do pretty well, but by and
large, I would say probably 20

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to 30% of our purchases now are
online, which means that 20 to

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30% less people are going out,
which means that have you been

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to the movie theater lately?
Now, part of that is because the

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movies are not worth going to.
But when you do go to a movie,

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they give you a signed seat,
which nobody likes because how

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are you going to know?
How do you, how do you, how do

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you know where you're going to
sit?

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And then what if you're sitting
and watching a movie and you

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find out that you're in the
wrong seat and somebody else

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comes in the middle of your
movie and says, hey, can you

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move over?
It's like an airline situation.

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You know when you're in the
wrong seat when you try to grab

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the window seat Anyway.
So all of these these changes

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started to occur at rapid fire
speed.

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And it consequently made a lot
of restaurant empires nervous

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because they were losing their
base, their margins were growing

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thin.
And so just like everybody else,

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they tried to modernize.
They thought, OK, well, let's

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get kitschy.
Let's come up with some new

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angles.
Let's mess with the the message

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and traditionalists like myself,
we understand that every once in

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a while you have to change the
signs.

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Every once in a while you have
to modernize and keep up with

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the youngsters.
We get it, we understand it.

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But why remove Grandpa I, you
know, I tell you something.

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I haven't had Aunt Jemima in a
long, long time.

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I don't even care.
But I grew up with it.

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I grew up with pancakes with
Aunt Jemima.

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And I thought nothing of it was
IA racist?

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I don't think so.
So I I was why I was probably

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having Aunt Jemima pancakes
while I was watching Julia back

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in 1965 when it was a movie
about a black nurse single

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mother raising her black child.
And I thought nothing of it.

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See, it's always the perception
by the left, and I've said this

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before, the, the coastal elites,
they, they get ahead of

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themselves.
They, they, they start thinking

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in their little boxes in their
little apartment buildings far

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away from the families and the,
the cultural legacy of, of

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middle America.
And they start out thinking the

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rest of us.
And they come up with these, you

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know, brilliant ideas on how
they're going to make things

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better when nobody's been
complaining about it at all.

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Nobody ever complained about
Grandpa Herschel sitting there

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with smoking a pipe.
The biscuits were good.

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And, and frankly, after hearing
about how good it was before

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they made the changes, I kind of
wish that I'd gone into a

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Cracker Barrel once in a while.
My preference was always Denny's

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in the Grand Slam.
So it look, by the way, if you

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are Denny's and you are Waffle
House, please take notice of

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what these numbskulls over it at
the Cracker Barrel have done.

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Because they're going to lose
their shirts, they're going to

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get fired, and they're going to
do it because they betrayed

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their audience, just like Bud
Light.

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I don't know anybody drinks Bud
Light anymore, but talk about a

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sting.
But the the lesson here, and

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it's an important lesson, is
that the middle America is

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emerging as the majority rule.
I think I could be wrong.

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There are other aspects of of
cultural idiocy that are going

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on now that scratch my head.
One of them that we might talk

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about with only fans and what's
going on with Instagram.

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We'll get to that later.
We also have Michael Letts

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coming in.
He's going to join us and get us

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up to date.
Now Trump wants to take the

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National Guard and he wants to
do what he's done in DC and and

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move over to Chicago and Brandon
over there says, no, we don't

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need you.
So we'll talk about that with

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Michael Letts.
I I have to express some grave

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disappointment in the way things
are turning out in Ukraine and

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where it's headed.
We'll talk about that.

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It's important strange lying
from the left again, the the

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Democrat politicians, they think
they've figured it out and and

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they're not going to win.
I, I have some predictions to

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make about the New York race,
about Gavin Newsom's future.

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And it's not good.
It's it's in fact, I would tell

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the if I was their political
advisors, I would tell them to

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run.
Anyway.

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We got a lot to cover lots in
the news.

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This segment of the program is
brought to you by Southwest

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Florida dreamhome.com.
My wife and I were traveling.

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to visit our son and his fiance.

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They have a a new place, a new
new new residence.

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So it was good to get out and
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Oh yeah, sweet too.

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We are also going to talk about
an article that I found

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absolutely shocking and it takes
a look at the new demographic

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that is becoming the norm in the
United States.

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And no, I'm not talking about
illegal immigrants.

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We'll we'll tackle that tough
issue, but somebody's got to say

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it as we continue right here on
America TODAY.

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Jim Watkins here.
Hang on to your horns.

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We'll be back in a second.
You're listening to America

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TODAY.
Don't forget to join us online.

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You can also communicate to us
through Jim watkins.org.

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That's Jim watkins.org.