Cracker Barrel Opens its Doors in California for the First Time
Homestyle southern cooking making its way into the Golden State. Cracker Barrel recently opened its doors in California for the first time. Janella Escobar, Director of Corporate Communication at Cracker Barrel, was with us to explain why now was the right time for the expansion.
Cracker Barrel opened up on February 5th to families in Victorville, California. Escobar said there is a lot of research that the company's real estate team conducts in order to strategically select the next Cracker Barrel location. She explained the company looks for areas that have a deep connection with family-oriented values. They also look into demographics to identify growing areas.
Cracker Barrel combines the dining experience with a shopping experience through the integration of its gift shops. Every Cracker Barrel has the same store, which features a "food wall" with the companies top brands. She said the founder of the company had "the old country store in mind" when he started the first Cracker Barrel. In addition to food, the company also sells apparel items ranging from rain boots to sweatshirts.
Joe Cecela, Dream Exchange CEO, explains how they are aiming to form the first minority-controlled company to operate an exchange in U.S. history. Watch!
A Michigan judge is putting sponges in the hands of shoplifters and ordering them to wash cars in a Walmart parking lot when spring weather arrives. Genesee County Judge Jeffrey Clothier hopes the unusual form of community service discourages people from stealing from Walmart. The judge also wants to reward shoppers with free car washes. Clothier says he began ordering “Walmart wash” sentences this week for shoplifting at the store in Grand Blanc Township. He believes 75 to 100 people eventually will be ordered to wash cars this spring. Clothier says he will be washing cars alongside them when the time comes.
The State Department had been in talks with Elon Musk’s Tesla company to buy armored electric vehicles, but the plans have been put on hold by the Trump administration after reports emerged about a potential $400 million purchase. A State Department spokesperson said the electric car company owned by Musk was the only one that expressed interest back in May 2024. The deal with Tesla was only in its planning phases but it was forecast to be the largest contract of the year. It shows how some of his wealth has come and was still expected to come from taxpayers.
At 100 years old, the Goodyear Blimp is an ageless star in the sky. The 246-foot-long airship will be in the background of the Daytona 500 — flying roughly 1,500 feet above Daytona International Speedway, actually — to celebrate its greatest anniversary tour. Even though remote camera technologies are improving regularly and changing the landscape of aerial footage, the blimp continues to carve out a niche. At Daytona, with the usual 40-car field racing around a 2½-mile superspeedway, views from the blimp aptly provide the scope of the event.
You'll just have to wait for interest rates (and prices) to go down. Plus, this deal's a steel, the big carmaker wedding is off, and bribery is back, baby!
