Cracker Barrel Once Fired A 73-Year-Old Employee For Giving Away A Muffin

Cracker Barrel is no stranger to controversy. In 2022, Cracker Barrel was called "woke" for serving plant-based sausage, which is obviously absurd. But many of its other scandals are more troubling. 

There was the time Cracker Barrel accidentally put a noose in one of its dining rooms, along with the $8.7 million the company paid to settle racial discrimination and customer segregation lawsuits, as well as when employees sued the company for allegedly violating the Fair Labor Standards Act. Going even further back, in 1991, Cracker Barrel allegedly fired employees for being gay.

When a chain is inundated with bad headlines this frequently, some of them can slip through the cracks. Some of these are examples of one person making a very bad mistake (such as the times Cracker Barrel served a customer a dish contaminated with blood or a beverage that was just cleaning solution), but others are much darker and speak to corporate ideology. Enter the time Cracker Barrel fired a 73-year-old employee for giving away a muffin.

Loss prevention is a concern at any retail chain — which Cracker Barrel technically counts as because of the store located in every restaurant. And large companies often have a reputation for caring about The Rules far more than basic empathy. But this story was on a whole other level.

In 2014, 73-year-old military veteran Joe Klobenzer had worked as a Cracker Barrel host in Venice, Florida for three years, until he committed the ultimate sin: giving a person in need a muffin. A man walked in who, according to Klobenzer, "looked a little needy." The man asked for some condiments, which Klobenzer gave him — then slipped a muffin into the bag on the way out. Shortly thereafter, the general manager at the restaurant called him into his office and fired him. 

Even though this story may not be as well-remembered now as some of the chain's other missteps, the company's PR response to the backlash at the time was arguably among the worst.

Let's just say Cracker Barrel's damage control didn't exactly inspire confidence. The company's full statement about the incident read:

"Mr. Koblenzer has worked as a host at Cracker Barrel's Sarasota [County] store since April 2011. During the time he was employed, he violated the Company's policies regarding consuming food without paying or giving away free food, on five separate occasions. Mr. Koblenzer received multiple counselings and written warnings reminding him about the company's polices and the consequences associated with violating them. On the fifth occasion, again per Company policy, Mr. Koblenzer was terminated."

Klobenzer disputed some of the particulars there, claiming one incident was giving a customer a cup of coffee he himself paid for. But even if it were true, the notion that "he couldn't give a person in need a corn muffin because it's against company policy" doesn't make the company look great for holding that policy in the first place.

Many Cracker Barrel customers agreed. The chain's next Facebook post (ironically about supporting the military) was inundated with comments taking the company to task. Ultimately, though, this one seems to have faded away over time. There's no report of Klobenzer ever getting his job back, and Cracker Barrel never actually apologized.