this post was submitted on 25 Aug 2025
488 points (96.4% liked)

Funny

11838 readers
2010 users here now

General rules:

Exceptions may be made at the discretion of the mods.

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] VeryVito@lemmy.ml 72 points 1 month ago (3 children)

When your whole schtick is nostalgia, but all the folks who remember the things you reference are now dead or otherwise unable to come to your restaurants, you either need to change your schtick, or you need to tap into the nostalgia of a younger generation. There aren’t as many Amos & Andy and Howdy Doody fans on the highways these days.

[–] InternetCitizen2@lemmy.world 32 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Or just be happy with the niche. Not everything needs to be global.

[–] VeryVito@lemmy.ml 14 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (2 children)

But its niche is disappearing, so it either finds a new niche, or it goes out of business. Its niche was always “middle-aged people’s childhood memories,” but how many of today’s middle-aged people grew up listening to radio shows and watching old men sitting around cracker barrels?

Hell, I AM middle-aged, and one of my grandfathers was a sharecropper who eventually started his own corner store, so I SHOULD be exactly their demographic… but my childhood memories are of Charlie’s Angels, Radio Shack computers and Run DMC. Their niche is almost nonexistent now.

[–] ArcaneSlime@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

but how many of today’s middle-aged people grew up listening to radio shows

THE Shadow knows! MUAHAHAHAHA!

Am middle aged too, grew up on nerdy old shit. Don't forget to stock up on Blue Anthracite coal and Chesterfields!

[–] lagoon8622@sh.itjust.works 2 points 1 month ago

Radium water or nothing! They'll take it away over my dead body!!

[–] MacNCheezus@lemmy.today 2 points 1 month ago

That’s a weird way of saying your grandpa never took you to Cracker Barrel.

[–] Rothe@piefed.social 2 points 1 month ago

Cracker Barrel was never global. It has always been a strictly US phenomenon.

[–] rumba@lemmy.zip 6 points 1 month ago

I would totally make it a point to frequent a steampunk themed Cracker Barrel.

[–] BarneyPiccolo@lemmy.today 5 points 1 month ago

There aren’t as many Amos & Andy and Howdy Doody fans on the highways these days.

If there are, they're probably driving the wrong way on the highway.