WHO WE ARE
 

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In 1968, Frank Sadler and Don Landers started Cracker Barrel convenience stores. Sadler, who was 30 at the time and worked for Kimberly Clark, and Landers, then 28 years old and working for Del Monte, would visit and satisfy a sweet tooth at a Krispy Kreme Doughnut Shop, dreaming of going into business.

Since both were in the food and grocery business, they discussed going into a brokerage business, store business, or convenience store business. "We thought we could do it better outside of the business and on our own," recalls Landers.

With that decision made they leased a "mom and pop" hardware store for $250 a month and opened the first Cracker Barrel Store at Millerville & Old Hammond Hwy in Baton Rouge, LA on February 3, 1968.

They had tried to raise the money (each having only $2000 to invest) but needed $15,000. They went to a local bank which said, "Why would you want to quit good jobs to go speculate?" They went back to the drawing board and were finally able to convince Fidelity Bank to loan them the money.

"Before we opened we had to decide who would run the store, so we flipped a coin to see who would quit his job and run the store." Landers says he won!

Only 3 months later, the two guys opened their second store on Government Street. Then Sadler quit his job and ran this store, but soon the City Parish started four-laning the street and they almost went bankrupt from the lack of business. Sadler says, "The only people we basically sold to were the guys working on the street."

Their business really began to take off, when they opened their third store outside the gates of LSU, the local university, on the Friday before Labor Day, 1970.

They did $58,000 for their first year and are still doing well, with over 55 stores statewide and over 475 employees. That's quite a change from working 17 - 19 hour shifts themselves, for several years.

In 1985 Cracker Barrel bought their first Gasoline truck and today they have three trucks and distribute Shell, Chevron and their own private label fuel. Freedom Fuel.

Cracker Barrel is now an innovator in convenience stores, opening full service Church's Chicken's, Blimpie's Restaurants, and Krispy Kreme Donuts in most locations. Cracker Barrel won the "Alternative Developer of the year" from Church's Chicken, a very prestigious award.

Cracker Barrel also owns its own Money Order Company --- National Express, and is now in the check Cashing Business.

Cracker Barrel  looks forward to the future with growth plans of 2 - 3 locations a year at the present time.

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