PORTLAND, Ore. — Cracker Barrel announced Monday that it is closing three of the remaining four locations in Oregon, seven months after it closed its Jantzen Beach store.
Employees at the Beaverton, Tualatin and Bend locations were notified Monday that the three stores were closing, effective immediately, the company told KGW. Only one Cracker Barrel remains open in Oregon, the Southern Oregon location in Medford.
In a statement shared with KGW, Cracker Barrel cited the pandemic’s impact on the business as a reason for the three new closures.
"As a standard course of business, we continually evaluate the performance of our stores, using various criteria to ensure we are meeting the needs of our guests and our business," the company said. "With that, we are saddened that we have been unable to overcome the impact the pandemic had on our business and have made the difficult decision to close the Beaverton, Tualatin, and Bend locations. The decision to close a store is never one we take lightly, and our focus right now is in assisting our impacted employees during this transition."
Former employees told KGW the news was a surprise to them.
"It was just a regular day at work yesterday. Everyone was the same, I was talking with my manager about working more hours and taking time off for Spring break," said Jordan Nerski who worked in Tualatin. "We didn't really know anything was happening and just out of the blue this morning got a phone call."
Several customers were also upset by the news.
"I didn't know if the Yankees could support good Southern cooking and apparently not!" said a customer named James, outside the shuttered Beaverton location.
In August 2022, Cracker Barrel closed its Jantzen Beach location. At the time, the corporation said the store wasn't meeting unspecified evaluation criteria to meet "the needs of our guests and our business." Employees who reached out to KGW said they were told the store closed due to security issues.
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