[mommy22]

OK...I don't often go to Cracker Barrel, but yesterday, I found myself sitting in one of the restaurants in Ohio. (For those outside of the US...does Canada have these?...it's a folksy, down-home restaurant/mass produced cheap stuff store dotted throughout the US...food heavy and mediocre) So, they seated us right in front of the huge fire place in the middle area of the restaurant. While I was there (about an hour) I watched as the manager played with the gas meter to keep the fire going strong, while putting 2 loads of firewood on the gas fire..I know that I see the world differently after the PO realization, but that really bothered me, that this place would use up world resources like this (in my head, I'm trying to calculate how many trees are cut down and burned at all these restaurants every day/year just from this one chain), not to mention the amount of CO2 going in the air). And really, it's just for ambience...for the appearance of a warm country feeling. AAAARRRRGGG
OK...that's all for this rant.

[Aaron]

According to their website:

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'H')ow many Cracker Barrel Old Country Store locations are there?
As of today, there are 555 locations in 41 states.

[killJOY]

Look at it this way:

If all Cracker Barrels suddenly stopped this waste, how long would it delay the peak?

[skyemoor]

Assuming you are speaking of the North American natural gas peak, that has come and gone. The article is about Cracker Barrel, but the thrust of the need for change is all-encompassing.

[east2west]

Does every Cracker Barrel have a fire place? It seams as though I have been in some before and didn’t see one. (I may be mistaken though)

Either way, that’s extremely wasteful.

[MonteQuest]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('east2west', 'D')oes every Cracker Barrel have a fire place? It seams as though I have been in some before and didn’t see one. (I may be mistaken though)

Either way, that’s extremely wasteful.

[dinopello]

I was just noticing that I can buy little bundles of firewood at Fresh Fields that are imported from Estonia. Apparently it's good wood. I think it was Estonian White Birch. A little crazy, huh?

[Jack]

Well...instead of looking at the logs and the gas used for the fireplace...let us look at the fundamentals.

We drive up - they're located on major roadways - and park.

We walk in. The gift shop is filled with trinkets, most of it of no real use or value. It has been produced somewhere, shipped to the shop, and there it waits for a purchaser. That purchaser will obtain more clutter they neither need nor really want. But it cost energy to produce it and to get it to the shop.

We are seated. We order breakfast, perhaps. Eggs, from hens in a corporate barn fed corn from a corporate field. Bacon from a pig grown somewhere, shipped to slaughter somewhere else, processed into bacon and cured yet another place, shipped to Sysco (or whoever), and finally delivered to the restaurant. It - along with a great many other strips of bacon - is cooked. Some will be thrown out. Numerous diners will eat only part, leaving more to be disposed of. And this paradigm is replicated for every item on the plate.

We sip our coffee. The beans were shipped from thousands of miles away. They'll be roasted. Perhaps, if we're lucky, the restaurant will grind them on site, then heat water to produce the brew. Once again, much will be wasted.

Notice how much waste is inherent to the business at the most fundamental level. The fireplace is, in my opinion, a trivial addition to a cascade of energy expenditure. We are, if you will, gagging at a gnat while swallowing an elephant of waste.

But if we cut back in the slightest, sales and employment will decline, as MonteQuest points out.

Yes, indeed. When reality asserts itself and the cheap energy world we live in shifts, it is going to be painful.

The sad thing is, we remain blind.

(As for me - my breakfast included pineapple shipped in from Hawaii and strawberries that came from a greenhouse in California. The rest of the meal was equally energy rich. So I'm not criticizing.)

[JPL]

Sigh... and you think things are much different in other parts of the (first) world...

If you want, check out some of these big European retailer's sites for more 'click & burn' consumer crap:

http://www.champion.fr/
http://www.tesco.com/superstore/p/help/welcome.htm
http://www.waitrose.com/food_drink/part ... /index.asp
.
.
.
...etc

[NeoPeasant]

I go there for breakfast a lot. There's a big fireplace but it's never lit in the morning.
I spend my time looking at all those 19th century household implements they have hanging from the walls and ceilings, thinking about what they are, how they're made and how to use them.

[gg3]

It's still worth while to reduce the waste associated with superfluous or frivolous uses of energy & resources.

Reason why is, to start encouraging a more spartan culture that will more readily adapt to cutting back the kinds of waste that make a significant difference. Ultimately we have to get into the mindset of cutting back & powering-down wherever possible. So the more we get in the habit, the less that people are likely to howl when they are told they need to start wearing sweaters in the winter, etc. etc.

[pup55]

Cracker Barrel is an interesting barometer of the effects of PO. First of all, they populate the famous "interstate offramp" environment, meaning that they are just a step away from the fast food business, and they are 100% dependent on car travelers to bring in business.

A lot, not all, of their stores are located out in the middle of nowhere, and in a way, they inhabit the same space as wallymart: rural areas in the south and midwest with that kind of culture, also, demographically they are focused on the "white redneck" population, if you will. Their target market strongly indentifies with country music, and they are trying to increase their sales of country CD's, etc. in their retail stores.

Here are some statements from their annual report:

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'C')onsumers responded by reducing their discretionary
spending, including dining out less. Declines in
guest traffic were reported across the industry. The
competitive landscape in the industry changed as
consumers “traded down” to quick-service restaurants
and quick-service restaurants broadened their appeal
and upgraded their product offerings

[frankthetank]

Just imagine the amt of trees that get burned when NG falls off a cliff completely. If you like trees, you better hope for mild winters!

Minneapolis, Chicage, Milwaukee, Detroit...no gas for you!

[mercurygirl]

If I must visit a place like that, I take some small pleasure in the fact that they will not be in operation very much longer.

Jack is right. The MO of any restaurant is to make a profit by buying food, fixing it up, and selling it to us. There's always massive waste involved.

We don't eat out very often. Once in awhile some ethnic stuff or out of necessity when traveling. I am rarely impressed by a restaurant's offerings. Food from my garden and kitchen is many times better in every way.

[Ludi]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('gg3', 'I')t's still worth while to reduce the waste associated with superfluous or frivolous uses of energy & resources.

[PrairieMule]

Forget the fireplace. The real horrorshow is out in the parking lot.

Places like these seem to attract Oldsmobiles and Buicks with their detroit 4.3L V8s like rats on a wood pile.

I hate to stereotype but it seems that both owner and vehicle always seem have abundance of ample plush upholstry in the seat covered by cheesey synthetic cloth. Both will go the way of Dodo the in a post peak enviroment.

I predict one day Histrorians will look back from 1987-2009 "The age of Velour" and marvel in astonishment on the abundance of this oil based product that a person could use this fiber to cover a bench seat or fill a closet with tracksuits.

[lateralus]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('PrairieMule', 'T')he real horrorshow is out in the parking lot.

[Laughs_Last]

In a grand coincidence, I too was at a Cracker Barrel this Sunday evening. I rarely go there. I had a great personal victory of beating that triangle-golf-tee game twice in a row, a different way each time.

The longer I spend preparing for peak oil, the more my house looks a little like the inside of that place. The difference is my stuff is in good repair and not hanging out of reach from the ceiling. That and I'll probably never need to put up a sign in my vestibule explaining how I'm not really a racist despite being named "Cracker Barrel".