Cracker Barrel Old Country Store (CBRL) saw its stock plummet by 5.02% in Friday's trading session, as the company faced a double whammy of investor criticism and customer backlash. The sharp decline comes in the wake of a prominent investor's call for leadership changes and reports of negative customer reactions to recent rebranding efforts.

Investor Sardar Biglari, who holds a 2.9% stake in Cracker Barrel, filed a securities document urging shareholders to withhold votes for the re-election of CEO Julie Masino and director Gilbert Davila at the next annual meeting. Biglari criticized the company's recent rebranding attempts as a "fiasco" and pointed to "repeated and highly publicized missteps" under Masino's leadership. This move has heightened concerns about the company's strategic direction and governance.

Adding to the company's woes, Benchmark analyst Todd Brooks reported that Cracker Barrel's traffic trends have significantly worsened since its mid-August attempt to change its logo and update its branding. Customer pushback has caused traffic to decline from being down 1% in the first half of the year to currently being down 8%. The company now faces the challenge of winning back disgruntled customers or attracting new ones, which may require additional marketing and discounting efforts. Despite abandoning the logo change and restaurant redesign, Cracker Barrel will need to navigate carefully to restore customer confidence and reverse the negative trend in foot traffic.