Document Type

Article

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

10.30519/ahtr.537204

Journal Title

Advances in Hospitality and Tourism Research (AHTR)

Publication Date

2019

Abstract

Cracker Barrel restaurants are a fixture across the interstate landscape of the United States. These sites cultivate a strong sense of place through careful theming, generating a distinct sense of rural America and nostalgia for home. At the same time, the uniformity of Cracker Barrel speaks to the notion of placelessness, the eradication of unique local features and homogenization of experience. Cracker Barrel is thus simultaneously placeless and placefull. This research explores this paradoxical notion by utilizing semiotic analyses in an analysis of user-generated Yelp! photos of Cracker Barrels across the country. It is clear from this analysis that the number and wide variety of artifacts vary surprisingly little from store to store. Together, this uniformity and intentional theming help successfully create a sense of place for Cracker Barrel stores as a rural American, 19th century “home-away-from-home.”

Comments

The original version of this article is available at: http://www.ahtrjournal.org/index.php?page=all_issue&title=ALL%20ISSUES.

Publisher Statement

Sharing of the research results is an important component of the research process; research can only advance by sharing the results, and the value of an investment in research is only maximized through wide use of its results. Open Access articles are free to all interested readers, and the publishers place no financial or copyright barriers between the readers and the article. You are free to copy, distribute, display and perform the work as long as you give the original author(s) credit, do not use this work for commercial purposes, and do not alter, transform, or build upon this work.

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