The curious case of Cracker Barrel's logo change: last week's most read retail tech articles
Check out our most clicked retail technology articles from last week, including Ikea, Asda, Focal Systems, M&S Food, Ocado, Happy Robot, Zyntrix, Holland & Barrett, Merchmix, and the 2025 RTIH Innovation Awards.
Cracker Barrel logo change backlash boosted by sophisticated social media disinformation campaign
Lowe, now 93, founded the US roadside restaurant with his friend Dan Evins in 1969 in Lebanon, Tennessee, to serve country food to interstate travellers.
A new text only logo was recently unveiled, which removed Uncle Herschel (aka the 'Old Timer') leaning on a barrel. This has now been binned after accusations that Cracker Barrel was abandoning its roots.
Brittain Ladd, a supply chain consultant and former Amazon executive, said: "I was against Cracker Barrel hiring Julie Felss Masino to be CEO. Masino’s “woke” reputation from her prior employers (which includes Taco Bell) was well known. What happened isn’t a surprise to anyone who worked with Masino in the past."
"Cracker Barrel has always been more than a roadside restaurant - it’s been a brand that embodies comfort, familiarity, and tradition for millions of Americans. Its customers return because it feels like home. To Masino, the tradition needed to change. It’s more than that, actually. Masino wants to erase its history and start over. Her way."
"When a company experiments with its brand identity, it takes a risk. But when those changes signal a lack of understanding of its customers’ values and culture, it goes from risk to outright failure. Nothing frustrates customers more than when they believe a company doesn’t “get them.” The decision to move away from the original logo - and then quickly revert - wasn’t just a branding blunder. It was a sign of leadership that didn’t listen, didn’t respect, and didn’t truly understand the heartbeat of its customer base."
It might have looked like everyone hated the change. But according to Cyabra research, a sophisticated disinformation campaign targeted Cracker Barrel across social media platforms, particularly X.
This found that 21% of attacking profiles were fake, running a coordinated campaign. They pushed boycotts, targeted the CEO, and drove outrage that contributed to a 10.5% stocks drop (~$100 million lost in days).
“What’s alarming is how real these fakes looked - framing the change as betrayal, amplifying boycotts, and sparking genuine engagement. Just a few hundred fake accounts generated 4.4 million views and thousands of real engagements,” says Dan Brahmy, Co-founder and CEO at Cyabra.
AI expert and Amazon exec Yatin Garg becomes 2025 RTIH Innovation Awards judge
We're hugely pleased to announce the addition of Yatin Garg to the judging panel for the 2025 RTIH Innovation Awards.
Yatin is a senior executive and thought leader in technology, retail, and finance, with over 12 years of global experience spanning Amazon, Boston Consulting Group, and Unilever.
He currently serves as Amazon Head of Product, Engineering, and Finance teams to scale AI driven financial technology across global markets.
Yatin holds an MBA with honours from the Kellogg School of Management and an Engineering degree from the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi. His work focuses on leveraging artificial intelligence to drive organisational transformation, operational efficiency, and customer centric innovation.
Welcome onboard, Yatin!
Don’t delay, enter today!
Time is running out to enter the seventh edition of the RTIH Innovation Awards, sponsored by Vista Technology Support, 3D Cloud, EdTech Innovation Hub, and Retail Technology Show.
Deadline for submissions is Friday, 19th September.
The awards celebrate global tech innovation in a fast moving omnichannel world. Check out our 2024 winners here.
Our latest winners will be revealed at the 2025 RTIH Innovation Awards Ceremony, taking place at The HAC in Central London on Thursday, 16th October.
Key dates
Friday, 19th September: Award entry deadline
Tuesday, 23rd September: 2025 finalists revealed
Wednesday, 24th September - Wednesday, 8th October: Judging days
Thursday, 16th October: Winners announced at the 2025 RTIH Innovation Awards Ceremony, taking place at The HAC in Central London on Thursday, 16th October.
Ikea opens Plan & Order Point store in York in UK expansion also including Brighton and Norwich
Ikea has opened a Plan & Order Point in Clifton Moor Retail Park, York.
This is a smaller store dedicated to kitchen and bedroom planning, where customers can visit for home furnishing advice and expertise to help design their ideal space. They can book an appointment, free of charge, to start their design journey with one of the York store’s six planning specialists or use the in-store self-service tools to design their own solution.
The unit also houses a home furnishing planning area and nine bespoke PAX wardrobe solutions, each designed to provide inspiration on how to maximise spaces through storage solutions.
Customers can order from the entire Ikea product range, with the option for next day collection or home delivery. The store will also offer a collection area for orders made online, as well as providing a service for customers wanting to return any Ikea purchase.
Asda kicks off trial of Focal Systems AI powered store shelf scanning cameras in five locations
Asda has deployed AI powered cameras from Focal Systems that scan shelves on an hourly basis to detect in-stocks, out-of-stocks, lows, and if products are in the wrong spot.
A trial is currently underway at five of the UK grocery giant’s stores.
The cameras are placed on poles on top shelves in stores and can monitor around eight feet of shelf space opposite. Shout out to Steve Dresser, CEO at Grocery Insight, for bringing this to our attention.
In a LinkedIn post, he said: “I remain unconvinced on this technology. Battery life requires the swap out of physical batteries, the resolution on the images is low and it's far too easy to game this system also. (IE facing over). It relies on stores informing Focal the plan has been changed (why?) and fundamentally it will always end up with central teams monitoring the stores.”
He added: “Sure they may not at the start, but there's the optionality....I remain concerned by the ability to zero stock files based on imagery alone and alert after alert each hour just makes teams responsive, not reactive.”
M&S Food marks five years since Ocado launch by splashing carrier bag on delivery vans
Time flies and all that…It’s been five years since M&S Food launched on Ocado and competition was duly ramped up in the crowded UK online groceries market.
In 2019, Marks & Spencer inked a 50-50 JV deal with Ocado to sell M&S groceries via the separate entity Ocado Retail. The former says that the move has given it a new platform to demonstrate the breadth and value of its range to new family customers and leverage its buying scale, through volume growth.
Ocado Retail, meanwhile, has increased capacity by over 50% since the aforementioned investment and new customer fulfilment centres have opened in locations including Bristol, Purfleet and Andover.
In a LInkedIn post, Alex Freudmann, Managing Director at M&S Food, said: “It’s exactly five years since M&S Food launched on Ocado. To celebrate, we’ve turned our iconic carrier bag into an Ocado van! Look out for more of them making deliveries near you.”
He added: “Ocado now services 80% of UK households and combines the tech and logistics prowess of Ocado with the magic of M&S Food. It’s the only place you can buy M&S Food online. Thank you Hannah Gibson (CEO at Ocado Retail) for the first five years and here’s to our exciting joint growth plans for the next five.”
Unity Coffee takes on big hitters with launch of self-service product developed on a FinTech platform
Unity Coffee, a new self-service offering, is launching in the UK and aiming to take on industry giants with mobile first coffee machines.
Developed by Coffee Nation entrepreneur Scott Martin, Unity Coffee claims to offer better coffee, better value and a “smarter digital experience” thanks to a combination of premium ingredients, automation and a smarter digital experience.
Unity Coffee machines are connected to the brand’s mobile app, with the goal of enabling agile pricing, real-time promotions, and personalised content. These aim to provide consistency across espresso, specialty coffee drinks, matcha, and hot chocolate with both dairy and plant-based milk options.
Vineta Bajaj departs Rohlik Group for CFO role at health and wellbeing retailer Holland & Barrett
Holland & Barrett reports that Vineta Bajaj is taking on the role of Group CFO in September, replacing Nick Allen who is leaving the retailer to pursue other opportunities.
Bajaj previously held the same position at Rohlik Group. a Pan European online grocer spanning five countries that has unicorn status.
She also spent ten years at Ocado Group, the FTSE 50 online grocer and technology provider, supporting its growth and strategic M&A, strategic divestments and fundraising over £1.5 billion.
“I’m thrilled to be joining Holland & Barrett at such an exciting moment in its journey.” says Bajaj.
“As the business accelerates its transformation to become a global, digital first wellness leader, I look forward to bringing my experience in omnichannel retail, e-commerce and AI and technology led growth to support its bold ambitions. It’s a fantastic brand with a powerful purpose in a sector that’s only growing in relevance and impact.”
Tom Hill takes on CEO role at Zyntrix following Director of Digital role at Poundland and Dealz
Tom Hill has been appointed CEO by Zyntrix, a FinTech firm that aims to unify loyalty, Open Banking and digital ID into one seamless customer experience.
He was previously Director of Digital at Poundland & Dealz.
In a LinkedIn post, he said: “I’m delighted to share that last month, after a relatively short (but incredible) break, I stepped into a new chapter of my career as CEO of Zyntrix.”
“Over the past 20 years, I’ve been fortunate to work with some of the biggest and best brands in retail and hospitality - leading operations, customer experience, business development and transformation strategy, across both physical and digital estates. Along the way, I’ve learnt a huge amount from some brilliant people - insights I look forward to leveraging as I enter this new and exciting chapter.”
He added: “At Zyntrix, we have a simple but ambitious mission: to unify loyalty, Open Banking and digital ID into one seamless customer experience. We’ve worked hard to develop a product that enables businesses, through their existing or new loyalty programmes, and e-commerce platforms, to: Supercharge loyalty with exclusive, unique and instant rewards; Cut transaction costs dramatically across multiple sectors via Open Banking; Remove friction at the checkout, including automated ID verification for age restricted sales.”
Merchmix launches AI powered agentic platform to tackle stock inefficiency problem
Merchmix has unveiled what is pitched as the world’s first agentic SaaS retail platform - a solution that, the company says, doesn’t just analyse retail data, but uses AI to ingest 200+ external sources, and delivers agentic workflows to act on it.
By autonomously optimising stock levels, sending supplier alerts, raising purchase orders, or reconfiguring in-store layouts in real-time, Merchmix claims to eliminate one of retail’s most costly inefficiencies: stock optimisation.
It unites planning, buying, merchandising, and store operations in one platform. Retailers can ask: “Which SKUs will sell out in Manchester this weekend?” or “What if I move 10% of stock online?” - and Merchmix delivers both the analysis and takes action with autonomous agentic workflows.
"Launching new international markets at Marks & Spencer taught me every customer base in each country behaves differently, and those nuances are expensive to get wrong,” says Nicola Bond, Co-Founder and CEO at Merchmix who has 18 years expertise spanning retail and tech including senior buying roles at Asos, Debenhams and Best and Less.
“We’ve built the colleague every retailer wishes they had - one who never sleeps, knows the data inside-out, and helps you make the right call to protect margin and growth whether you’re a buyer, merchandiser, or store manager.”
HappyRobot bags $44 million in Series B funding to scale its AI workforce for supply chains platform
HappyRobot, a startup specialising in logistics AI and automation, has raised a $44 million Series B round, led by Base10 Partners with participation from a16z, Array Ventures, Avra, Samsara Ventures, Tokio Marine, WaVe-X, WiL, YC, and others.
This comes just ten months after the company’s $15.6 million Series A, bringing its total funding to date to $62 million.
In an online post, it said: “Just a year and a half ago, we went into production with our very first customer. Today, we’re proud to be powering operations for more than 70 enterprise customers, including DHL, Ryder, Schneider, and Werner.”
“These companies are already seeing what’s possible when AI workers step in to take on complex, high volume tasks: Appointment scheduling reduced from a week to under 30 minutes; Collections delivering returns of more than 100x; Outbound sales producing ROI north of 19x; Carrier sales driving 5x returns.”
“The early results are clear: AI workers aren’t just cutting costs - they’re unlocking new revenue opportunities, increasing visibility, and freeing teams to focus on strategic, relationship driven work.”
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