9. Cracker Barrel Old Country Store (CBRL) (Group 8) Headquartered in Lebanon, Tennessee, Cracker Barrel is an American chain of combined restaurant and gift stores that offers a Southern country theme in both its food and dcor. Most Cracker Barrel stores are positioned near Interstate highway exits in the Southeast and Midwest United States, but the company has expanded across the country. Each Cracker Barrel restaurant features a front porch lined with wooden rocking chairs, a stone fireplace, and decorative artifacts tailored to the local area such as college football attire for teams in the particular state. Cracker Barrel is known for its partnerships with country music performers. All Cracker Barrel stores are owned and operated by the company as opposed to using a franchised licensee business model so common among restaurant chains. The firm has a menu based on traditional Deep South cooking, also known as country cooking that tends to be high in calories, fat, sugar, and salt but tastes great. Much of the food is made to order and the company has millions of satisfied customers that come to get a delicious breakfast, lunch, or dinner like Momma would cook. Famous servings include fried chicken, chicken and dumplings, country-fried steak, hamburger steak, turkey with dressing, over 10 different vegetables, corn bread and biscuits, and breakfast foods available throughout the day - and desserts such as pecan pie and brownies. Alcoholic beverages are not sold at Cracker Barrel but are sold at the firm's relatively new Holler & Dash Biscuit House restaurants. Cracker Barrel is unique in having a merchandise store located in every restaurant; merchandise sales account for about 20 percent of company revenues. The company's gift shops offer various decorative items such as rocking chairs, holiday and seasonal gifts, toys, apparels, music CDs, cookware, and various other gift items, as well as candies, preserves, pies, cornbread mixes, coffee, syrups, pancake mixes, and other food items. As of February 2, 2018, the company operated 649 Cracker Barrel Old Country stores in 45 states. In fiscal 2017, the firm had sales of nearly $3 billion with a staggering profit margin of 70 percent. Cracker Barrel is listed in Forbes Magazine Top 100 most reputable companies and ranks number one in the American Customer Satisfaction Index as the best full-service restaurant in the United States.