The Sysco earnings conference call should have been listened to by everyone, because it was symbolic of what's happening in America, CNBC's Jim Cramer told "Squawk on the Street" on Tuesday.
"There was a conference call [yesterday] that was one of the most frightening conference calls I've been on," Cramer said. "And it was Sysco ... which basically said restaurants — people stopped going out."
Sysco posted Monday better-than-expected fiscal first-quarter earnings of 67 cents per share on revenue of $14 billion. Analysts had forecast 58 cents a share on revenue of $13.9 billion, according to Thomson Reuters consensus estimates.
But on the eve of the U.S. presidential election, the company, which delivers food and equipment to the hospitality industry, said that the industry was showing signs of pulling back on spending.
"The restaurant industry, which represents approximately 60 percent of the food service market, is not currently experience thing level of growth we've seen in recent quarters," CEO William DeLaney said, according to a Factset transcript.
It comes after executives at companies like Starbucks have cited headwinds from the election.
Sysco was boosted by other businesses, including bright spots in Europe. Still, the company's national reach showed that the effect of the election on the restaurant industry is no longer anecdotal, Cramer said.
Between election coverage and the rising popularity of video games and ecommerce, eat-at-home companies like pizza, craft beer and spices could benefit, Cramer said.
"My hope is that once you get the election over, maybe people will return, maybe go out again," Cramer said. "I couldn't find something else that happened in America that would make it so that they would talk about a dramatic deceleration in orders from restaurants in the last 90 days."
— CNBC's Berkeley Lovelace contributed to this report. Cramer's charitable trust owns shares of food brands Newell Brands, Panera Bread, PepsiCo and Starbucks.