News   GLOBAL  |  Apr 02, 2020
A Message to Our Readers
 9.6K     0 
News   GLOBAL  |  Apr 01, 2020
EarthCam Time-Lapse Documents Rafael Viñoly-Designed New Stanford Hospital Construction
 41K     0 
News   GLOBAL  |  Apr 01, 2020
Resort Town
 5.4K     0 

Richard White said:
Not to sound racist but I look forward to going to stores where the staff are not ethnic as most of the time when I go to a staff run solely by one ethnicity I do not get good service.
Click to expand...
I used to live in Fredericton, NB and all the staff at a Timmies were white. And the service was terrible, see post below.

The seemingly terminal decline of Tim Hortons

Tim's outside Toronto being "well-run"? Maybe - if service speed wasn't a measure - it's geriatric. AoD But if you go into some of the really small town Tim's, especially in the off season, they're running at 'locals' speed, and the locals are quite okay with it. If you're in a hurry, sucks...
urbantoronto.ca urbantoronto.ca
 
Richard White said:
The problem is that the tims most people my age grew up with is long gone. That idea of a Canadian Icon died when Ron Joyce left.

When I was young, Tims made cakes, pies and eclairs. Everything was fresh and made in house. That was what Tims was about not soups, sandwiches and all this pre-frozen crap.

I get that they want to cut costs and diversify but it is not helping. Not to sound racist but I look forward to going to stores where the staff are not ethnic as most of the time when I go to a staff run solely by one ethnicity I do not get good service.

The store near me is all run by indians but whenever I go in, I wait at least 5 minutes to be served because they are all speaking with each other in their own language chatting with each other and working the drive thru. I was there last week and 5 people were having an extended conversation in their language making one order at the drive thru.

When I go to the Niagara Falls location (Which is not as ethnic) the service is much faster and far better.
Click to expand...

That's just a reflection of the local labour market in the fast food industry. In smaller rural stores, the staff often skews to older workers.

Ethnicity has little to do with service quality. I don't do drive-throughs, so as a walk-in customer, which they consider lower 'production value' and hence, worthy of less attention, I've been ignored by all manner of Tim's employees
 
Can confirm. Hamiltonian here. Tims service outside GTA is just as inconsistent and usually bad.
 
I think the biggest problem is the coffee has worsened and everyone takes as a given that McDonalds has better coffee. That's going to be hard to rectify. The par-baked pastries are another problem, but I think that will also be hard to fix.

Fast food service seems pretty consistently bad. I used to get coffee at McDonalds every now and then. The wait times at locations I have been to are rarely under 10-15 minutes. I usually regret stopping. One thing I thought Tim's was doing right is that you can skip the queue and order online and they will often have your order ready for you. I did it a few times when there was a line to the door--first time, I downloaded the app, registered, added payment info and ordered before I got half-way through the line and they promptly made my order.
 
I can see Tim Horton's cannibalizing each other. My local Horton's is dead in the mornings now. No more crazy line ups of downtown commuters. They are working from home or not working at all. Plus they hardly have any seating now, with the 50% capacity limit. If this location closes down, i just checked my GPS, i got 11 other Horton's locations to choose from within a 10 min drive!

No idea how the Horton's in the PATH are going to survive.
 
10 minute drive is a pretty big radius. I have ~14 within that distance from me.
 
If you're ever in the northern half of the UK, where Tim Hortons is wildly expanding in Scotland and the north of England, taste the coffee. It actually tastes different, and I think that's because they face serious competition from Pret a Manger, Costa, Cafe Nero, etc. Even M&S' £1 coffee is really good, and so the products at TH in the UK are seemingly of better quality.

Though, they've also chosen I think the smarter strategy compared to Second Cup, which tried to compete in London, Birmingham and Manchester first (Tim Horton's is in the later two cities, and placed their Manchester location wisely next to a university, whereas the Second Cup location was in a side street near the major city centre mall). Kind of odd considering the amount of us Canadians based in London.
 
DKsan said:
If you're ever in the northern half of the UK, where Tim Hortons is wildly expanding in Scotland and the north of England, taste the coffee. It actually tastes different, and I think that's because they face serious competition from Pret a Manger, Costa, Cafe Nero, etc. Even M&S' £1 coffee is really good, and so the products at TH in the UK are seemingly of better quality.

Though, they've also chosen I think the smarter strategy compared to Second Cup, which tried to compete in London, Birmingham and Manchester first (Tim Horton's is in the later two cities, and placed their Manchester location wisely next to a university, whereas the Second Cup location was in a side street near the major city centre mall). Kind of odd considering the amount of us Canadians based in London.
Click to expand...

Location strategy aside, it would be interesting to see the differences in food/coffee offerings and the difference in quality of same.

If they're material, RBI can hire the head of Tim's UK to run the Canadian operation! LOL
 
I was out for a bike ride through Muskoka today and noticed that the Tim's in Port Carling is closed and all signage removed. The facility has been there only since 2016. I can't remember the last time I saw that except when a new store was built nearby, and there is no indication of any new construction anywhere else in town. There was a notice on the door but I didn't bother to read it.
 
DKsan said:
It actually tastes different, and I think that's because they face serious competition from Pret a Manger, Costa, Cafe Nero, etc.
Click to expand...

I'd love to see one of these spots come to Canada. When sightseeing in London, they were decent and affordable lunch options with good coffee.
 
AlvinofDiaspar said:
I hope Pret comes here for sure. I find Costa only so-so (and besides, it's already here at what, Shell gas stations?)

AoD
Click to expand...

Pret is among best-in-class..........but I'm not sure I want them here.

I think as with MEC in non-food or Whole Foods in Food................the bigger the chain, the more attractive to investors who aren't mission-driven, the more they diversify menus and lose focus............

Yah. Maybe the answer is to crack down on chains all together.

Everyone can come to Ontario and we can go everywhere, but one store per jurisdiction each. (I'm being a tad extreme and slightly facetious) but the idea does carry some appeal.
 
Northern Light said:
Pret is among best-in-class..........but I'm not sure I want them here.

I think as with MEC in non-food or Whole Foods in Food................the bigger the chain, the more attractive to investors who aren't mission-driven, the more they diversify menus and lose focus............

Yah. Maybe the answer is to crack down on chains all together.

Everyone can come to Ontario and we can go everywhere, but one store per jurisdiction each. (I'm being a tad extreme and slightly facetious) but the idea does carry some appeal.
Click to expand...

Their products are still superior to Tim's by a longshot, which is sufficient for me to want them here. Probably the wrong market segment though - I am thinking Tim's has cornered the special masochists segment - those who want to continue to be customers just so that they can feel familiarity (we have a lot of that here). If changing the regular blend to crappy sludge didn't move them, nothing would.

AoD
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to post here.

Back
Top