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IMO, Timmies started going downhill once they put them in gas stations. My worst Timmies experience was in 2002 when my wife and I were driving from Heathrow Airport to the Isle of Wight via Portsmouth ferry and we stopped at a highway rest stop. We were surprised to see a Timmies sign and ordered coffee and Tim Bits. Well both must have been shipped from Canada the week before because they were rubbish.
 
Restaurant Brands reported today a "challenging quarter" for Tim Horton’s, with same-store sales declining -1.4%.
The other brands in the business fared far better. Burger King had 4.8% growth and Popeyes had 9.7% growth.
Tim Hortons now contributes a fraction under 20% of the revenue to Restaurant Brands, down from 21.6% a year ago.
 
All this decline talk is just that - we haven't seen any locations close yet, have we? (unfortunately)
 
Outside of the GTA, Starbucks simply does not have the penetration compared to Tim's; they're everywhere. An it is very much an entrenched blue-collar/Saturday morning ritual - grab a Tim's and go grocery shopping or wander Walmart or Canadian Tire.And I'm convinced it is very much a ritual, much like lining up for a barely mediocre hamburgers at Weber's. I'm just as bad - if I'm driving any distance, I gotta have a coffee.
 
lenaitch said:
I'm convinced it is very much a ritual, much like lining up for a barely mediocre hamburgers at Weber's. I'm just as bad - if I'm driving any distance, I gotta have a coffee.
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That's true. When I went to Algonquin Park a few years ago or to PEI recently I had to stop for a Tims along the way.

When I was in the UK in 2017 I contemplated going to Scotland for a Tims. My cousin thought it was amusing but I was adament that I wanted a good coffee.
 
The series of On Route stops along the highway system pretty much monopolized the coffee scene for Tims for those long distance drives. The rare Starbucks I can think of is the one they share on site at Webers on Hwy 11 which they opened in recent years.

Admittedly I'm a Webers goer whenever I head up that way. Although I did go off the beaten path this past summer and found a nice BBQ place called "The Shack" and coffee shop, Cafe Seoulista in Orillia.
 
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I had the unfortunate experience of visiting several of Tim's 24 hour locations when i was stuck on the night shift doing a coffee run for the guys. Tim's at 3 am is on a whole new level of horrible. Even at 3 am when the place is completely empty the goofballs working behind the counter will still ignore you at the cash for at least 5 minutes. The coffee is stale, shelves are empty, tables are dirty and the staff stands around socializing and goofing around, while customers wait in line. Only Horton's can get away with this, any other restaurant did this, they would be out of business in no time.
 
It doesn't have to be cool (it was never, and will never be cool) - it has to taste good (and it doesn't). For a chain that is supposed to be about bedrock values, it couldn't do the basics right.

gabe said:
I had the unfortunate experience of visiting several of Tim's 24 hour locations when i was stuck on the night shift doing a coffee run for the guys. Tim's at 3 am is on a whole new level of horrible. Even at 3 am when the place is completely empty the goofballs working behind the counter will still ignore you at the cash for at least 5 minutes. The coffee is stale, shelves are empty, tables are dirty and the staff stands around socializing and goofing around, while customers wait in line. Only Horton's can get away with this, any other restaurant did this, they would be out of business in no time.
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You could have been going to a Coffee Time instead ;)

AoD
 
AlvinofDiaspar said:
It doesn't have to be cool (it was never, and will never be cool) - it has to taste good (and it doesn't). For a chain that is supposed to be about bedrock values, it couldn't do the basics right.

AoD
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Good Coffee; edible baked goods, vaguely comfy chairs that would work.

The former really is an easy fix; as is the latter; that middle one, to me, requires bringing back in-store scratch baking which they ditched more than a decade ago now.

Not sure how feasible that would be given current store layouts.

Also, I don't give a @#$# whether they think its too snobby any place that wants my breakfast vote should be able to make freshly-squeezed OJ; none of the packaged product is very good.
 
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