Tim Horton's coming to Pittsburgh

[sskink]

Originally Posted by Copanut

I don't drink coffee, I don't eat donuts. Who cares?

Which is exactly how I feel about the Steelers. Except donuts and coffee don't monopolize the local airwaves.

[canadian citizen]

In Canada, we have more Tim Horton's locations than we have Mc Donalds, about 3300 locations across the country, for Tim's.

The US Tim's operation is 100 percent owned by Tim's Donuts Limited , of Oakville Ontario.

The bakery products are made in Oakville and frozen, and trucked to individual US locations, over night.

One of the problems that Tim's in the US has is finding employees who are willing to work to a standard level of customer service. In layman's terms that means being motivated to come to work on time and pay attention to what you are supposed to be doing.

In Canada, we don't have that problem, especially in the small town locations, where jobs are scarce. Of course, Tim's here also pays a higher hourly rate of pay, about $10 an hour , to start, with full benefits, including health care and scholarship opportunities for University students. During the school year, many Canadian Tim's locations are staffed by seniors, during the day time.

You might be interested to read about the Tim's foundation and their six summer kid's camps. The camps are located in BOTH Canada and the USA.

Read this for more information

.Tim Hortons - The Camps

Jim B

Toronto.

[sskink]

Originally Posted by greg42

I'll say the idea of going and sitting in the chain donut shop makes no sense to me whatsoever. If you really meant 10:30pm on a Sunday, I'm guessing a fair bit of that could be because what else is open at 10:30pm on a Sunday apart from some other fast food joint or a bar? I'm surprised they are even open that late.

Yes, 10:30pm on a Sunday. So after I pass by that place, I stop at the DD closest to my brother's house because I forgot to buy/bring coffee and there's none in the house. It's in a strip mall anchored by a CVS. Everything on the left side of the strip is closed except DD. There are 20 or so cars in the lot. The two outside tables are full and there are a dozen or so people hanging out on the railing. Inside there's a line. At the front of the line is a guy who's ordering a dozen egg sandwiches originally ordered ten, but told him I'd been on the road for 10 hours, he added two more to his order. There's one worker inside. After five minutes I put the coffee bag back on the shelf and left.

Maybe I should move back here and make a future in late night donuts.

[lucknow]

The donuts used to be awesome when they were made from scratch in each location. Since they stopped doing that, the quality has gone way DOWN. An interesting thing about Tim's is that the Tim's owners in Canada here took the parent company to court in a class action lawsuit for FORCING them to abandon their own bakeries and buy ready made from the chain. When they were making their own baked goods they were making something like ten times the profit. They lost the suit by the way as the court agreed it was within the terms of the franchise agreement.
That being said, Tim's is still a very good money maker for the store owners. My cousin does the books for a few of them and he told me on average the complete overhead for the store, everything, wages, materials, lease and all other costs are completely paid by 10am every day. All the rest of the take is gravy.

[ki0eh]

Originally Posted by canadian citizen

The bakery products are made in Oakville and frozen, and trucked to individual US locations, over night.

One of the problems that Tim's in the US has is finding employees who are willing to work to a standard level of customer service. In layman's terms that means being motivated to come to work on time and pay attention to what you are supposed to be doing.

Well that explains the decreasing quality with increasing distance from the border.

[greg42]

Originally Posted by sskink

Yes, 10:30pm on a Sunday. So after I pass by that place, I stop at the DD closest to my brother's house because I forgot to buy/bring coffee and there's none in the house. It's in a strip mall anchored by a CVS. Everything on the left side of the strip is closed except DD. There are 20 or so cars in the lot. The two outside tables are full and there are a dozen or so people hanging out on the railing. Inside there's a line. At the front of the line is a guy who's ordering a dozen egg sandwiches originally ordered ten, but told him I'd been on the road for 10 hours, he added two more to his order. There's one worker inside. After five minutes I put the coffee bag back on the shelf and left.

I must be missing something about Stamford that explains why so many people would be hanging out at donut shops late on a Sunday night? Weird stuff! I guess maybe the answer is, because it is there and because it is open and maybe because it is summer (=damn kids?)

I also didn't know they made egg sandwiches at night. Not sure what to make of the guy ordering them. Was he meaning to give you one, or was he just being an extra special jagoff by not letting you get your coffee and get out? I was thinking the latter but I didn't want to jump to conclusions.

Seems like that's often the story of a chain that's open late though. The door might be unlocked and a staff person there but "open" at that time is just not the same as earlier parts of the day. You end up with a sort of "We don't care, we don't have to" experience.

[CrispyCritter]

I like Tim Horton's! It's going to give Dunkin Donuts a run for its money!