Why do Canadians online seem to hate Tim Hortons?
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Maybe I’m just too chronically online, but people seem to complain a lot more about Tim Hortons than other fast food places. Even though they have a lot of the same issues.
Edit: I guess I have bad taste in fast food. I like Tims
️. I think the prices are reasonable for fast food, and their stuff tastes better than mcDonalds. I don’t drink coffee much so I can’t compare to other places. I can get why people don’t like the company itself though.Timmie’s used to be really good. But when private equity (the foreign owners) came in, they cut a lot of things that made the products superior. The brand of coffee was changed, the donuts were made centrally and shipped out, and a lot more “cost-cutting” features.
I still grab a French Vanilla when I need something sweet that has a decent caffeine base to keep me awake. But the quality has slipped such that I would rather make my own coffee at home than get theirs. A FV is just a convenience purchase at this point, something I get when I don’t have the opportunity to make my own coffee.
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I think it’s a combination of their consistent and obvious decline in quality, combined with the fact that most people in this country have been regular customers for at least some period of their life. Very few fast food chains are as widespread and common in small communities (McDonald’s and subway come to mind). I don’t remember any other fast food chains getting worse almost overnight, but I do remember Tim’s switching to much worse bread on their sandwiches, and their donuts going from fresh, to frozen but decorated, to whatever you call the attempted smearing of nearly solid “icing” on top. Are other chains any better? I can’t say for sure, but I can say Tim’s at any previous point in history was.
Plus it went from Canadian owned to American. One more Canadian business down the drain. That won’t endear a bran to Canadians, particularly in the current climate.
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Prior to 2003 for sure, which was they year they switched from fresh baked in house to par-baked frozen donuts. I suspect the rot started earlier than that though. The company was actively shifting away from coffee and donuts, and pursuing aggressive growth way back in the 90s.
Around here the timing is always described as “when they gave McDonalds their coffee contract”
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compared to what’s available in SoCal, Tim Hortons is gourmet food.
Woah, this idea fills me with a vague sense of dread.
Like seriously, I’d rather eat pretty much anything other than Tim’s. What options are even there then?
Wet Cardboard Express?
Get-Outta-here burger?Fried Something On A Stick? But it’s a franchise.
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Maybe I’m just too chronically online, but people seem to complain a lot more about Tim Hortons than other fast food places. Even though they have a lot of the same issues.
Edit: I guess I have bad taste in fast food. I like Tims
️. I think the prices are reasonable for fast food, and their stuff tastes better than mcDonalds. I don’t drink coffee much so I can’t compare to other places. I can get why people don’t like the company itself though.The easiest way to describe it is this … when I used to go to Tim Horton’s in Dryden, ON they would ask me if I wanted my Ice Cap made with milk, cream or chocolate milk.
They don’t do that anymore.
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Prior to 2003 for sure, which was they year they switched from fresh baked in house to par-baked frozen donuts. I suspect the rot started earlier than that though. The company was actively shifting away from coffee and donuts, and pursuing aggressive growth way back in the 90s.
Right at that time, the coffee shops that pivoted away from in-house coffee were the ones that survived. When no-smoking was poised to be the standard across Canada, Tims started the focus on food, Salisbury House overhauled and became “decent” vs the shophouse it always had been. Robin’s didn’t pivot and died a quick death.
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The easiest way to describe it is this … when I used to go to Tim Horton’s in Dryden, ON they would ask me if I wanted my Ice Cap made with milk, cream or chocolate milk.
They don’t do that anymore.
Have they switched to TFWs there?
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Maybe I’m just too chronically online, but people seem to complain a lot more about Tim Hortons than other fast food places. Even though they have a lot of the same issues.
Edit: I guess I have bad taste in fast food. I like Tims
️. I think the prices are reasonable for fast food, and their stuff tastes better than mcDonalds. I don’t drink coffee much so I can’t compare to other places. I can get why people don’t like the company itself though.Come on bruh. Have you been to a Tim Hortons in the last 20 years? Dumpster fire to the exponent of 100.
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Maybe I’m just too chronically online, but people seem to complain a lot more about Tim Hortons than other fast food places. Even though they have a lot of the same issues.
Edit: I guess I have bad taste in fast food. I like Tims
️. I think the prices are reasonable for fast food, and their stuff tastes better than mcDonalds. I don’t drink coffee much so I can’t compare to other places. I can get why people don’t like the company itself though.The baked goods taste stale and the coffee is overrated.
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When was it good? 2005?
2005 was when they went public. That’s when the enshittification started. It all started when they went central with their bakeries and pulled all the baking from in house. Then the prices started going up. 25 cents per fiscal year, almost to the calendar date. Then shit started getting smaller. Less staff. The bagel toasters suddenly sped up a whole lot.
Fast forward to like say 2015, they were probably the biggest users of the TFW plan. Didn’t train anyone properly. Couldn’t keep staff. The toasters went so fast the bagels pretty much shot like a torpedo out of the toaster when someone put one down. Food was never warm. Lids leaked like hell, and no one would do anything about it.
Used to be a multiple times a day tim visitor. Best thing that ever happened to me was when they went to shit. It correlates directly with better health, better financial health and habits and it removed what was pretty much an addiction. I haven’t even been inside one since COVID.
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Prior to 2003 for sure, which was they year they switched from fresh baked in house to par-baked frozen donuts. I suspect the rot started earlier than that though. The company was actively shifting away from coffee and donuts, and pursuing aggressive growth way back in the 90s.
I couldn’t remember if that was before or after they went public. Must have been before if it was 2003, because I’m almost positive they went public in 2005.
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The baked goods taste stale and the coffee is overrated.
The coffee isn’t even overrated, it’s just objectively not good.
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Man you must’ve visited the best Tim Hortons on a good day and also the worst In-N-Out and Chick-Fil-A if you think Tims is better. I might forgive you if you haven’t tried Tim’s in the past 20 years though, back when everything was made in store.
Went to Tim Horton repeatedly all over BC during a 5 week visit this summer, and while some of their food wasn’t very good, every single thing was edible. That can’t be said for the fast food we’ve were getting in SoCal before we stopped going, and that includes In-N-Out, McDonald’s, Wendy’s and to a lesser degree Carl’s Jr. and Canes. We avoid Chick-Fil-A because we prefer our food without the side of church. I did try Tim Hortons years ago and you are right, it was substantially better, but the quality hasn’t fallen nearly as much as the other restaurants mentioned.
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Tim Hortons is awful. I can’t imagine how bad your fast food must be.
Much, much worse.
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Have they switched to TFWs there?
I moved away in 2011, but the few times I’ve been back it seems they still employ locals.
But there has also been an influx of immigrants who’ve been ‘encouraged’ to live there, so it may be 6-of-1 half-a-dozen-of-the-other.
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Because Tim Hortons is the Burger King of Canada, after all they merge …
At the Beginning Tim Horton (the hockey player) started a pretty decent Dunkin Donuts like restaurant but at some point his actioneers oust him and he died without money for what he build. Now Tim Horton’s at this time was still something okay I guess, in Montreal language watchdogs asked Tim Horton’s to comply with French Language Law which they refuse and transforme the Tim Horton’s to Tim Hortons (because now it’s a name I guess).
Like you can see they always were shitty corporate citizen
Somewhere in the 2010s McDonald Canada tried to stole their market parts with better coffee and donuts. They partially succeeded because Tim Hortons at the time did great pub to bolster patriotic sentiment (they appears in How I met Your Mother after all). Since then they never really tried to be better and after that they merged with Burger King
and he died
like a loser, while under the influence and speeding. Good thing he didn’t kill anyone else on the way out.
without money for what he build
He and his family still had shares when he died. After his death, she sold the shares. Granted, the business partner was probably taking advantage of a grieving widow, but he did have money, and control, of what he built when he died.
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Went to Tim Horton repeatedly all over BC during a 5 week visit this summer, and while some of their food wasn’t very good, every single thing was edible. That can’t be said for the fast food we’ve were getting in SoCal before we stopped going, and that includes In-N-Out, McDonald’s, Wendy’s and to a lesser degree Carl’s Jr. and Canes. We avoid Chick-Fil-A because we prefer our food without the side of church. I did try Tim Hortons years ago and you are right, it was substantially better, but the quality hasn’t fallen nearly as much as the other restaurants mentioned.
Well, I guess maybe novelty has something to do with it for both of us. I will say though without a doubt, Sonic is by far worse than Tim Hortons and any other fast food I’ve ever tried.
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They’re not Canadian anymore, they’re not fresh, and the crap they serve is a shallow imitation of what they once were. The business that was started by Tim Horton himself died long ago, another victim of multinational corporations that fuck everything up in the name of profit.
Yeah, it’s owned by Burger King, and the new owners accelerated the reduction in quality that had started a decade before the buyout.
The reason for my particular gripes with Tim Horton’s is their over-the-top Canadian branding of an American company. It should be illegal, as clearly false marketing.
They’re also franchises, and are notorious for most franchise owners being borderline abusive to their largely teenage and immigrant staff, who may not know better or have the resources to fight back against illegal labour practices.
And the food is terrible, and the coffee is the second worst in the Canadian fast food industry (after A&W).
What is there not to hate about Tom Horton’s?
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Well, I guess maybe novelty has something to do with it for both of us. I will say though without a doubt, Sonic is by far worse than Tim Hortons and any other fast food I’ve ever tried.
Never been to a Sonic. Sounds like I’ve been lucky.
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Maybe I’m just too chronically online, but people seem to complain a lot more about Tim Hortons than other fast food places. Even though they have a lot of the same issues.
Edit: I guess I have bad taste in fast food. I like Tims
️. I think the prices are reasonable for fast food, and their stuff tastes better than mcDonalds. I don’t drink coffee much so I can’t compare to other places. I can get why people don’t like the company itself though.Eating Tim Hortons is like eating food made from someone describing food to a cardboard printer.
