Tim Hortons a Flop in the US

[blankall]

Originally Posted by sun

Blech, I hate when people use this argument. Those hating on Tim Hortons are doing so because the coffee is mediocre toilet water, the donuts are pre-packaged awfulness, and the food is atrocious. We're not bashing it because you and others patronize it.

We're not trying to look down our noses at the unwashed masses, we've just all had the misfortune of sampling their wares.

Exactly.

It's ridiculous how quick people are to defend Tim Horton's or mock those who don't like it. If I was calling someone out for eating McDonalds several times a week, people would take no issue with that and probably, generally, support me. Do the same to their Timmy's, which by the way is lower in quality to McDonalds in every way, and people get all up in arms and accuse others of being haters.

It blows my mind that Tim Horton's is able to survive and flourish with such sub-standard product.

[_Q_]

Originally Posted by valo403

I get that one all the time, which fills me with pride.

I think we've finally found a solution to Tim Hortons' issues in the US. They should just open up Montreal style strip clubs all across the US that also sell crappy coffee and flash frozen donuts to it's patrons.

I think Americans would get behind that idea.

[DownhillGoat]

Originally Posted by MattyC

I guess this is where we differ, as I see Tim's being pretty internationally recognized as Canadian.

Only by ex-pats. From any of my experiences, Tim Horton's is recognized as Canadian only by Canadians.

[polak]

Only coffee places that use the sure shot machine or whatever it's called (the one that pours exact amounts of cream and sugar for each size) that I know of are Tims and McDonalds. McDonalds has a better tasting Regular but Tims has better exponentially better options for breakfast food and has the XL so I go with Tims. I hate McDonalds breakfast and I like having more coffee then I usually need.

If starbucks or other coffee places with better food and coffee used the same machine so that I consistently had the same coffee I'd go there, but they don't. Those places also rarely have drive thru or are incredibly slow.

[Bunk]

Originally Posted by blankall

No, the coffee is bad. It's objectively bad compared to the other options out there at that price point. It's beyond a matter of opinion.

Tim Horton's controls a massive amount of both the coffee and donut markets, and due to that we are all left with poor options.

They are also by far the largest purveyor of soup. Definitely not a surprise they are not a success in the US. As many have pointed out, their success here has very little to do with quality of product or customer experience.

I'm a latte-sipping elitist when it comes to my coffee. Analog, Beano, Rosso, Artigiano, etc.

[Acey]

Originally Posted by jaydorn

1) They're freaking EVERYWHERE

No kidding, which is why I think it's misleading to say they've flopped in the US by citing US sales as a percentage of the total.

[blankall]

Originally Posted by polak

Only coffee places that use the sure shot machine or whatever it's called (the one that pours exact amounts of cream and sugar for each size) that I know of are Tims and McDonalds. McDonalds has a better tasting Regular but Tims has better exponentially better options for breakfast food and has the XL so I go with Tims. I hate McDonalds breakfast and I like having more coffee then I usually need.

If starbucks or other coffee places with better food and coffee used the same machine so that I consistently had the same coffee I'd go there, but they don't. Those places also rarely have drive thru or are incredibly slow.

McDonalds breakfasts are all made on the spot. Tim Hortons pre-makes their components and keeps them in a warming tray.

[nik-]

I love me an Egg McMuffin. It's pretty much the only thing I'll eat at McDonalds, I don't know what it is about it. Probably the formed steamed egg and the fact that everything tastes 10% better with an english muffin.

[Kybosh]

I drink Tim Horton's coffee black and I like it.

[Sr. Mints]

Tim Hortons has done an amazing job at strengthening their brand. You go to a Tims, and you get what you expect. Whether that's a coffee and donut, a clean atmosphere, quick service, perceived healthier options (sandwiches, chilli as opposed to a burger and fries, etc.) - I don't know.

While I think 'nationalism' plays a small role in Tims growth up here, and their current success, I wonder if that matters any more as other companies have adapted and changed their strategies in the last decade. I'd be interested to know if anyone's studied this . . . not interested enough to Google it, of course, but that's the nature of the Internet.

[TorqueDog]

I used to enjoy Tim's bagels with herb and garlic cream cheese, and once upon a time, my regular was an XL French Vanilla.

But their sandwiches, bleh. Coffee, meh. Iced caps, if they had the consistency of a slurpee and didn't melt so damn quickly, I'd be a bigger fan. Donuts are really the only thing I can say about Tim Hortons I would still go there for, but I haven't set foot in one in probably over a year.

[polak]

Originally Posted by blankall

McDonalds breakfasts are all made on the spot. Tim Hortons pre-makes their components and keeps them in a warming tray.

Meh. Egg Mcmuffins are too salty and the egg whites taste funny to me, everything else is nasty except for the Apple Pies. Eating those regularly will get me a nice date with diabetes though so no-go.

[Nsd1]

I go to Tim Hortons mainly because of convenience. There are about 8 of them on the way from my house to where I work. The main problem I have with them is consistency. Every location is different when it comes to taste or temperature or ratio of coffee, cream and sugar. If you're a chain restaurant a customer shouldn't see a difference in quality between stores. For example wherever you go a Big Mac will taste like a Big Mac at any McDonald's.

Little off topic but does anyone consider Boston Pizza a part of Canadiana? Although people probably don't go there everyday, their similar to Tim hortons. BPs started a year after Tims did and they are Canada's largest chain dining restaurant and their still canadian owned but nobody really talks about them being a canadian icon. They also expanded into the states under a slightly different name but I've never been to one down there.

[GreenLantern2814]

I go for the heavyset middle eastern women behind the counter. #### you and your chesty coeds.

[Zulu29]

Originally Posted by Nsd1

I go to Tim Hortons mainly because of convenience. There are about 8 of them on the way from my house to where I work. The main problem I have with them is consistency. Every location is different when it comes to taste or temperature or ratio of coffee, cream and sugar. If you're a chain restaurant a customer shouldn't see a difference in quality between stores. For example wherever you go a Big Mac will taste like a Big Mac at any McDonald's.

Little off topic but does anyone consider Boston Pizza a part of Canadiana? Although people probably don't go there everyday, their similar to Tim hortons. BPs started a year after Tims did and they are Canada's largest chain dining restaurant and their still canadian owned but nobody really talks about them being a canadian icon. They also expanded into the states under a slightly different name but I've never been to one down there.

Called "Boston's" in the states. Pretty much the same menu.

[pylon]

This thread really got me thinking.

Not once in my life, have I EVER thought or said "Man, I'd really like me something from Tim Hortons right now." Never once have I gone for the quality of anything they make, it is simply convenience. Yet for some bizarre reason, I still spend at least 10 bucks a week on their steeped tea.

The fact that somehow, Tim Hortons has managed to be successful selling their swansoneque' frozen dinner/hospital cafeteria quality food is perhaps the biggest mass brainwashing scenario of all time. Their food is downright revolting.

Whoever said their egg in a carton with freeze dried bacon sandwiches is better than what Mcdonalds serves? I feel sorry for you. Your mother must have been the worst cook ever. Mcdonalds isn't gourmet, but at least they actually use eggs.

[polak]

Originally Posted by Nsd1

Every location is different when it comes to taste or temperature or ratio of coffee, cream and sugar.

Can't be. They use sure shot machines that pour exactly the same amount of sugar and cream every time. If you say double double it's two presses of the button for each and each size has its own buttons. Only way you're getting inconsistency is if someone screws up your order or the machine is broken/no bags of cream. I used to work there as a kid. Temperature should be consistent too as they all set their burners to the same temp and they dump the coffee every twenty minutes.

Nothing makes me angrier then when someone screws up my regular though. Tim Hortons coffee is awful unless there is exactly one cream and one sugar in it.

[pylon]

Originally Posted by polak

Nothing makes me angrier then when someone screws up my regular though. Tim Hortons coffee is awful unless there is exactly one cream and one sugar in it.

Sorry, that statement is subjective..... unless of course if you live in Lake Bonavista... then it's fact.

[Bertuzzied]

Originally Posted by pylon

This thread really got me thinking.

Not once in my life, have I EVER thought or said "Man, I'd really like me something from Tim Hortons right now." Never once have I gone for the quality of anything they make, it is simply convenience. Yet for some bizarre reason, I still spend at least 10 bucks a week on their steeped tea.

you should have been around in the 80s when they had the chocolate eclairs and the chocolate cream pies.

I pretty much grew up at the Marlborough Tim Hortons. I regret never trying their timbit mascot cake though.

[Minnie]

Originally Posted by valo403

Head been in the sand for a couple decades or something? Tim Horton's has aggressively marketed itself as a Canadian institution and cultural touchstone. It was a brilliant strategy.

*nod*

I worked at TH right out of high school - mid 80s. That was back when they did all their own baking, so when product was fresh, it was fresh. Not fresh out of the box in the freezer, plopped on a pan, thrown in the oven. They definitely lost a lot when they went that route, and while I have no factual evidence to support this, it's just my theory, it's when they started the heavy marketing campaign and pushed the 'Tim's is Canada's coffee' angle.

They went from being a coffee shop you'd see dotted here and there, to Canada's version of Starbucks on every corner, type of thing. The marketing strategy worked like gangbusters, that's for sure.

It's been over 25 years since I worked there and I rarely, closer to never, get a donut. I can't stomach them, and haven't been able to since about 2 weeks after I started working there, lol.

Once in a blue moon, I get a sandwich there. There are a couple of their soups I don't mind, but we rarely go anymore. A steeped tea once in a while. The older I've gotten, the less my stomach wants to deal with coffee, so I've pretty much cut it right out. I prefered their coffee over McD's and Starbucks - we have nowhere locally that makes really good coffee, and we're only just going to get a 'Bux this month, so Tims was it.

The only thing of theirs that I really really like is their Pumpkin Harvest muffins - those are only around for about a month every year and they're so calorie laden, I can't justify one more than once or twice in that month.