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.
How ironic given this thread is essentially a group of posters with a deep dislike for Tim Hortons and their products mocking Canadians for not sharing their opinion.
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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.
There is no doubt in my mind that McDonalds makes superior breakfast food but at the end of the day it's all crap that people shouldn't be eating in regularity. I line up every day to get my coffee and that's all I get. I don't eat donuts or the breakfast food but I am stunned how many of the same people I see every morning getting the breakfast sandwiches and donuts for breakfast and a lot of these people really shouldn't be eating this kind of meal to start their days.
You can argue all you want about coffee superiority but as much as I like their coffee it kind of bums me out that so many people have taken to this unhealthy lifestyle of eating this garbage food daily.
Are there still Robin's Donuts? I never even tried Tim Horton's until around 1997. The town I first lived in had 2 Robin's and I used to love their coffee.
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Are there still Robin's Donuts? I never even tried Tim Horton's until around 1997. The town I first lived in had 2 Robin's and I used to love their coffee.
Nothing west of Sask any more as far as I know. There's some in Saskatoon, and Ontario.
To the OP, I strongly disagree with Timmies being better than Dunkin Donuts. When they were in Calgary I thought they were superior in every single way. Their selection for donuts was even way better.
1) I cannot stand Dunkins coffee. Just can't. It tastes...oily. Like it leaves a weird taste/feeling in my mouth afterward. Their donuts are perfectly fine and have better variety than Timmy's.
2) I do love TH coffee, but generally that's when brewed at home with skim and sweet and lo, so it's not quite as fattening or diabetic as a typical double double.
3) I can see how there are issues with TH in the US. The two closest franchises to me--in Pittsburgh, a city whose hockey team is captained by TH's spokesman--are in Steubenville, Ohio and Wheeling, Wv. These are miniscule towns. I can't fathom what the decision-making was when deciding on those two locations, other than the general idea that there is nothing else there as competition.
4) Iced Capps are like frozen crack. Perhaps it's because I only get to have one a couple of times a year, but they're just fantastic and easily the best part of Timmy's for me.
...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...
There is a good reason for this, and that is quite simply that BP never resorted to wrapping their brand in the Canadian flag the same way that Tim Hortons has. Tim Hortons became a Canadian institution because they started to tell everyone that they were a Canadian institution.
Here's the way I remember this happening:
Before 1990 Tim Horton's was a place to buy donuts and to get a cup of coffee. For Canadians, if you wanted donuts and a cup of coffee, choices were generally limited to Tim's or Robin's Donuts, or a much smaller, more local chain. But back then, there was nothing special about their coffee, and Tim Horton's never really made any claims about the distinctiveness of their coffee—their donuts were special because, well ... they're donuts ... and who doesn't love donuts.
Then, sometime in the '90's I saw this commercial:
(...which is really, REALLY ridiculous, because coffee in virtually every place that I have been in Europe is substantially better than in North America—at least in my experience...)
Suddenly, and somewhat without much crescendo, Tim Hortons coffee became a symbol of "being Canadian", almost entirely as a result of the campaign that produced this ad and dozens more like it over the next several years. I don't necessarily think that people spend their money at Tim Hortons through some misguided form of patriotic or national cultural identification, but it is naive to imagine that their aggressive marketing which targeted national pride did not play a significant role in establishing their enormous market share.
It seems to me that this all happened at a time when we as Canadians were struggling a little bit with our cultural identity, which was likewise also a product of the emerging digital age and the explosion of globalisation. The dollar was weak, the "brain drain" was a real concern, and the job market was pretty soft—especially compared to what was happening in the US. I recall this producing a sort of national angst and inferiority, and it was usually directed in response to American-borne stereotypes (You will remember that it was during the '90's that we also began to see those dreadful Molson "I am Canadian" ads)...
To Tim Hortons's credit, they capitalised on this rather palpable sense of national insecurity, and they ran with it. I think people responded in large part because they wanted to feel great about being Canadian (whatever that meant), and Tim Hortons provided an outlet.
Personally, I can't stand Tim Hortons coffee (I happen to drink my coffee black, and with no sugar), but I do understand that there is a significant element of personal choice in such things. What I really do resent, though, is the implication that Tim Hortons is somehow symbolic of "being Canadian". It was a cheap and very, VERY effective marketing campaign that made the original Tim Hortons owners (one of whom I believe was Murray Edwards) abundantly wealthy, but also one that produced this sense of identity on the backs of Canadians who were willing to latch onto anything to fill an odd sort of patriotic void.
...There is surely a graduate thesis in there somewhere.
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Originally Posted by woob
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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.
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I totally agree with this. The coffee is passable, especially with a single cream and sugar. But the food, dear god, the food. There is NOTHING appetizing or even remotely healthy to eat there.
At least at Starbucks I can get an oatmeal. Or a banana. And a slightly burnt tasting Americano with some skim milk. I'll pay a bit more for that pretty much every time.
Tim Hortons might have the worst hash browns known to man. It's like they deep fry them, soak them in water, then finish it off by letting a Filipino contract worker fart on it right before serving it to you.
Their lattes are equally as nasty but I do enjoy an Iced Cap.
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Sure, but I think Tim Hortons is a special case in which the brand has established itself as part of the fabric of "being Canadian". This is different than Canadian Tire marketing itself as the place to buy automotive parts and accessories in Canada, and it is different than Rona promoting itself as a Canadian company as a means to tap into consumer efforts to support local brands. In the states, nationalistically fuelled marketing almost always attempts to link the brand and product to pre-existing and well established symbols of American patriotism, and this is decidedly different than what Tim Hortons has done. As far as I can tell, they are pretty unique for having invented the idea that their own, bewilderingly pedestrian product is part of the fabric of Canadian culture.
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Originally Posted by woob
"...harem warfare? like all your wives dressup and go paintballing?"
My loyalties aren't so much to Tim's in general, but to the one specifically near my house in Coventry. The service is ridiculously quick, and the staff are super friendly. Couldn't care less about any other Tim's, but man I love the one by my place.
In terms of expansion, forget the US. Go to South Korea. They absolutely adore coffee out there. No exaggeration, in some of the trendier areas in Seoul, there are probably six different coffee houses on a single block on average. And they're all super busy all the time. They all serve pricey Starbucks-like coffee too. I feel like Koreans would go crazy over a cheap coffee option.
As it stands, I typically make coffee at home, but if if I don't get coffee on the go, then I like Tim Horton's because the coffee is acceptable to me, cheaper then the other chains, their lids don't piss me off, and I don't wait for hours. If McDonald's ever changes their lid to one that isn't designed to spill coffee all over someone, then I'd switch for sure as the lines are smaller at McDonald's then at Tim's here.
Tim's boxed coffee also makes a nice treat for hockey parents in the winter.
Really dislike Starbuck's coffee and the waits involved with getting a simple coffee at Starbucks. Maybe it was just the location near SAIT, but I stopped in at Starbucks for something different then what we have in our small town, and it must have taken 20 minutes to get a coffee.
I'm with those who are fans of Tim's steeped tea. So nice to drink brewed tea.
Also, I've seen the cup sleeves in Vancouver. Odd that they would provide those in some markets but not all.
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Heh, it's funny, I was actually just trying to explain to a friend in Norway how Timmies was such a part of life here and a 'Canadian thing to do', and I wasn't even sure why. It's just a donut shop. But for better or worse it has become a part of the 'culture'. But that doesn't bug me, not sure why it would bug anyone. I guess maybe it's the commercials coming off as culturally important when your a donut shop is excessively preachy. But meh, a lot people enjoy it, no reason to rain on their parade.
I actually rarely go there as I don't really drink coffee, but have made my share of 'Timmies Runs' for coworkers in the past. Tried those new paninis a month or so ago, I thought it was decent. And the new orange flavored Timbits were a nice treat.
