Mcdonalds x Tim Horton's

Everybody remembers the drive thru bins in their local Tims, pretty much a savior for everybody to toss their cups out. I am complaining that I now have to get out of my car and go inside, I am more so disgusted in the fact that since they took the bins away garbage as just accumulated in the spots where the bins would be.. People may be doing this in anger or just pure laziness who knows, long story short PLEASE put the bins back.




McDonalds switched to Mother Parkers around 2009 which improved the quality of the beans they were using. At the same time Tim Horton's built a new roasting facility so that the majority of the product they sold would be blended/roasted in house. Things began to decline after that. In this 10-K filing by RBI (Tim's parent company owned by 3G Capital) they state:




We sell most other raw materials and supplies, including coffee, sugar, paper goods and other restaurant supplies, to Tim Hortons restaurants. We purchase those raw materials from multiple suppliers and generally have alternative sources of supply for each. While we have multiple suppliers for coffee from various coffee-producing regions, the available supply and price for high-quality coffee beans can fluctuate dramatically. Accordingly, we monitor world market conditions for green (unroasted) coffee and contract for future supply volumes to obtain expected requirements of high quality coffee beans at acceptable prices.




Translating from corporate speak, they pre-purchase what they'll need (in 6 month contracts) at the "acceptable price" and the supplier will provide them with the volume, regardless of the changes in the market/crop results.




The problems started when Ron Joyce sold out to Wendy's in 1995. Once he retired all the hard stances he took (like baked fresh, no pop sold, etc) vanished. The decline has really accelerated since 2014 though when 3G Capital bought them. You can't cut expenses by 40% and maintain quality.




I think the reason people bitch so much is that they came to rely on the ubiquity of Tim Horton's. It was a decision that didn't have to be made anymore - want reasonably good coffee? Just head to Tims, there's 1 for every 15,000 people. The alternative? Trying to hunt down a decent cup or drinking whatever swill is most convenient. The former is something people don't have time for, the latter is unappealing to say the least.




Generally, Canadians seem to prefer ubiquitous, predictable, and reasonable quality over anything else. It allows us to focus on more important things even if it's not the best but drop below our expectations of what is reasonable? They'll start looking for the next best thing.




give me a break, any time it's mentioned on /r/Canada it's a giant circle jerk about how shitty it is.




They changed their blend, they used to be Mother Parker's and then McDonalds bought it and it sucks

They used to bake their own donuts and now they're smaller and frozen and full of sugary "Glaze"

All their food sucks

Their prices went up too much

They're American or something

They pretend to be Canadian which makes me rage! only I decide who's Canadian

Many of these changes happened a good 15-20 years ago.. do we still need to discuss it?




Used to be better. Then they were bought by the American Wendy's company, and launched a massive advertising campaign to identify the brand with Canadian Nationalism. Remember all those little TV ads with kids playing hockey and all that nostalgia stuff? Maybe they still advertise that way.




I'm aware they're back to being mostly Canadian owned now, but point remains - the association with Canadian identity was a very successful marketing campaign on their part and I'm amazed by how well it took.




In my experience it seems to vary wildly by location, but the service is consistent there.




I’ve lived in cities where the drive through ran like a well oiled machine, and also in cities where it would have been faster for me to go home and make my own food instead.




Honestly I have to thank the latter, because the 5-10 minute waits just ruined their usefulness to me. If you have slow “fast-food” you just have food, and not very good food. I’m not there because I like the food, I’m there because I’m pressed for time.




By ruining it, I was able to break my habit of eating there altogether, so I thank them for that. Because they sucked I now eat healthier and save money.




I remember that. I was an all-around member at Tim's during my high school years as my first job.




We still made Nanaimo bars and cakes in-house at our store back then. Some things did come par-baked and frozen from central, but the Nanaimo bars we'd make on-site each morning. I remember how heavenly the dessicated coconut smelt. And how important it was to put the timers on the muffins (they'd come in as huge cylinders of pre-mixed batter and for all but the fruit explosion it would be just that). For fruit explosion we'd put the batter in, then put the jam in, and then take the frozen fruit out of the freezer that also came from central and put that in and then a final dab of batter. Such memories and because of all the baked good smells it would smell heavenly.




Now when you go in all you smell are burnt toast, burnt coffee and burnt-out employees.




Tim Hortons has gone so far down hill over the past years. All they care about is the bottom line. They claim to be doing this to help the environment, but in reality, they just don't wanna pay for the garbage pick up.




Admit it everyone, their coffee sucks, their food sucks, the brand sucks.




This isn't the coffee shop we all remember, it's an American run factory who only cares about profits. I stopped going there a long time ago.