RRRRRRROOOOOLLLLL up the RIM to lose

[urbandreamer]

Water ha like I'm paying a 300% markup for that. Shopper's Drug Mart is my new Tim's: they've got a few gluten free cookie options, healthy snacks etc. But mostly I plan ahead and keep a large water cooler in the car.

[MolsonExport]

mop&pail

[manny_santos]

Originally Posted by MolsonExport

their commercials are terrible.

Oh Cold Brew, how am I already falling for you?

[manny_santos]

Originally Posted by urbandreamer

We get it you don't like them. But do you go there? Since I can neither drink coffee nor eat gluten anymore, not only Tim Hortons but 99.9% of all restaurants are useless to me. At least if you don't have food intolerances you have many choices. In London area I've discovered many fantastic bakeries and hipster coffee joints you could try. I finally checked out Remark Fresh Markets - made me sad I couldn't try any of their tempting baked goods. When I drank coffee I'd try a different bag of beans from a different roastery every week, grind them fresh daily and use my Bialetti to make a fresh espresso/latte. (Although I believe it was drinking coffee in my 30s that led to getting severe GERD, so drink coffee/alcohol in limited quantities please.)

Because Tim's is off limits I find myself taking old highways more often on long trips: they usually have rest stops/washrooms.

London's suburbs are severely lacking in coffee shop choices. In the Byron area, ever since Little Red Roaster closed 8-9 years ago, and Starbucks pulled out several years after, Tim Hortons has been enjoying a monopoly in that area. I'm not sure what Hyde Park is like these days but last time I was up there I recall Tim Hortons and Starbucks. I remember Unger's Bakery years ago but I don't know if they ever expanded into coffee or just stuck with baked goods.

Where I live now it is very easy to avoid Tim Hortons; I have to go out of my way to go to one as there are several local coffee shops closer to me within walking distance. Tim Hortons is a lot harder to find in Metro Vancouver. But in Southwestern Ontario, it remains very popular, and in some smaller towns it is literally the only coffee choice.

[MolsonExport]

yeah, you have identified the problem. I grew up and spent much of my adulthood in Montreal (never a shortage of coffee shops), and also lived in Vancouver (fair choice of coffeeshops), among other places (including stints in Europe), but London is utterly dominated by Rimbucks.

[Nashe]

I'm pretty fortunate to not have any food allergies or sensitivities and a cast iron stomach. Don't LOVE turnips, but even those I will eat if they're well disguised.

[urbandreamer]

Maybe because there's more WASPY people in London (a good thing imo) they drink more tea than coffee? I drink decaf English breakfast and PC orange pekoe teas.

[jonny24]

Originally Posted by urbandreamer

^Actually with reflux disease, chocolate and spices are a big trigger as well. Coconut is high in fat. Things I no longer eat include: red meat, processed foods, onions, garlic and spices, pork/bacon, most cheeses, chocolate, alcohol, coffee/caffeine, lemons limes and oranges, tomatoes/ketchup.

Damn, you just listed like 80% of my diet. Onions and garlic is a real killer to miss out on, most nights I start slicing onions before I even figure out what they're going in. That sucks man.

How's yogurt?

[urbandreamer]

Low fat yogurt is fine.

I'd been suffering from heartburn since at least 2008 - I started drinking espresso coffee and drinking more craft beer which likely contributed to it; in addition I always liked spicy food and had a weakness for junk food like donuts and chips. Working nights didn't help. I was finally diagnosed with severe GERD in late 2018. (I've always been skinny so it took me by surprise.) My palette has finally adjusted - just smelling some spices makes me feel asthmatic. I still use black pepper in moderation. I'm still discovering triggers - peanut butter is very high in fat and makes me sick.

I eat much healthier, make everything from scatch. Today for example it's raining and very cold so I just made some chicken soup.

My advice: hold the coffee, beer and sweets. Treat them like our ancestors did - a treat for special occasions.

[MolsonExport]

I hate Tim Hortons more than I hate Donald Trump

If I had to pick between going to Tim Hortons or Syria, that's easy.

At least in Damascus, I could get a half-decent cup of joe. Sure, there may be shocking violence and chaos and the threat of abduction or death. But if I survived the night, at least my morning coffee wouldn't taste like suffering. It would not taste, as I've written before about the bland sludge at Tim Hortons, like hot water filtered through packing peanuts and left to percolate in a carafe of soot.

I laughed out loud this week as financial analysts expressed "surprise" over the chain's "sluggish" quarterly results. Really? Have these analysts never visited a Tim Hortons? The long and short of this fast-food business tale is that sales are dipping and the company is blaming cold drinks and sandwiches. It's as if the Real Fruit Chill or Artisan Styled Grill-Cheese are wreaking havoc on the bottom line when, in reality, everything about Tim Hortons is problematic in 2019.

A Tim Hortons superfan is, without exception, dead on the inside.

Before we proceed, again, let me be absolutely clear about my bias: I hate Tim Hortons more than I hate Donald Trump. In fact, the psychological overlap between the Cult of Timmies and the Cult of Trump is fascinating. Show me an American in a MAGA cap or a Canadian cradling a cup of double-double and I will show you the exact same soul. I see a person who does not know better, a person who through habit or irrational fear is settling on mediocrity. No, you don't have to support the most corrupt and incompetent American president in history. And, no, you don't have to pay for insipid beverages and experimental empty calories.
[...]

The rest of the article (originally published in the Toronto Star, but available free on "Our Windsor") can be accessed here: https://www.ourwindsor.ca/opinion-st...-donald-trump/

[thewave46]

Originally Posted by MolsonExport

The rest of the article (originally published in the Toronto Star, but available free on "Our Windsor") can be accessed here: https://www.ourwindsor.ca/opinion-st...-donald-trump/

Wow.

I never have felt so compelled to defend Tim Hortons until I read that article. In a sense, this article has done to me what Hillary Clinton 'deplorables' line did to the Democratic Party's chances in the 2016 election.

It's mediocre coffee and mystery 'food'. But here we are - first-world-itis striking again in the hyperbole soaked click-bait (I clicked). Donald Trump? A man so caustic to established democratic norms as to be viewed as a cyst gladly excised in 2020? Comparisons to Syria - a war-torn nation being shredded at the cost of immeasurable human suffering? Tim Hortons is worse?

And the worst part is: It isn't that funny. It's just the same harangued tropes all over again, except dialed to 11, because this article goes to 11.

Thumbs down. Lazy writing. Maybe I'll go buy a Tim's coffee to make myself feel better.

[Nashe]

Anger is performance art now, I guess. My social media feed is filling with people charging at mini-golf windmills on electric scooters.

[jamincan]

Sure, Tim Horton's is mediocre, but it's not terrible. It's convenient and cheap and edible. I don't really get the urge to dump on mediocrity as if it's somehow worse than Syria. Sometimes you don't want to spend $8 on an nitro cold-brew with hazelnut and just want a $2.50 mediocre ice coffee. Sometimes you just need caffeine at 5am and the barista at nearest artisan coffee bar went to bed an hour ago and won't be waking up for another 6 hours. Sure, that whiskey-infused orange-cream cherry-glazed fritter is delicious, but I just want to satisfy a passing craving and don't want to travel 20 minutes across town to the artisan donutery just for a donut.

2 hrs into my Saturday group ride? Yeah, I'm going to the local place and getting the espresso and fresh-baked goods, because it's special and a destination and who wants to spend 2 hours riding to a Tim Horton's? Getting together with some friends in the evening? Probably almost definitely not a Timmies.

I'd be disappointed if I had to spend $8 for an ice coffee every time I was thirsty and hot, and I'd be disappointed if I couldn't treat myself occasionally as well. The world has room for both things.

[rofina]

Originally Posted by MolsonExport

The rest of the article (originally published in the Toronto Star, but available free on "Our Windsor") can be accessed here: https://www.ourwindsor.ca/opinion-st...-donald-trump/

A miserable person disguised under a veil of over used humor. I get hyperbole and exaggeration, there's an art to it when done well and subtly. This is not that.

Though, I do largely agree about Tim's.

To be expected when it became part of a multinational conglomerate whos only imperative is Q over Q profit growth.

And as the author correctly points out - small competition will always outshine in quality and service and that should be rewarded with dollars and cents.

[MolsonExport]

3G capital has ruined Tim Horton's, and it is ruining Kraft-Heinz. These brands were built over decades but their brand equity has been severely eroded since the zero-based budgeting beancounters took over these firms.

3G Capital has become successful using ZBB within their company. arlos Brito, a protégé of Jorge Paulo Lemann, "brought to Anheuser-Busch the concept of 'zero-based budgeting,'wherein every expense must be newly justified every year, not just new ones, and the goal is to bring it lower than the year prior" at Anheuser-Busch InBev as early as in the 1990s. Following their decade of lessons in ZBB, 3G Capital employed similar cost management concepts at their next acquisitions: Burger King, Tim Hortons, Heinz, Kraft Foods, and Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen. The use of ZBB might have continued the subjective notion that this budgeting style is a fix-all for businesses trying to lighten the load of a new company.[10] This concept triggered measures as drastic as cutting hundreds of management jobs and jettisoning corporate jets, to as simple as requiring employees to ask to make photocopies.[11][12] Following the 2015 merger of Kraft and Heinz, some analysts and former employees blamed 3G Capital's use of ZBB for the company's poor performance.[13]

wookie

[thewave46]

Originally Posted by Vorkuta

Anger is performance art now, I guess. My social media feed is filling with people charging at mini-golf windmills on electric scooters.

I find myself increasingly lost in a world obsessed with extreme hyperbole. When the most extreme 'takes' have lost their shock value, what's left?

"Hur durr, Tim's is equivalent to Canada's MAGA" is poor, lazy writing.

Which is not to say that the direction Tim's is heading in is good. It's a brand that's being ruthlessly bled out of any redeeming value by a heartless corporate conglomerate until it's a husk. Great while one's still able to trade on nostalgia but once that's gone, what's left?

Maybe Tim's decline will be a good thing. Watching local microbreweries bleed out the big foreign-owned brewers has been a delight, simply because mediocrity and uniformity is being replaced by creativity. Every age sows the seeds of its own demise. I see no reason why local businesses couldn't fill the gap that Tim's will eventually leave - memories of local unpretentious coffee shops of yore (without the smoking, please) may once again grace our streets.

[manny_santos]

I was in Duncan, BC on Friday, and was amazed at the number of local coffee shops they have. They seem to have 14 local coffee shops, plus two Starbucks, a McDonald's, and 4 Tim Hortons. There are also multiple local coffee shops in both Crofton and Chemainus, which are part of the Duncan CA.

Comparable population centers in Ontario are far more dominated by Tim Hortons, and local coffee options are far less. I've never been to Timmins, but from what I can see on Google Maps, there's barely any non-chain coffee shops around there (though Loco101 might know of one I've missed). The Byron and Lambeth areas of London, put together have a similar population to the Duncan CA, enjoy three Tim Hortons, no other chains, and the Cream Beanery Cafe which is out of the way of both "downtown" areas of those communities.

[rofina]

Originally Posted by thewave46

I find myself increasingly lost in a world obsessed with extreme hyperbole. When the most extreme 'takes' have lost their shock value, what's left?

"Hur durr, Tim's is equivalent to Canada's MAGA" is poor, lazy writing.

Which is not to say that the direction Tim's is heading in is good. It's a brand that's being ruthlessly bled out of any redeeming value by a heartless corporate conglomerate until it's a husk. Great while one's still able to trade on nostalgia but once that's gone, what's left?

Maybe Tim's decline will be a good thing. Watching local microbreweries bleed out the big foreign-owned brewers has been a delight, simply because mediocrity and uniformity is being replaced by creativity. Every age sows the seeds of its own demise. I see no reason why local businesses couldn't fill the gap that Tim's will eventually leave - memories of local unpretentious coffee shops of yore (without the smoking, please) may once again grace our streets.

Big time.

Everything these days is an appeal to the shock factor. Its a perpetual crying wolf going on and its difficult to muster enough care even when the times do actually call for some alarm.

[thewave46]

Originally Posted by rofina

Big time.

Everything these days is an appeal to the shock factor. Its a perpetual crying wolf going on and its difficult to muster enough care even when the times do actually call for some alarm.

The part that disappoints me most is that this is the Toronto Star, not the Toronto Sun.

The Sun is a rag, but everyone knows it's a rag. I consider it a waste of otherwise useful paper, but it is what it is. So be it.

The Star actually has some merit. It is capable of real journalism. To publish this - even though it may get those clicks the Star is aiming for - is beneath it, even for an opinion column. Admittedly, a sign of the times, but disappointing nonetheless.

[rousseau]

Originally Posted by MolsonExport

Show me an American in a MAGA cap or a Canadian cradling a cup of double-double and I will show you the exact same soul. I see a person who does not know better, a person who through habit or irrational fear is settling on mediocrity.

That is some stupid hyperbole and nasty arrogance right there. Anyone who agrees with the writer is definitely worse than Hitler.

Originally Posted by thewave46

The Star actually has some merit. It is capable of real journalism. To publish this - even though it may get those clicks the Star is aiming for - is beneath it, even for an opinion column. Admittedly, a sign of the times, but disappointing nonetheless.

I dunno, from what I've seen the Star has gone head first into the woke deep end without a lifejacket. Some of the opinion pieces are totally batshit cray-cray.