At a guess, they dropped the apostrophe to comply with la loi 101, just like Eatons did.
I’m being conservative on this with the idea that it might have been meant sincerely once, but yeah.
You are not getting the wrong idea. Take a look at this.
Other doughnut artists…
I remember Eatons! Bill 101 is apparently also the reason why I can’t use my Starbucks card in Gatineau. Don’t ask for the logic, because I don’t know…
I don’t know who told you that, because it doesn’t seem likely. Maybe it’s because of a difference between Ontario and Quebec laws, but this particular law doesn’t care about your Starbucks card.
Also, my understanding is that commerces’ names are not subject to the dispositions of bill 101, so if Tim Hortons changed their name I’d wager it’s not because they had to, but because they thought they did (or should).
And note that Dunkin Donuts, which is so prevalent in the northeast, is completely missing from the west of the U.S. I’m not sure if it has any locations west of the Mississippi at all. So there’s no sense that “America runs on Dunkin’”.
See, someone told that to me a long while ago while at a Starbucks in Montreal, saying it had to do in some way with language laws. That’s my de facto answer whenever I see “offer valid everywhere except Quebec.” Why else would you exclude nearly a quarter of your population?
Jacques Villeneuve tried opening a bistro called “Newtown” somewhere in Quebec - it’s a literal translation of his last name that was apparently his nickname on the F1 circuit. It drew the ire of the language police (which is why I heard it on the news), so I wouldn’t be surprised if Timmy’s got a letter from someone.
Because Quebec uses civil law, not common law.
Usually “offer valid except in Quebec” is for sweepstakes and contests, though.
Just to give you an idea how many Dunkies there really are here in the north east when I was working in Boston I had to walk about 8/10 of mile to work. I would pass between 4 or 5 of them on the way over. Admittedly as far as I’m concerned there’s really only 1 Dunkie left in Massachusetts though and it’s in Weymouth.
Yes, I am California born-and-raised and didn’t experience Dunkin until I visited New York in my 30s. Out here, we had Winchell’s (which is mostly long gone now). Others would argue that Krispy Kreme is just as large but I believe that to be a mid-west giant as we didn’t get them on the West until the early 1990s, during their growth boom.
I suppose I am also looking at a cultural phenomenon which would correlate to cupcakes making a huge rise because of Sex in the City, but why and how did doughnuts become so culturally ingrained into Canadian culture? Could that have happened simply through the existence of a predominant chain like Hortons?
We had Dunkin’ Donuts in West Texas. (I actually worked in one for a year back in my teenage days.)
They are BIG here in Thailand, too.
I think that no matter where you’re standing near Boston, you’ll probably be able to spot at least one Dunkin. That includes most of the subway stations… Though I haven’t noticed many people ordering donuts; it’s mostly coffee, sometimes with a muffin or bagel.
Detroit is an interesting meeting point between all of the big chains. Dunkin Donuts and Tim Hortons are all pretty common, and Krispy Kreme recently started opening a number of locations. Plus there’s a good smattering of small ma-and-pa donut shops and bakeries.
I’ve only heard of Krispy Kreme in recent years and have yet to see one myself. But they’re entering Thailand this year, and those here who are familiar with them are all excited about that. From local Business stories about them in the newpapers, I gather they are from … North Carolina? Dunkin’ Donuts and Mr Donut are the giants in Thailand, really huge, although a Malaysian chain called Big Apple has opened that has some very superior gourmet doughnuts. Another chain that has made it big in the last couple of years is called Daddy Dough. They seem similar to Big Apple, but I’m not sure where they’re from; possibly local.
Japan’s Beard Papa’s is present in Bangkok on a very small scale, but that’s more cream puffs. Good, though; first tried them in Beijing.
Krispy Kreme entered the Chicago market to much fanfare a number of years ago (lines stretching around the block and that sort of thing), and now they’re all but gone from the area. I don’t know of any in the city proper anymore, and there may be a couple locations left in the suburbs, but they just completely disappeared in the span of about ten years. Pity, because as much Krispy Kreme was a love-hate thing for many people, their fresh yeast-risen donuts, right out of the fryer, were the ultimate sugar, starch, and fat bomb for me. And this is from someone who eats less than a dozen donuts total in a year. I don’t think I’ve even had a donut in 2010 yet.
But it’s “Tim Hortons” in Ontario as well.
If the Canadian Krispy Kreme experience is any guide, they’ll enter in a blaze of publicity with one outlet that will be jammed by crowds, then they’ll expand, then the fad will wear off, business will drop dramatically, and they’ll close.
That’s surprising, given the publicity I’ve heard about them over the past decade or so. But what you’ve described is exactly what happened here to Singapore’s Rotiboy, a chain of flavored buns. Not doughnuts, but not too far out of the ballpark. Rotiboy was so hugely popular in Bangkok that long lines formed in front of its outlets – the wife and I stood in them ourselves, that stuff was good – and customers were limited to the number of buns they could buy, so there’d be sure to be enough to go around. They literally sold them faster than they could make them. Some people even hired others to stand in line and buy up all of the Rotiboy buns they were allotted, then sell those to others waiting in line at a slight mark-up. Bun scalpers, if you will.
Then one day, Boom! Fad over, they all shut down. I think they’re still active in Singapore though.
How does that make more sense? 