I was reading an artcle (Globe and Mail, IIRC) about the switch at Tim Hortons/Horton’s. About 10 years ago one of the principals of the company quit over the quality of doughnuts. They used to be mixed and baked at the store during the night shift. Now they are plopped out and frozen at a central factory, and reheated and decorated at the store as needed.
This may have affected quality, but since Tim’s has forced out most of the competition, and is the equivalent of “Starbucks on every corner” outside the urban downtowns, where will people go if they don’t like reheated cardboard? A side effect of this is that the variety of donuts is about one quarter what it used to be, and fanciful creamed varieties (Remember bowties?) non-existent. Of course, the franchisees are of two minds. On one hand, they replace expensive real bakers with minimum drudges who transfer trays to ovens. OTOH, can you be proud about raking in cash if it is for selling crap?
The problem IIRC with Krispy Kreme is that they were good (if any doughnut could be “good”) but they misread the enthusiasm and grossly overexpanded. Once the novelty wore off - “I can get them around the corner, they are not the big treat when I go to New York” the payback disappeared and they sank under the debt. Is there even one still open in the Toronto area?
As for the sign discussion - well, someone wondered about the apostrophe. Canada has its interesting politics, even if we are all intelligent about health care. We argue language, signs and doughnuts. I keep looking for the Tim Horton’s exit on the St Catherines skyway. Is it, like, fifty feet in the air?
Donuts have blue-collar and fat-slob connotations in the US. Much donut hate has been sublimated to cop hate, by associating the toroidal sugared viand with supposedly wide-assed civil servants.
Canada has less drastic class distinction than the US, so donuts have less of a negative image.
I recall a situation a few years ago, where a group of kids gunned their car leaving a gravel parking lot and left some cars with a few dings and glass chips. Nothing really serious, but it probably didn’t help when I see the police talking to the kid who is wearing a T-shirt with big letters saying “BAD COP! NO DONUT!”
md2000, political jabs like this are not allowed in GQ. No warning issued, but don’t do this again.
If you see a problem with another poster’s post, please report it. And of course you don’t have to debate it here; you can start a thread in another more appropriate forum.
Let’s desist from the debate about language in this thread, especially since a Pit thread on the subject has now been started. Since this thread is about the cultural significance of donuts, it’s more appropriate for Cafe Society in any case.
I’ve walked by this print very often here at work. It caught my eye 15 years ago and I still enjoy it today. Maybe you’ll want to track down the artist, Fried Dough Ho?
Very Canadian. Very Albertan. Rocky landscape, brilliant blue sky, warm gloves, teacups, a babushka or a silky scarf, and of course featured prominantly a glazed doughnut. I smile a little every time I walk by it.
Yep, it’s happened. We’ve now seen people standing on the sidewalks near the shopping center where Krispy Kreme is located, selling at a slight mark-up the Krispy Kreme doughnuts that they or someone else (these might just be employees of some entrepreneur) stood in line to buy.
Does this count as a zombie thread? Hope not, I actually have an answer or two…
As of when I worked there, the glazes were still applied by hand. It’s been a couple years, but I would assume it’s still the same.
There is no trick that I know of (other than cocaine, of course), except the packets the store gets its coffee in are single-sized, and you don’t open them until right when you make the coffee, so it may be fresher. Perhaps the machines run at a different temperature or speed?
IIRC, most Tims are franchised, not run by the company (though some are!) so I doubt that there’s a massive corporate strategy at play. One of the places I worked at was actually kind of tucked away, and it still got really good traffic.
I like this explanation —with just the caveat that my generation is more Americanized, hence somewhat more openly “patriotic”.
And I really like this explanation! I can’t think of particularly Canadian class stereotypes, other than ones attached to the United States, and the range of customers you get in a Tim Horton’s is really pretty vast.
That’s quite likely, I was just guessing since when I worked there they were still done by hand and made in store and that was nearly ten years ago when we were just hearing about them making the change over.
Went into the one I used to work at a few weeks ago (was in town and heading home, I needed my highway coffee :p) and it had been renovated to look exactly like any other Tim’s now. Was almost weird, since in my head it was the same as it had been!
It’s also necessary, if you take your coffee with cream, to use 18% cream, which is a common product here but curiously hard to find in many parts of the USA. My best friend, who lives in California, can’t find 18% to save his life.
Saw the line at Krispy Kreme today. Jesus, but it’s STILL out the door of the shopping center and down the block, more than a month after opening. The wife knows someone who waited an hour in line recently. Madness! Madness, I say!
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