Was a Canadian fresh donuts and coffee place, very successful, product uniformity and reliability, as well as cleanliness and prompt service, across the country.
It was purchased by a US firm, and promptly switched to frozen donuts, they defrost and decorate. Uniformity disappeared.No more fresh coffee every 20mins. Service and cleanliness suffered as the franchisees weren’t being very well vetted. As profits dropped they began to cut corners, on already not great food.
Then they decided to move into hot sandwiches and such. Slowed already bad service, food quality now near zero.
They 100% deserve what’s coming for them, in my opinion.
I think the switch was inevitable. They had already started the “Grow as fast as humanly possible” and “Sell lunch” plans before Joyce sold it off. Going to cheaper frozen pre-made stuff was logistically inevitable and started before they merged with Wendy’s.
Of course, they didn’t stay American for long; Wendy’s sold all the stock off, and then they merged with a Brazilian firm that owns Burger King, but Tim Horton’s is headquartered in Oakville because the Harper government refused to allow the merger without guarantees about Canadian leadership and employees. Ownership changes are generally pretty risky for a company’s product and service quality.
I gave up on Timmie’s years ago. At one point, they were reliably an okay cup of coffee and mediocre but adequate donuts. (They switched to the frozen distribution model before they really registered on my radar. Out west Robin’s Donuts occupied their market niche prior to Tim’s push for massive expansion.) Their menu aside from that was a couple soup and sandwich options or a bowl of chili, all of which were decent. Then some time after Wendy’s bought them, not sure if it was before or after the Brazilian buyout, they started expanding the menu to compete with McD’s et al, and it’s all been downhill since. Breakfast sandwiches from a place that doesn’t have a grill? How does that work? Well, it works about as well as you’d expect microwaved breakfast sandwiches to work.
Still always lineups at the drivethrough. No idea why. For any food item they sell except maybe the donuts there’s a significantly better fast food option. Donuts only exempted from that statement since other fast food places generally don’t have donuts at all, not because the donuts are at all memorable these days.
Among Tim’s problems are the menu is WAY too big. Advise to parent Restaurant Brands International: do not try and add Beef Wellington or Pad Thai to the menu. No one will buy it.
The other issue is one that most of North America is facing, retaining staff. We went to the drive through a while ago and it was horribly backed up. I ordered three drinks, the order taker repeated it back missing one but cut off before we could correct it. Upon getting to the window and explaining, we were told tough luck and get back in line if we wanted to get anything else. Not customer service at its finest.
Went to a Tim Horton’s just last week. It was OK, considering that the oldest staff member (manager?) was about 17, and the rest of them younger. They were trying their best, but they’re working with sub-standard products and little to no training. The poor dude making my wrap was struggling, and it showed when I got it.
Wendy’s used to, an ex-girlfriend was a manager and went through a real training program at a facility somewhere. These days all of that is online only, probably because it’s easier and cheaper. But back in the late 90s at least, they sent people in leadership positions to get real training.
This was all so long ago I don’t remember any specifics, not that I had many to begin with.
Agreed, and some of those photos were from other countries I’m sure. They had ingredients you don’t see on American menus or had another language in the written text in the photo. Pretty useless.
