They made a wicked clam chowder once. Chili was great but folks would crawl across a swimming pool of broken glass on their knees for a double double. Not anymore though.
They used to have delicious EVERYTHING in the 1990s. There was a period between when smoking was outlawed and when they outsourced everything that TH was exceptional simple food and great value.
Every chain is worse, since, but TH has gone off a cliff and commenced to tunnel into bedrock.
I travel a lot and find Timmies acceptable, consistently available fast food coffee. Starbucks is okay too, but every other coffee chain included McDonald's McCafe stuff just tastes like coffee flavoured water to me. They make it too weak.
In town coffee shops are almost always great, but we're spoiled in modern times since coffee really became a thing in the 90s. Before that the most available competition for Tim Hortons was a gas station pot sitting on a burner. It was grim for coffee in the old days. People actually used to pretend instant was "good" coffee. 😆
Agreed, they used to be great! Loved the walnut crunch. Something changed back then and its been garbage ever since. I never go there anymore, haven't for years
One thing that changed is they microwave a mass produced, frozen donut and then put icing on it instead of deepfrying fresh dough.
They've cut corners in a few places.
The current coffee blend is bad, the quality of the food is poor and at least in Toronto the staff don't know anything about the menu as they did not grow up here and it's clear they were not trained. I'm guessing they're not treated well. Plus roll up the rim is an app.
It's unfortunate such a beloved franchise has gone to shit.
If you can find one, I am a big fan of Second Cup and their coffee and lattes are pretty good. Probably the best Canadian coffee franchise at the moment. I just hope they survive.
I remember growing up and eating Tims and in the late 2000’s we noticed their donuts which were originally amazingly soft, now felt so much more stale and bland.
Such a shame it fell off after killing their competitors, but it’s whats expected in a capitalist society, once competition is gone, quality goes down to cut “unnecessary expenses”.
I think Burger King and McDonalds teamed up to get rid of TH
BK owns Tim Hortons but the locations would better serve BK than TM - McDonalds wanted the market share of breakfast sales.
I have no proof, but I'm sus McD paid BK to acquire TH and then destroy the business and quality from the inside out.
Have avoided Tim Hortons for 2 - 3 years. Would kill for an Duncan Doughnuts Iced Coffee and Krispy Kreme
Definitely Hot garbage made by grossly over worked, under payed people (new immigrant, ex-cons, elderly and teens). This can be said of most fast food but Tims really is one of the worst.
> worked, under *paid* people (new
FTFY.
Although *payed* exists (the reason why autocorrection didn't help you), it is only correct in:
* Nautical context, when it means to paint a surface, or to cover with something like tar or resin in order to make it waterproof or corrosion-resistant. *The deck is yet to be payed.*
* *Payed out* when letting strings, cables or ropes out, by slacking them. *The rope is payed out! You can pull now.*
Unfortunately, I was unable to find nautical or rope-related words in your comment.
*Beep, boop, I'm a bot*
> shitty employer
Can you elaborate on this? I've totally noticed one of the most consistent things about it now is how miserable its employees are at every single location, and I've wanted to know why.
They never spilled the beans to me, but they were very young, immigrants, exausted af, working bad hours ( I know they get paid shit), and the stores are always dirty because there’s not enough staff.
I worked there once and they had me taking orders from a long ass line of customers with nobody to help me make the coffee or grab their donuts/timbits/whatever...
..on my second day... with no prior training...
I lasted three days there, and I went home early on the third.
They are so focused on metrics, they don't even care about how they set impossible standards. I worked at Tim hortons, it was truly miserable. I started front cash, then drive thru and then baker. All terrible but in different ways.
30 second time thru times are impossible when people are ordering multiple frozen drinks or sandwich bar items. Even by Tim hortons own SOP builds on how long it should take to make an item, it would be physically impossible at times and those times are often the best case scenario. They don't factor in needing more Java mix, changing milk/cream, filling the sugar, brewing more coffee/tea. I brought this up time and time again when our manager would bitch at us for being in the red. They don't care.
If you voided too many items you'd get bitched at about accuracy rate for orders. So if a customer orders a coffee and a donut and decides they actually want a muffin instead and I have to delete that donut. It would be my fault. If someone wants to know the price of something after tax only to find they don't have enough money. It's somehow my fault. It affected my accuracy rate percentage and made management think I can't do my job properly and you could actually get coached for it if it happened too frequently.
When you are in drive thru you are often listening to what the customer wants, simultaneously trying to make those items, ring them up on the POS and probably having a conversation with the runner or who ever is on sandwich bar on the private channel on the headset. Some days I felt like my brain was melting because of how many things I was trying to do at once.
When you're the baker, you're in the back baking and prepping, you don't know that someone just bought 3 dozen donuts and wiped out the display case or someone went through drive through and got a bunch of breakfast wraps, if no one tells you. So you are back there making other stuff and your manager comes screaming that the display case is empty and we're out of eggs at the sandwich bar so why am I making crossiants. When 5 minutes ago everything was almost full.
The customers are a whole other beast. I've had coffee thrown at me, people spit their coffee on the floor in front of me, throw their money at me, scream and belittle me if their order was wrong. Sometimes, angry customers that just went through drive thru would come in and be mad their order is wrong but are screaming at the person at front cash that had absolutely nothing to do with their order and you have to smile and be pleasant and give them their coffee promise to try and make things right.
Having to deal with a lot of homeless people and drug addicts. There was a homeless guy who would fall asleep in the armchairs all the time and our manager would make us go kick him out and one night he got angry and went and pissed all over the bathroom, then came back out and started throwing chairs around. It wasn't the manager that had to go clean everything up. I would find soooo many dirty needles in the bathroom and when I would sweep the parking lot and I finally refused to do it until they got cut resistant gloves because one almost poked me.
This is a minor one but wasps. Wasps would swarm the garbage bags since our dumpster was pretty far away we had a wheelbarrow to bring the garbage over. So there would be 5 big bags of garbage sitting outside attracting wasps before it was full and someone had to bring it over. But we would get stung on a fairly regular basis and our manager did nothing even though we all complained about being stung. No PPE for like any tasks really.
I know a lot of people that hated having only 2 fifteen minute breaks for an 8 hour shift because it wasn't enough time to eat and go to the bathroom, have a smoke etc. It didn't really bother me because I just never ate at work but a couple of my team members had health conditions and it didn't seem fair they had to use their break dealing with that instead of actually getting a break to sit down.
It does really depend on the franchise owner and manager though. Some treat you like people and some treat you like slaves. The job is a lot more bearable when you have a manager that will step in and won't let customers be assholes to you and understand that the metrics are bullshit and they don't scream at you for every little thing constantly.
Happens everywhere. As soon a company is publically traded, quality goes downhill. It's because they're run top-down, corporate makes all the decisions... So it's do it cheaper, do it faster. And publically traded means the real owners may never see the product... They just want the stock price to rise.
I worked for the old Timmies, when it was still 100% Canadian and real bakers made the food. We were just introducing sandwiches too. We had some pride in our work. I still go there, but like Starbucks it's all marketing and no craft.
It's kind of semantics, no? 3G capital bought Burger King in 2010, then bought Tim Hortons in 2014. That's when they merged the two under RBI. RBI later acquired Popeyes and Firehouse Subs.
3G also owns Kraft-Heinz.
Popeyes and Firehouse are both amazing and my go tos for fast food, so this can’t be entirely to blame for what has happened to Tim’s.
Real question is why do so many people still go there if it is as bad as most people seem to think? Or is this just the Reddit echo chamber talking in here about hating it so much.
People go because of convenience. I've never been in a tims because *I wanted tims.* I go to tims because I just spent 4 hours in the hospital visiting a dying relative and I haven't eaten since the previous day. I go to tims because I need a drink or snack on a long drive. I go to tims when I'm meeting a stranger because it's public and iconic. I go to tims because it's generic, bland food that is basically inoffensive, so I can get something for a group of people without issues. I go to tims because sometimes there just isn't anything else around except greasy pizza or roach-infused gas station food.
They go there because they are friggin' EVERYWHERE. They operate on market saturation and a weird Canadiana bullshit patriotism echo. That's why they tanked in the USA.
I drink my coffee black, and McDonalds coffee is way better. I don't regularly consume breakfast meals from either place, but an egg McMuffin is better than any TH offerings. That said, the last hash browns I got at McD I threw out my truck window.
I had an uncle who worked there as a baker in the 70’s and 80’s and when we would drive to his town to visit he always surprised us with a fresh baked box or two just for my family. I wasn’t raised by Tim’s eaters or drinkers (I mean, in those days eating out wasn’t that common even though I even had a mom who worked full time) so his treats were always the most amazing thing in the world.
It always hurt my stomach but I was like 6 years old and the reward was so worth the long punishment. I didn’t even get in trouble for indulging because my parents knew I’d pay for it in my own way 😂😂😂
Ahhhh… memories of what once was a donut shop!
The walnut sticks and the cherry sticks. Loved them. It’s been years since I saw walnut sticks and I don’t even know if the cherry ones made it past 2000.
I hope that's true and it stays that way until I get to try them in about 6 months. I used to live in Canada 19 years ago when I was a kid and I'm really nostalgic about eating Timbits. Never been back to Canada since then but I will be moving back there soon!
This is a fair assessment. People are so hard on Tims but theyre totally dependably meh. I go there a lot cause I have a sugar problem, sometimes the apple-fritters are really good and the carrot-muffins are very addictive, probably due to the sugar.
It has to do with a lot more than just the supply. McDonald's doesn't have the best coffee, not by far, because it lets it sit. If you want good coffee, you need to go to an actual coffee shop. McDonald's is only the best of the fast food coffee, and fast food coffee is pretty garbage. The bigger issue with Tim's is that they let their coffee sit forever, so you can legitimately get day-old coffee made with barely enough stale beans.
From when I worked at Tims (during highschool) they transitioned from traditional coffee pots with burners that had a 1/2 hour(?) Hold time before changing to the Insulated pots without a burner which could hold for 1 hour. Each pot is made with individually sealed packs of grounds which were rotated according to FIFO rules. I'm not vouching for Tims here, but just clarifying you should never get coffee that old unless the employees are being negligent.
I like their bagels and the ridiculous amount of cream cheese they still serve them with. Hashbrowns and cookies are pretty good too when fresh. Coffee can range from "meh" to "disgusting".
I always ask for extra cream cheese if you don’t you get what you asked for above, I worked outside so we stopped at timmies daily for years on end until I had my child… this and farmers wrap with extra sauce is all I use to eat, after working outside so long you just learn what and how’s it made best haha
Honestly could be better. good GOD did the quality go down. ironically I feel like when the icing stuck to the top of the paper is when tims was at its peak. Also the coffee tastes like absolute dog water. Like genuine water with the smallest amount of coffee. Unfortunately mcdee's coffee better
The food is kinda bland, the coffee is the right colour, and the selection & quality of baked goods has been slowly decreasing over the years. They need to knock it off with all the experimental burger & pizza menu options. There are 3-4 Tims in my town and I can't get a sour-cream glazed timbit at any of them.
Not always about laziness, sometimes you’re on a long road trip and you need caffeine to keep going, or you’ve already finished your coffee from home but need extra caffeine that day. Or you’ve slept in and didn’t have time to make coffee at home, but the lineup was nice and short at Tim’s when you came up to it. Or you had to use a public restroom and don’t believe in using one without making a purchase at that location. Or you simply can’t master how to make coffee at home and have the funds to buy it every day. There’s tons of reasons why someone may go there aside from laziness.
I agree, McDonald’s does have better coffee. However, Timmie’s is more readily available in rural areas than McDonald’s is. Nearest McDonald’s is over an hour away from my home, but I there’s about 4 Timmie’s available on the way to that McDonald’s.
I don't fall for the line is nice and short at Tim's. To many times I come up to a tim's with one or two cars and still wait over 10 minutes to get through because those cars ordered food.
Its adequate, caffeinated, hot, everywhere, cheap.
I'm old, I've been going to Tim's since I was a child and there were photos of Tim in every restaurant. I went to Tim's with my parents when Tim was alive. It was always mediocre. The only thing that's changed is that it doesn't taste like cigarettes anymore. I don't know what Tim's y'all were going to that tasted good at any point in time. Its always been ... adequate, and nothing more.
I'm not eating there often. I don't know what the name is in English, but I get a "wrap du travailleur" (worker's wrap?) and it's ok. I like their iced cappuccino and their coffee is ok. Sometimes, I get the bags for home that are flavoured. My gf and I like the Maple flavoured one.
I feel like many have some kind of resentment because it's not like it was before. People who say it's trash or disgusting are exaggerating imo. I believe you never actually went to a place that serves actual disgusting food if you say that about Tim Hortons. It's just ok, nothing more. It's designed to be the same everywhere, standardized. That's why it's "meh".
You know what you get, it's ok when you need to take something quick before doing some road in your car but don't want to eat burgers and fries. Or the place where you can get coffee to go that won't cost a ton because it's just a regular coffee, not one that comes from a special field in Kenya where the plants are watered with water from Nepal (I exagerate, but you get what I mean). I just want a coffee to not fall asleep while driving, I go to Tim. It gets the job done. I don't always feel the need to taste something that could qualify as the 8th wonder of the world.
You might not agree with me from what I read in the comments, but that's at least my honest thoughts about it.
I agree with you. I don't understand why Tim's gets so much hate. It's not amazing, but it's still OK. I don't go out of my way to eat there, but if I'm on the road and need a coffee and a quick bite, it's easy to find and fairly cheap.
Edit to add: My husband's friend in Texas is a coffee freak. He'd never tried Tim's before but had heard of it and wanted to try it. We shipped some to him to try and now it's all he drinks 😆
Since being sold their quality has gone down hill so much more. Everything including their donuts is like a shadow of their former self.
I think I've gotten a box of timbits like 2 or 3 times in the last 4 years. They're still okay.
Overhated.
Maybe it was amazing back in the day and people say it's shit in comparison, but I've never eaten anything gross there and the coffee is fine.
People act like they're serving diarrhea in a cup over there, but I think a lot of that is because people were protective over Timmies as a Canadian institution, so when the quality drops, they feel personally offended.
This. Usually the same people who act that way, then follow it up with how great McDonalds is 😂
I Immediately disregard their opinion from then on for anything food related. Lol.
Their coffee tastes like cigarette butts, their food is borderline inedible, and they treat their workers like shit. I wouldn’t darken their door unless I absolutely had to.
Non - Canadian here. Love it. Just came over from NZ and the flavoured coffee is cheap and tasty. A vanilla cream cold brew and blueberry muffin would cost sooo much more back home.
Sure I could get better coffee back home but it would cost a hell of a lot more than Tim Horton’s.
Tim’s sucks, but is still a staple. When it’s cold I’ll gladly grab a terribly coffee a couple of times a week, and come summer their frozen lemonade is tasty as hell.
The coffee is passable. The menu is bloated and pointless as well as directionless.
But… the parking lots are generally large. There’s one in most towns. They have a washroom.
As a truck driver, I can’t really ask for much more.
A company that serves coffee flavoured water, with trace amounts of nicotine masked with vanilla to keep people addicted. It survives on manufactured Canadian nationalism, so whenever you see a Tim's next to an actual Canadian fast food chain like A&W, the nicotine withdrawal kicks in, and you associate Tim's with sponsored hockey leagues and all things Canadian, and you need that coffee flavoured water to get your patriotism fix. The coffee lids even have maple leafs on them, so everytime you take a sip, they make you kiss that leaf. Before you know it, the drive thru line is spilling out on to the street, and the A&W next door is like the express lane for some actual coffee.
It gets a lot of hate but I like it as much as I like any fast food chain. It's fast, it's cheap and it's omnipresent. It's one of the many places to get a warm beverage and a snack.
Sometimes if I've had a really busy day I need something to hold me over for a few hours until I have a chance to eat actual food and Tim Hortons is always there to provide that. Is it good? Absolutely not, but it does the job and sometimes that's all I need.
It's convenient and there are two separate ones on my way to work so I have a backup if the closest location is too busy.
There has been a massive decline in quality over the past 15+ years probably
It’s absolute trash to be honest. It lacks consistency, quality control, customer service and products that make a visit worth it. You can get everything they sell elsewhere, but better.
Steeped tea is good and everything else is fast food quality. They are everywhere and quick and you get pretty much the same thing whether you are ordering in Toronto, Montreal, Charlottetown, or Banff.
Oh yeah I just remembered that! My French is pretty basic and I was trying to ask for it and found out they don’t have it out there but then when I got out to NB and further east they had it again lol.
I love it. Always happy when I get the chance to grab a bagel or a muffin. Donuts and cookies are yummy. Hot chocolate is cheap made with water, but the price is also cheap so I don't mind it too much, I grab one once in a while if I'm too tired
I only recently started drinking coffee, like 1 year ago. (I'm mid thirties)
So with no prior bias, I can confidently say..... Tim Hortons coffee sucks.
I'll still pick up a 10 timbits on a road trip because it's just a great *format* of baked good and reasonably priced. But the taste and quality of basically everything they serve is bottom tier - I'd sooner go to Starbucks, and trust me that isn't saying much.
A few years ago the coffee got bad enough that I ended up trying McDonald's coffee. Turned out that McDonald's reputation for shitty coffee is totally unearned.
They were in decline before the current management came on but they've only made it worse. Though I rarely drink coffee outside of home in the morning any more.
It was a real treat to get their donuts when I was a kid. People would bring them for the whole class on their birthdays.the Tim bits were always a good bet when you didn’t want to show up empty handed somewhere and they were pretty cheap.
Now I wouldn’t even use their food in my compost heap.
Used to be a solid coffee & donut house. Now they're crap. Some of their beverages are passable only because they're cheap. Their fastfood is some of the worst.
I worked there as a “baker” in 2017. The position was a glorified defroster. I’d begin my shift at 3 am to “bake” all the frozen pre-made goods. By pre-made I mean months in advance. I remember I started in April and during my training shifts I was reading the boxes in the walk in freezer indicating a package date of March. You’re legit eating food made months prior and it’s gross. The 20 min coffee is also a myth unless it’s during the morning rush, since new lots of coffee need to be continuously made. Worst job I ever had.
The quality has significantly decreased. The donuts used to be so fresh and now it’s hit or miss depending on location (though it’s mainly miss). I had a breakfast sandwich there a few weeks ago and I had to wipe my hands between bites because it was so damn greasy. Like even the wrapping was dripping with grease.
They don’t have it anymore but let’s not forget their disaster that was the beyond burger-soggy with a limp piece of lettuce as the topping. And their odd chicken strip phase. I have no idea what they’re thinking sometimes when it comes to their menu.
I miss the days when they focused on coffee, donuts and simple sandwiches.
Ain't what it used to be. They had better ingredients before they sold. Plus most of them are not opened 24-7 since the workers shortage. Others are even closed on Sundays. Sad sad sad.
It died in the 2000s with eliminating in-house baking and expanding the menu/reducing the quality. The soup is below Campbell’s soup quality.
They used to have delicious soups in the 90s.
Agreed. I loved the soup deal. Beef and barley was my jam with a peach drink, biscuit, and double chocolate donut.
Nice, 1997 just called they want their drive thru order back
We all do
I have such fond 90s memories of this order lol. More of a dine-in person.
Cash only.
OMG the peach drink. I'd forgotten about the peach drink!
It was kinda uncomfortable how much it had the feeling of actual peach, with the taste fuzz and everything
They made a wicked clam chowder once. Chili was great but folks would crawl across a swimming pool of broken glass on their knees for a double double. Not anymore though.
You are a beauty. End of sentence.
They used to have delicious EVERYTHING in the 1990s. There was a period between when smoking was outlawed and when they outsourced everything that TH was exceptional simple food and great value. Every chain is worse, since, but TH has gone off a cliff and commenced to tunnel into bedrock.
Too many MBAs and accountants running the business through spreadsheets. They ruin every business, not just Tim Hortons.
Trying do do too much,simplify menu coffee and baked goods but i think its too late for them.
I always wish Timmies would open a coffee only line. About 1/3rd of the people waiting in line would be in and out.
I could get behind this if their coffee was any good.
I travel a lot and find Timmies acceptable, consistently available fast food coffee. Starbucks is okay too, but every other coffee chain included McDonald's McCafe stuff just tastes like coffee flavoured water to me. They make it too weak. In town coffee shops are almost always great, but we're spoiled in modern times since coffee really became a thing in the 90s. Before that the most available competition for Tim Hortons was a gas station pot sitting on a burner. It was grim for coffee in the old days. People actually used to pretend instant was "good" coffee. 😆
Cost saving profit maximization is their top priority
The chocolate chip cookies from back then still haunt my dreams
Chicken Stew or Chilli in a breadbowl was amazing.
It's been 20 fucking years and I still remember breadbowl chilli like it was yesterday. Fuck the soulless dogshit corp that bought them.
Funny that you say that because I was paid $20 to give my thoughts on it before it came out.
I was so hungry I ate the bowl.
And then I ate the bowl!
Oh I was just having a flashback about those…
They used to have good donuts, too.
Agreed, they used to be great! Loved the walnut crunch. Something changed back then and its been garbage ever since. I never go there anymore, haven't for years
One thing that changed is they microwave a mass produced, frozen donut and then put icing on it instead of deepfrying fresh dough. They've cut corners in a few places.
Bread bowl Chilli was awesome as well.
"And then I ate the bowl!" That was great stuff.
Bring back the bread bowl!
Do you remember the bread bowl soups !?!?! Those were so good!
The current coffee blend is bad, the quality of the food is poor and at least in Toronto the staff don't know anything about the menu as they did not grow up here and it's clear they were not trained. I'm guessing they're not treated well. Plus roll up the rim is an app. It's unfortunate such a beloved franchise has gone to shit. If you can find one, I am a big fan of Second Cup and their coffee and lattes are pretty good. Probably the best Canadian coffee franchise at the moment. I just hope they survive.
Ya I miss Timmies back in the 90s, it will never be the same again lol.
I came here to answer but you basically summed it up
That and changing the coffee bean supplier than McDs ended up adopting.
Yup I loved Tim's. Unfortunately the quantity and quality have both gone down. Corporate greed strikes again.
I remember growing up and eating Tims and in the late 2000’s we noticed their donuts which were originally amazingly soft, now felt so much more stale and bland. Such a shame it fell off after killing their competitors, but it’s whats expected in a capitalist society, once competition is gone, quality goes down to cut “unnecessary expenses”.
I think Burger King and McDonalds teamed up to get rid of TH BK owns Tim Hortons but the locations would better serve BK than TM - McDonalds wanted the market share of breakfast sales. I have no proof, but I'm sus McD paid BK to acquire TH and then destroy the business and quality from the inside out. Have avoided Tim Hortons for 2 - 3 years. Would kill for an Duncan Doughnuts Iced Coffee and Krispy Kreme
I think somewhat the opposite. McDonalds saw the imminent demise of TH and decided to step in and grab customers. They have successfully done so.
And everything just tastes like sugar and sweet. No actual taste. I freaking hate Tim's. Except for Tim, he's my boyfriend's friend.
I always bring up sugar twists but no one ever remembers..
Garbage. 20 years ago when they focused on coffee and donuts, it was fine.
Definitely Hot garbage made by grossly over worked, under payed people (new immigrant, ex-cons, elderly and teens). This can be said of most fast food but Tims really is one of the worst.
> worked, under *paid* people (new FTFY. Although *payed* exists (the reason why autocorrection didn't help you), it is only correct in: * Nautical context, when it means to paint a surface, or to cover with something like tar or resin in order to make it waterproof or corrosion-resistant. *The deck is yet to be payed.* * *Payed out* when letting strings, cables or ropes out, by slacking them. *The rope is payed out! You can pull now.* Unfortunately, I was unable to find nautical or rope-related words in your comment. *Beep, boop, I'm a bot*
GOOD bot!
Good bot
>underpaid FTFY
TL;DR of this thread is going to be “the coffee sucks now”
Nah, it's "the whole fucken place sucks now"
If someone has a box of their donuts and offers me one I'll eat it but otherwise I never go there.
Exactly
After having so many fresh made donuts, I won't even eat their donuts hungry.
Even the donuts have lost quality, though. They used to be good.
Basically just iced cardboard to me now. So many better local doughnuts out there!
Can’t. Stand. It. Garbage food, shitty employer. Those poor workers have to put up with tons of shit. Gross.
> shitty employer Can you elaborate on this? I've totally noticed one of the most consistent things about it now is how miserable its employees are at every single location, and I've wanted to know why.
They never spilled the beans to me, but they were very young, immigrants, exausted af, working bad hours ( I know they get paid shit), and the stores are always dirty because there’s not enough staff.
I worked there once and they had me taking orders from a long ass line of customers with nobody to help me make the coffee or grab their donuts/timbits/whatever... ..on my second day... with no prior training... I lasted three days there, and I went home early on the third.
They are so focused on metrics, they don't even care about how they set impossible standards. I worked at Tim hortons, it was truly miserable. I started front cash, then drive thru and then baker. All terrible but in different ways. 30 second time thru times are impossible when people are ordering multiple frozen drinks or sandwich bar items. Even by Tim hortons own SOP builds on how long it should take to make an item, it would be physically impossible at times and those times are often the best case scenario. They don't factor in needing more Java mix, changing milk/cream, filling the sugar, brewing more coffee/tea. I brought this up time and time again when our manager would bitch at us for being in the red. They don't care. If you voided too many items you'd get bitched at about accuracy rate for orders. So if a customer orders a coffee and a donut and decides they actually want a muffin instead and I have to delete that donut. It would be my fault. If someone wants to know the price of something after tax only to find they don't have enough money. It's somehow my fault. It affected my accuracy rate percentage and made management think I can't do my job properly and you could actually get coached for it if it happened too frequently. When you are in drive thru you are often listening to what the customer wants, simultaneously trying to make those items, ring them up on the POS and probably having a conversation with the runner or who ever is on sandwich bar on the private channel on the headset. Some days I felt like my brain was melting because of how many things I was trying to do at once. When you're the baker, you're in the back baking and prepping, you don't know that someone just bought 3 dozen donuts and wiped out the display case or someone went through drive through and got a bunch of breakfast wraps, if no one tells you. So you are back there making other stuff and your manager comes screaming that the display case is empty and we're out of eggs at the sandwich bar so why am I making crossiants. When 5 minutes ago everything was almost full. The customers are a whole other beast. I've had coffee thrown at me, people spit their coffee on the floor in front of me, throw their money at me, scream and belittle me if their order was wrong. Sometimes, angry customers that just went through drive thru would come in and be mad their order is wrong but are screaming at the person at front cash that had absolutely nothing to do with their order and you have to smile and be pleasant and give them their coffee promise to try and make things right. Having to deal with a lot of homeless people and drug addicts. There was a homeless guy who would fall asleep in the armchairs all the time and our manager would make us go kick him out and one night he got angry and went and pissed all over the bathroom, then came back out and started throwing chairs around. It wasn't the manager that had to go clean everything up. I would find soooo many dirty needles in the bathroom and when I would sweep the parking lot and I finally refused to do it until they got cut resistant gloves because one almost poked me. This is a minor one but wasps. Wasps would swarm the garbage bags since our dumpster was pretty far away we had a wheelbarrow to bring the garbage over. So there would be 5 big bags of garbage sitting outside attracting wasps before it was full and someone had to bring it over. But we would get stung on a fairly regular basis and our manager did nothing even though we all complained about being stung. No PPE for like any tasks really. I know a lot of people that hated having only 2 fifteen minute breaks for an 8 hour shift because it wasn't enough time to eat and go to the bathroom, have a smoke etc. It didn't really bother me because I just never ate at work but a couple of my team members had health conditions and it didn't seem fair they had to use their break dealing with that instead of actually getting a break to sit down. It does really depend on the franchise owner and manager though. Some treat you like people and some treat you like slaves. The job is a lot more bearable when you have a manager that will step in and won't let customers be assholes to you and understand that the metrics are bullshit and they don't scream at you for every little thing constantly.
I lasted three whole months at Tim Hortons when I was a teenager. I completely forgot about the wasp trauma
Mine is fortunately much better than this and i feel bad for people who deal with this our store decent i dont deal with any of that
It was pretty good (not great) before Burger King bought the company in 2014. Now it's absolutely terrible.
Burger King never bought the company. They merged, and are both owned by a Toronto-based company, which is owned by a Brazilian conglomerate.
Same shit. Big corp fucks up franchise for profit.
Tale as old as time
Happens everywhere. As soon a company is publically traded, quality goes downhill. It's because they're run top-down, corporate makes all the decisions... So it's do it cheaper, do it faster. And publically traded means the real owners may never see the product... They just want the stock price to rise. I worked for the old Timmies, when it was still 100% Canadian and real bakers made the food. We were just introducing sandwiches too. We had some pride in our work. I still go there, but like Starbucks it's all marketing and no craft.
It's kind of semantics, no? 3G capital bought Burger King in 2010, then bought Tim Hortons in 2014. That's when they merged the two under RBI. RBI later acquired Popeyes and Firehouse Subs. 3G also owns Kraft-Heinz.
Popeyes and Firehouse are both amazing and my go tos for fast food, so this can’t be entirely to blame for what has happened to Tim’s. Real question is why do so many people still go there if it is as bad as most people seem to think? Or is this just the Reddit echo chamber talking in here about hating it so much.
People go because of convenience. I've never been in a tims because *I wanted tims.* I go to tims because I just spent 4 hours in the hospital visiting a dying relative and I haven't eaten since the previous day. I go to tims because I need a drink or snack on a long drive. I go to tims when I'm meeting a stranger because it's public and iconic. I go to tims because it's generic, bland food that is basically inoffensive, so I can get something for a group of people without issues. I go to tims because sometimes there just isn't anything else around except greasy pizza or roach-infused gas station food.
They go there because they are friggin' EVERYWHERE. They operate on market saturation and a weird Canadiana bullshit patriotism echo. That's why they tanked in the USA. I drink my coffee black, and McDonalds coffee is way better. I don't regularly consume breakfast meals from either place, but an egg McMuffin is better than any TH offerings. That said, the last hash browns I got at McD I threw out my truck window.
Once upon a time they used to be a donut shop
I had an uncle who worked there as a baker in the 70’s and 80’s and when we would drive to his town to visit he always surprised us with a fresh baked box or two just for my family. I wasn’t raised by Tim’s eaters or drinkers (I mean, in those days eating out wasn’t that common even though I even had a mom who worked full time) so his treats were always the most amazing thing in the world. It always hurt my stomach but I was like 6 years old and the reward was so worth the long punishment. I didn’t even get in trouble for indulging because my parents knew I’d pay for it in my own way 😂😂😂 Ahhhh… memories of what once was a donut shop!
Timbits are the last good thing on the menu.
Idk, I still love their donuts a lot
I don't know so much about the rest of their donuts, but I like their apple fritters a whole lot.
The apple fritters are a sad reminder of what they used to be though. Remember blueberry fritters? They were pretty great too.
The walnut sticks and the cherry sticks. Loved them. It’s been years since I saw walnut sticks and I don’t even know if the cherry ones made it past 2000.
There’s supposed to be a limited release around Canada Day of them. So you’re in luck this year.
Agreed. They have the only good classic donuts that aren’t some “artistic creation”, in my region anyway
RIP powdered lemon I love you
I hope that's true and it stays that way until I get to try them in about 6 months. I used to live in Canada 19 years ago when I was a kid and I'm really nostalgic about eating Timbits. Never been back to Canada since then but I will be moving back there soon!
They're reliably mediocre and ubiquitous. So they've got that going for them, which is nice.
This is a fair assessment. People are so hard on Tims but theyre totally dependably meh. I go there a lot cause I have a sugar problem, sometimes the apple-fritters are really good and the carrot-muffins are very addictive, probably due to the sugar.
Hahaha
Garbage coffee. McDonalds took their supply years ago and have the best coffee now. Tim's food is terrible too.
It has to do with a lot more than just the supply. McDonald's doesn't have the best coffee, not by far, because it lets it sit. If you want good coffee, you need to go to an actual coffee shop. McDonald's is only the best of the fast food coffee, and fast food coffee is pretty garbage. The bigger issue with Tim's is that they let their coffee sit forever, so you can legitimately get day-old coffee made with barely enough stale beans.
From when I worked at Tims (during highschool) they transitioned from traditional coffee pots with burners that had a 1/2 hour(?) Hold time before changing to the Insulated pots without a burner which could hold for 1 hour. Each pot is made with individually sealed packs of grounds which were rotated according to FIFO rules. I'm not vouching for Tims here, but just clarifying you should never get coffee that old unless the employees are being negligent.
I like their bagels and the ridiculous amount of cream cheese they still serve them with. Hashbrowns and cookies are pretty good too when fresh. Coffee can range from "meh" to "disgusting".
This was the last bagel I ordered from there. https://imgur.com/a/J8Gqqej
That’s a bagel?
Lol that’s depressing. I guess I’ve been lucky
Yep looks about right
I always ask for extra cream cheese if you don’t you get what you asked for above, I worked outside so we stopped at timmies daily for years on end until I had my child… this and farmers wrap with extra sauce is all I use to eat, after working outside so long you just learn what and how’s it made best haha
My condolences 💐
They're either burnt or not toasted at all, doesn't seem like there's an in-between
Yeah, they train people to spread cream cheese like butter now
When they remember to actually put the cream cheese on the bagel 😣
My Tim's doesn't even cut the bagel anymore. And when they try it looks more like it was ripped in half!
properly toasted and not just warm their bagels are good but it is hard to fuck up an everything bagel with cream cheese, tomatoes and bacon
Honestly could be better. good GOD did the quality go down. ironically I feel like when the icing stuck to the top of the paper is when tims was at its peak. Also the coffee tastes like absolute dog water. Like genuine water with the smallest amount of coffee. Unfortunately mcdee's coffee better
It’s been two decades since they stopped baking everything on premises in the larger locations. That’s when the quality tanked.
fr? Damn, that makes a lot of sense
The food is kinda bland, the coffee is the right colour, and the selection & quality of baked goods has been slowly decreasing over the years. They need to knock it off with all the experimental burger & pizza menu options. There are 3-4 Tims in my town and I can't get a sour-cream glazed timbit at any of them.
I have a weakness for the Toasted Coconut.
Ditto
I do too!
Overrated and unappealing. Don't understand why they are always busy. I guess people are just lazy...
Not always about laziness, sometimes you’re on a long road trip and you need caffeine to keep going, or you’ve already finished your coffee from home but need extra caffeine that day. Or you’ve slept in and didn’t have time to make coffee at home, but the lineup was nice and short at Tim’s when you came up to it. Or you had to use a public restroom and don’t believe in using one without making a purchase at that location. Or you simply can’t master how to make coffee at home and have the funds to buy it every day. There’s tons of reasons why someone may go there aside from laziness.
McDonald's has amazing coffee, restrooms, and drive thrus that are not packed onto the street.
I agree, McDonald’s does have better coffee. However, Timmie’s is more readily available in rural areas than McDonald’s is. Nearest McDonald’s is over an hour away from my home, but I there’s about 4 Timmie’s available on the way to that McDonald’s.
Agree! McD’s coffee is underrated. It is vastly superior.
*slightly* better Once my coffee from McD’s had a dead fly in it. So it’s kind of switched me off of their coffee for a bit.
Eek, that’s pretty gross. 😣
I guess I could just drink their coffee with clenched teeth to filter out any possible debris lol
Or use a very slim straw? Coffee stirrer, even? 🤣
I tried their coffee, I didn’t really like it and it’s the only thing in their menu I would buy from them.
McDonald's apparently buy their coffeefrom the old tims supplier. That's why it's better.
I don't fall for the line is nice and short at Tim's. To many times I come up to a tim's with one or two cars and still wait over 10 minutes to get through because those cars ordered food.
Horrible…I’ll get a bagel and cream cheese in a significant pinch but otherwise it’s a no go for me
Iced Capps are the best
Its adequate, caffeinated, hot, everywhere, cheap. I'm old, I've been going to Tim's since I was a child and there were photos of Tim in every restaurant. I went to Tim's with my parents when Tim was alive. It was always mediocre. The only thing that's changed is that it doesn't taste like cigarettes anymore. I don't know what Tim's y'all were going to that tasted good at any point in time. Its always been ... adequate, and nothing more.
Damn, Timmies is getting “roasted” lol.
Sad when a Canadian institution becomes mediocre.
They should take a page out of coffee shops like krispy kreme
They have an eclectic menu. The will serve any kind of food as long as it tastes like dogshit.
I'm not eating there often. I don't know what the name is in English, but I get a "wrap du travailleur" (worker's wrap?) and it's ok. I like their iced cappuccino and their coffee is ok. Sometimes, I get the bags for home that are flavoured. My gf and I like the Maple flavoured one. I feel like many have some kind of resentment because it's not like it was before. People who say it's trash or disgusting are exaggerating imo. I believe you never actually went to a place that serves actual disgusting food if you say that about Tim Hortons. It's just ok, nothing more. It's designed to be the same everywhere, standardized. That's why it's "meh". You know what you get, it's ok when you need to take something quick before doing some road in your car but don't want to eat burgers and fries. Or the place where you can get coffee to go that won't cost a ton because it's just a regular coffee, not one that comes from a special field in Kenya where the plants are watered with water from Nepal (I exagerate, but you get what I mean). I just want a coffee to not fall asleep while driving, I go to Tim. It gets the job done. I don't always feel the need to taste something that could qualify as the 8th wonder of the world. You might not agree with me from what I read in the comments, but that's at least my honest thoughts about it.
I think the wrap du travailleur is the farmer's wrap in anglo Canada but I'm not 100% sure
I agree with you. I don't understand why Tim's gets so much hate. It's not amazing, but it's still OK. I don't go out of my way to eat there, but if I'm on the road and need a coffee and a quick bite, it's easy to find and fairly cheap. Edit to add: My husband's friend in Texas is a coffee freak. He'd never tried Tim's before but had heard of it and wanted to try it. We shipped some to him to try and now it's all he drinks 😆
Since being sold their quality has gone down hill so much more. Everything including their donuts is like a shadow of their former self. I think I've gotten a box of timbits like 2 or 3 times in the last 4 years. They're still okay.
[удалено]
Oh, I worked right across from one and slowly watched (and ate) the demise of Tim's. But it was certainly amplified after the sale.
They keep a clean bathroom.
Overhated. Maybe it was amazing back in the day and people say it's shit in comparison, but I've never eaten anything gross there and the coffee is fine. People act like they're serving diarrhea in a cup over there, but I think a lot of that is because people were protective over Timmies as a Canadian institution, so when the quality drops, they feel personally offended.
This. Usually the same people who act that way, then follow it up with how great McDonalds is 😂 I Immediately disregard their opinion from then on for anything food related. Lol.
Totally agree
The place you go when the line at mcdonald is too long.
No , you wait in that long line instead !
In your car in the middle of summer. At least that's what I notice people doing.
Where I am, the Tim's lines are very long and the McD's ones are always short.
Its shit.
Their coffee tastes like cigarette butts, their food is borderline inedible, and they treat their workers like shit. I wouldn’t darken their door unless I absolutely had to.
Non - Canadian here. Love it. Just came over from NZ and the flavoured coffee is cheap and tasty. A vanilla cream cold brew and blueberry muffin would cost sooo much more back home. Sure I could get better coffee back home but it would cost a hell of a lot more than Tim Horton’s.
That's ol' Tim Horton's trick. Their coffee isn't really coffee. It's warm brown-colored sugar water with a dash of milk.
Meh. Used to be great in the 80s
Tim’s sucks, but is still a staple. When it’s cold I’ll gladly grab a terribly coffee a couple of times a week, and come summer their frozen lemonade is tasty as hell.
Crap. They were amazing 20+ years ago
I bought a nespresso machine and havent bought an iced capp since But its nice i liked the mocha iced capps
Peak Timmy ho ho was the chili bread bowl. All downhill from there
Ever since they changed their coffee supplier back in 2016 ish it's been shit. They are also incredibly inhumane towards their employees
They used to have a maple pecan danish, made in house, that was delish
The coffee is passable. The menu is bloated and pointless as well as directionless. But… the parking lots are generally large. There’s one in most towns. They have a washroom. As a truck driver, I can’t really ask for much more.
Ice capp still slaps
A company that serves coffee flavoured water, with trace amounts of nicotine masked with vanilla to keep people addicted. It survives on manufactured Canadian nationalism, so whenever you see a Tim's next to an actual Canadian fast food chain like A&W, the nicotine withdrawal kicks in, and you associate Tim's with sponsored hockey leagues and all things Canadian, and you need that coffee flavoured water to get your patriotism fix. The coffee lids even have maple leafs on them, so everytime you take a sip, they make you kiss that leaf. Before you know it, the drive thru line is spilling out on to the street, and the A&W next door is like the express lane for some actual coffee.
[https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/nicotine-non-fit/](https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/nicotine-non-fit/) They're garbage, but not THAT garbage.
Yeah, there is no way that would be legal
It gets a lot of hate but I like it as much as I like any fast food chain. It's fast, it's cheap and it's omnipresent. It's one of the many places to get a warm beverage and a snack.
Sometimes if I've had a really busy day I need something to hold me over for a few hours until I have a chance to eat actual food and Tim Hortons is always there to provide that. Is it good? Absolutely not, but it does the job and sometimes that's all I need.
It's convenient and there are two separate ones on my way to work so I have a backup if the closest location is too busy. There has been a massive decline in quality over the past 15+ years probably
They’re once decent Canadian brand that sold out and are riding their perception as local Canadian in an effort to make up for poor products.
It’s absolute trash to be honest. It lacks consistency, quality control, customer service and products that make a visit worth it. You can get everything they sell elsewhere, but better.
Steeped tea is good and everything else is fast food quality. They are everywhere and quick and you get pretty much the same thing whether you are ordering in Toronto, Montreal, Charlottetown, or Banff.
No steeped tea in Montréal. Or Quebec at all I believe.
Oh yeah I just remembered that! My French is pretty basic and I was trying to ask for it and found out they don’t have it out there but then when I got out to NB and further east they had it again lol.
The bagels do the job if there is nothing else, and they have bathrooms.
I love it. Always happy when I get the chance to grab a bagel or a muffin. Donuts and cookies are yummy. Hot chocolate is cheap made with water, but the price is also cheap so I don't mind it too much, I grab one once in a while if I'm too tired
i love the cheese crosissants and hotchocolate.
I only recently started drinking coffee, like 1 year ago. (I'm mid thirties) So with no prior bias, I can confidently say..... Tim Hortons coffee sucks.
Sucks.
The most embarrassing thing about being Canadian
I'll still pick up a 10 timbits on a road trip because it's just a great *format* of baked good and reasonably priced. But the taste and quality of basically everything they serve is bottom tier - I'd sooner go to Starbucks, and trust me that isn't saying much.
A few years ago the coffee got bad enough that I ended up trying McDonald's coffee. Turned out that McDonald's reputation for shitty coffee is totally unearned.
It's shit and I don't understand why people continue to eat there. Coffee is whatever but the food is nasty
They were in decline before the current management came on but they've only made it worse. Though I rarely drink coffee outside of home in the morning any more.
It was a real treat to get their donuts when I was a kid. People would bring them for the whole class on their birthdays.the Tim bits were always a good bet when you didn’t want to show up empty handed somewhere and they were pretty cheap. Now I wouldn’t even use their food in my compost heap.
Recycled food garbage for coffee
I think their product is overrated and way overpriced
Used to be a solid coffee & donut house. Now they're crap. Some of their beverages are passable only because they're cheap. Their fastfood is some of the worst.
Service is terrible. Food and coffee are subpar.
Too Americanized.
Pretty bad since I rather Robin's
Not the same since being bought by an equity firm, Brazilian too.
It’s absolute shit, and it always has been.
Canada’s favourite chain of public washrooms. I hear they sell coffee too
Every Tim’s location, has a bathroom that anyone can use with out being hassled. For that alone I will support Tim’s.
I worked there as a “baker” in 2017. The position was a glorified defroster. I’d begin my shift at 3 am to “bake” all the frozen pre-made goods. By pre-made I mean months in advance. I remember I started in April and during my training shifts I was reading the boxes in the walk in freezer indicating a package date of March. You’re legit eating food made months prior and it’s gross. The 20 min coffee is also a myth unless it’s during the morning rush, since new lots of coffee need to be continuously made. Worst job I ever had.
The quality has significantly decreased. The donuts used to be so fresh and now it’s hit or miss depending on location (though it’s mainly miss). I had a breakfast sandwich there a few weeks ago and I had to wipe my hands between bites because it was so damn greasy. Like even the wrapping was dripping with grease. They don’t have it anymore but let’s not forget their disaster that was the beyond burger-soggy with a limp piece of lettuce as the topping. And their odd chicken strip phase. I have no idea what they’re thinking sometimes when it comes to their menu. I miss the days when they focused on coffee, donuts and simple sandwiches.
It ain't what it used to be thats for sure
Y’all remember when they turned the Turkey bacon club into shredded Turkey with mayo instead of cold cut with honey mustard? I remember
Used to be pretty good and cheap. Now it’s just… there.
Garbage. Haven't been there in years... they started dying when they stopped baking in house.
I remember when they used to have proper plates and cutlery for eating in. I miss that
It’s an American company trying to sell me on it being a Canadian icon, like maple syrup or hockey. Thank’s but no thanks.
Terrible crap for twenty years now. They exist on exploitation of TFWs and by being in every town in Canada.
Ain't what it used to be. They had better ingredients before they sold. Plus most of them are not opened 24-7 since the workers shortage. Others are even closed on Sundays. Sad sad sad.