Tag Archives: Tim Hortons

Who throws poop? This Canadian woman at a Tim Hortons

Posted on by
Reply

To those not familiar with The Guess Who, Neil Young or Drake, you may not know the name Tim Hortons, a coffee and doughnut mega-chain started by the late Toronto Maple Leafs’ defenceman and his business partner, a cop.

You may also not understand the phrase, double-double (Chapman’s favorite).

When I had those daughters in Guelph, I would take them to the local Tims after a 6-7 a.m. practice.

I always refused to buy the coffee because I could make better stuff at home.

Sure the grad student helped coach, but he could get his own Tims.

I got whatever daughter was involved that morning a doughnut, and sometimes a hot chocolate, so they wouldn’t feel too nauseous by 11 a.m. and could make it through the school day (of course I made their lunches too, but ya gotta get over that morning hump).

Now Tims has a different kind of notoriety.

According to KRON in Oakville, Ontario, Canada (KRON) a Canadian woman was caught on camera pulling down her pants, doing her business, and throwing the end result at a Tim Horton’s employee who denied her access to the restroom. 

A spokesperson for Tim Horton’s told BuzzFeed that some of its restaurants have a “restricted access policy for restrooms to ensure the well-being of our guests.” 

The spokesperson said their current understanding of the situation is that the woman was denied access to the restroom due to “past behavior.” 

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (if you’re the RCMP where’s your horse?) told BuzzFeed the woman was “briefly detained after the incident” and prosecutors will determine if the woman will face charges when she appears in court at a later date.

Just last week, Starbucks told employees to let anyone use the restroom, even if they haven’t bought anything, as it reviews its policies and tries to restore its reputation after the arrest of two black men at a coffee shop in Philadelphia.

Goat ‘arrested’ after refusing to leave Saskatchewan Tim Hortons

Posted on by
Reply

You’re not the RCMP (Royal Canadian Mounted Police): Where’s your horse?

This story could not be more Canadian:

goat.tim.hortons.sep.15RCMP in Warman, Sask., were allegedly forced to arrest a “stubborn” goat for refusing to leave a Tim Hortons on Sunday morning.

In a statement, RCMP said that employees initially “asked” the goat to leave – how politely Canadian, eh — and tried to walk him outside, but the rebellious animal turned around and sauntered back through the restaurant’s automatic doors.

Eventually two RCMP members were called to deal with the “disturbance.”

The officers believed that the goat was “cold,” and like many Canadians, was forced to take refuge in a Tim Hortons.

They added that the goat simply wanted to “sleep in the entrance.”

Faced with a noncompliant citizen, the RCMP officers “arrested” the goat and escorted him into their vehicle.

RCMP says the goat was “very unhappy” at his treatment.

“The members decided to take him home instead of holding cells at the detachment,” said the RCMP statement.

At first, they were unable to locate the owners of the goat after knocking on the doors of many local farms.

 

In Canada, don’t battle the Tim: St. John’s food safety company loses billboard battle with Tim Hortons

Posted on by
Reply

I promote marketing microbial food safety, because some companies are better.

I’m just not sure how to do it, because I’m not a marketer.

petroformaBut someone should be able to figure it.

Canada’s largest coffee-and-doughnut chain has won a billboard battle with a St. John’s laboratory that promotes food safety.

Two billboards with similar imagery — but promoting completely different messages about food — were placed side-by-side on Commonwealth Avenue in Mount Pearl this week.

On the left was a sign promoting Tim Hortons’ Canadian Back Bacon Breakfast Sandwich, with an oversized photo of the product.

On the right was a billboard sponsored by Petroforma Laboratories, as part of its invisibleinvaders.com campaign to promote food safety, with a similar image of a burger.

The big difference? The message on the Petroforma billboard was “You can’t taste bacteria,” and the sign featured two “bacteria” peaking out from behind the burger.

That’s what motorists saw as as they drove past on Wednesday, June 17. But by Thursday morning, the Petroforma sign was gone and replaced with a Lasik MD Vision billboard.

The company that rents out the space, E.C. Boone Ltd., admitted Thursday that it made a mistake by placing the two signs next to one another.

A company official, Nathan Anthony, said E.C. Boone received a complaint from a Tim Hortons franchise owner, and quickly removed the Petroforma sign.

Petroforma CEO Mike Hanrahan was not impressed, telling CBC Radio’s On The Go he was offended by E.C. Boone’s response.

Hoped for a more co-operative approach

Hanrahan said it was a case of a large company flexing its muscle, at the expense of a local laboratory trying to raise awareness about the dangers that can be found in kitchens, including food pathogens like Salmonella, E. coli, and Listeria.

Customers denied diced onions, throw snake at Saskatoon Tim Hortons employee

Posted on by
Reply

After a dispute over diced onions on a breakfast sandwich, two men threw a snake over a counter towards an employee of a Saskatoon Tim Hortons.

TimHortonAccording to Saskatoon police, staff members “fled the store in fear” after the incident, which took place Monday around 7:30 a.m. at the Tim Hortons in the 600 block of 22nd Street West.

“I’ve never heard of a snake being thrown at an employee by a customer … It was definitely a little chaotic,” said Saskatoon police spokeswoman Alyson Edwards.

“The staff was shocked and afraid and fled the store.”

Staff told police that two male customers were arguing with an employee about their breakfast order – specifically that they wanted their onions diced. When the argument escalated, one of the men reached into the pocket of the other man, pulled out a garter snake and threw it behind the counter.

No one was injured, said police.

Officers quickly found the snake and determined it was not venomous, said Edwards.

The two men, both 20, are facing charges of mischief and causing a disturbance.

Canadians fret merger with burger will change Tim Hortons?

Posted on by
Reply

I doubt Canadians are fretting about the sale of Tim Hortons to Burger King – as long as they can still get a double-double before 6 a.m. hockey.

TimHortonBut leave it to state-sponsored jazz to get it wrong.

Tim Hortons used to be owned by Wendy’s, but in an $11 billion deal, will be bought by Burger King.

Tim Horton was a bruising (ice hockey) defenseman who won 4 Stanley Cups with the Toronto Maple Leafs in the 1960s. Born in 1930 in Cochrance, Ontario, Horton spent his formative years playing in mining communities surrounding Sudbury, Ontario (that’s in Canada; my sister and her family live up there). He got noticed by the Leafs organization and moved to Toronto when he was 17-years-old. He died in a car accident in 1974 after a 24-year National hockey League career?. Horton had a reputation for enveloping players who were fighting him in a crushing bear hug (sorta like my uncle, who played small-town hockey in Northern Ontario). Boston Bruins winger Derek Sanderson once bit Horton during a fight; years later, Horton’s widow, Lori, still wondered why. “Well,” Sanderson replied, “I felt one rib go, and I felt another rib go, so I just had—to, well, get out of there!” ?

Doughnut holes or Timbits – whatever they’re called, toilets need to work

Posted on by
2

Yesterday I had to explain how doughnut holes are called Timbits in Canada.

A couple of colleagues came over to the house for a meeting, and I provided fruit and pastries, including the popular doughnut holes.

Tim Hortons, the Canadian money-making machine named after former hockey defenceman, Tim Horton, introduced the Timbit in 1976, and the term has become synonymous in the north with doughnut hole.

Whatever they’re called, they’re going to come out eventually. An Edmonton man who claims things literally went into the toilet for him after going to a south-side Tim Hortons has launched a lawsuit against the coffee shop giant.

Gerbrand Denes is suing Tim Hortons Inc. and Tim Hortons Canada Holdings for $121,000.

Denes alleges he was a paying customer at a Tim Hortons restaurant at 2133 99 St. on the evening of March 13, 2008, and had to use the washroom.

While “in the normal course of using” the facilities, Denes claims the toilet seat broke, which caused him to fall into the toilet and then onto the floor.

As a result of the fall – which he says was caused solely by the negligence of Tim Hortons – Denes alleges he sustained serious and permanent injuries.

Restaurants proud to show off their history of food hygiene awards

Posted on by
Reply

Before heading to the airport yesterday I stopped into a café, and although I miss the toonie Tim Hortons bagel (mine was 8.50 $NZ), I was impressed to see I was dining somewhere that values food safety. There at the counter was a Wellington City Council “Excellent” certificate, and two others from previous years.

It’s good see operators recognizing the marketing potential of a restaurant inspection disclosure program, however, there can be issues with operators displaying expired certificates. In a discussion with an inspector recently, she voiced the issues she had with restaurants keeping their old letter grade cards. Although it can show a great history of food safety inspections, if a restaurant is downgraded keeping the other cards displayed may get confusing.
 

Pic of mouse in doughnut shop allows Tim Horton’s to enter New York City – giv’r

Posted on by
Reply

Tim Hortons, which the N.Y. Times described yesterday as “a Canadian purveyor of doughnuts and coffee that has won a wide following,” is making a sudden entry into New York City, primarily because of a picture of a mouse.

Between Friday night and dawn on Monday, the Riese Organization intends to convert 13 Dunkin’ Donuts stores into the city’s first Tim Hortons restaurants, including early-morning, high-traffic shops like the one in Pennsylvania Station and another next to the New York Stock Exchange. The switch may surprise regular customers of the shops, said Dennis Riese, chief executive of the Riese Organization.

“You take down one sign and put up another. The biggest challenge will be to get New Yorkers to know what Tim Hortons is.”

Tim Hortons Inc. is a Canadian fast food restaurant known for its coffee and doughnuts, founded in 1964 in Hamilton, Ontario by Canadian hockey player Tim Horton. In 1967 Horton partnered with investor Ron Joyce, who quickly took over operations and expanded the chain into a multi-million dollar franchise. There are almost 3,000 Tim Hortons in Canada, and another 5-0 in the U.S. The chain accounted for 22.6 per cent of all fast food industry revenues in Canada in 2005. Canada has more per-capita ratio of doughnut shops than any other country.

Tim Horton was a bruising defenceman who won 4 Stanley Cups with the Toronto Maple Leafs in the 1960s. Born in 1930 in Cochrance, Ontario, Horton spent his formative years playing in mining communities surrounding Sudbury, Ontario. He got noticed by the Leafs organization and moved to Toronto when he was 17-years-old. He died in a car accident in 1974 after a 24-year National hockey League career.

Horton had a reputation for enveloping players who were fighting him in a crushing bear hug. Boston Bruins winger Derek Sanderson once bit Horton during a fight; years later, Horton’s widow, Lori, still wondered why. "Well," Sanderson replied, "I felt one rib go, and I felt another rib go, so I just had—to, well, get out of there!”

The Times reports that the arrival of Tim Hortons to N.Y. City comes after a decade of contention between Riese and Dunkin’ Donuts that peaked after The New York Post published a photo of a mouse munching on a doughnut in a shop operated by Riese on 46th Street at Fifth Avenue. The chain sued Riese, and the sides eventually agreed that the relationship would end this week in what Dunkin’ Donuts called a “disenfranchisement.”

In Canada, owning a Tim Hortons is like owning a license to print money.
 

Hepatitis A at Newmarket, Ontario Tim Hortons

Posted on by
Reply

The Toronto Star reports that a health alert was issued today after it was discovered that two employees of a Newmarket Tim Hortons were found infected with Hepatitis A.

York Region Public Health was notified of a case of hepatitis A at the Tim Hortons at 16545 Yonge St., near Savage Rd., on April 21. Following the initial investigation, it was decided the risk to customers was very low based on the employee’s position.

"He was not involved in food handling," said York Region medical officer of health Dr. Karim Kurji. "Given that, we didn’t feel the need to notify the public."

Oops, because…

The next day investigators conducted routine tests and offered immunization to workers. These tests revealed a second case, which was discovered on April 24. It was decided the risk of contamination to the public in this case was higher.

"The overall assessment when investigating the risk with the second case was the employee was handling food," said Kurji. "It was prudent for us to reach out to public and take necessary precautions.

York Region Public Health is holding a vaccine clinic Monday from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. in the auditorium of the Newmarket Health Centre. People who ate food from this Tim Hortons between April 13 and April 22 are eligible for the vaccine. However, anyone who ate there between April 2 and April 22 could be infected.

Hep A happens a lot, but the way this one has been handled raises a few questions for me:

I wonder why the folks who ate at the Hortons before April 13th are excluded from eligibility from the vaccine? Does someone need to prove (with a receipt?) that they ate there between April 13 and 22nd? Who bears the cost if someone wants to get an IGG shot and is excluded? What happens if that individual gets sick?

This week’s food safety infosheet was about Hep A in a produce handler in Colorado.