[micah63]

When Burger King "bought" Tim Hortons in 2014 (I believe this was a tax evasion effort by Burger King to leave US and "merge" with a Canadian food company), the whole experience went to pot. This was a Canadian institution. I won't even step foot in a Tims anymore, the food, the customer experience, the app, it's all junk.

[midasuni]

Interesting. My first trip outside of Europe was my honeymoon in 2008 to Canada. Various tour guides told us that Tim Hortons (“Timmy’s”) was a Canadian institution.

Since then I’ve travelled a fair bit in US cities and a little in Canada and the only real difference I can see is that Canada has a Tim Hortons on the corner.

[Marsymars]

I mean, I'd still call it a Canadian institution, but it's not good.

> Since then I’ve travelled a fair bit in US cities and a little in Canada and the only real difference I can see is that Canada has a Tim Hortons on the corner.

Depends where you go. There's probably more of a different cultural feel in Quebec and the Atlantic provinces. e.g. Café Olimpico is a Montreal institution that feels quintessentially Montreal. (And the US has places with very different cultural feels to each other - of places I've visited, Honolulu isn't very similar to Billings - but I'm less familiar with the US than Canada.)

[midasuni]

I was amazed by many things with our 3 weeks in Canada, including how cheap car hire for a massive (Ford escape) car was, how wide the roads were, how off road logging roads were

But one thing that stuck with me was seeing things I’d only ever heard of in tv/movies - Wendy’s and Dairy Queen come to mind.

But I’d heard of them. And of course Starbucks (which we had in the U.K.)

Never heard of Tim Hortons though, which I guess shows the relative strength of a medic an cultural exports vs Canadian cultural exports.

[908B64B197]

> There's probably more of a different cultural feel in Quebec

Yes. We acquired something in Montreal a long time ago and yeah, the culture is just completely different.

[9935c101ab17a66]

As a Canadian, this comment annoys me. It only makes sense to me if the only Canadian city you’ve been to is Toronto (and maybe Niagara or something as well?), and aren’t particularly observant.

[spadros]

It annoys you that Tim Horton’s is considered a Canadian institution?

I get that it’s mainly owned by a Brazilian company now, and quality has gone to all hell, but it will probably always be a part of Canadiana due to its history.

[raydev]

> When Burger King "bought" Tim Hortons in 2014 ... the whole experience went to pot

I hear a lot of people say this, but I see no difference between BK Tim Hortons and Wendy's Tim Hortons in the years before.

[jjkaczor]

It got even worse when it was sold (and re-sold?) - don't ever go back.

[christophilus]

I wondered why people thought so highly of Tim Hortons. I’ve only been there post-merger, so that explains it. It still doesn’t explain how anyone drinks the swill that is Starbucks, though.

[LegitShady]

counterpoint - Tim Hortons quality has been in serious decline for far longer - when they stopped baking goods in-store in 2002.

[ShroudedNight]

> when they stopped baking goods in-store

Technically, I believe they still bake things, but they certainly don't prepare the doughnuts from scratch on-site anymore. Indeed, quality declined spectacularly when their slogan changed from "Doughnuts" to "Always Fresh".

[LegitShady]

No you're incorrect here - they don't bake them in store anymore at all - the donuts etc are shipped baked and frozen and are defrosted only.