… Tim Horton’s restaurants.
Photo by Conor Samuel on Unsplash
If you’ve been following things about our iconic coffee shop, it hasn’t been good for a long time.
There was a time when they were the only game in town.
Then, the competitors arrived. In the beginning, it was kind of a level playing field – they all sold coffee and doughnuts. For us, it was always Tim Horton’s coffee.
Then, things changed. There was a series of one-up-man-ships. Fancier coffees, teas, and then something that resembles a coffee but costing $4-6 and over loads you with sugar!
Along came breakfast, then lunch, then all-day breakfasts…
It used to be so convenient. You could hit the drive-through and coffee was furnished to those going through things and off you went. But, all of the additional offerings ground all this to a halt.
There’s nothing worse than being stuck in line behind someone ordering a flappa-whappa with soy and just a touch of low-sugar sweetener to go with their bagel lightly toasted on one side, heavier on the other side with one side having butter and the other cream cheese. Yet, drive-throughs remain popular and it’s not uncommon to have two lanes now.
For a while, we felt badly sitting there idling our car and would park instead and walk inside to order. That typically doesn’t work out well; the business model appears to prioritize those in cars and there might be one person working the walk-ins.
Despite all this, there was one thing that you could always count on.
You could sometimes “win a coffee”. Sure, there were lots of “try again”s that came through but you kept hoping. My mom even bought me a Rim Roller years ago that I’d keep in the car with me just for that purpose.
Sadly, recent health events have put a stop to the special cups with the rims.
Tim Hortons going all digital for Roll Up the Rim due to health concerns
You’d think a digital guy like me would be all-in on this but no. There just was something special about that winning feeling and then tearing off part of the cup to get your winner. (or finding it a week after the contest is over).
To even promote things further, there was to be a giveaway on refillable cups. That’s put on hold for now too. I’m picturing warehouses of this stuff they can’t put into circulation.
Sometimes you can’t win and it has nothing to do with what’s printed on the rim of your cup.
doug --- off the record 
A really smart move, I think, given the circumstances, but still sad. This was the one time of the year, I swapped out Starbucks for Tim Hortons. Kind of missing this Canadian sign of spring. 🙂
Aviva
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My children are devastated! They look forward to this contest every year, and all 3 of us are confused about how it works now. We’ve been on the countdown to the first day for week! Yesterday, we went for our hot chocolate and the lady inside told us to play again – so disappointing on many levels. We at least wanted to do something ourselves on the app. And I’m not clear if all 3 of us got a chance to win. *sigh* My 7 year old rolled up his rim anyway.
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