I agree Kate.

Me and four co-workers were out at a client for 13 hours today, so we bought 10 cups (2 tims runs) over the course of the day and didn't win nothing. Not even a freakin' donut.

One of the best cups of coffee in the lower mainland is at Viva Java,Shell & Cambie, Richmond. Custom roasted,no horrible line ups while somebody takes 5 Min. to buy a box of doughnuts or pay for a coffee with a bank card, plus the added bonus of getting to trade insults with Artie the owner.

The cool thing about the 'Roll up the Rim to Win' contest is the medical geography aspect of it in terms of disease mapping. The conditions are close to perfect - pieces of cardboard that were directly in contact with people's mouths are handed to food service workers who collect piles of these things for storage in a restaurant, it's almost ideal. An influenza pandemic could practically saturate every workplace and school in the country overnight. Then again, maybe not. Could be interesting though.

Yup. They've turned into a bunch of cheapskates. Time for a boycott (it's the fashionable thing to these days). Also, rather than using the term 'Tibits' we could call them 'The holy droppings of the prophet Mohammed'.

i went through the drive-thru at a tims in medicine hat a couple weeks ago and i ordered an extra large black coffee and two maple donuts . i couldn't understand what the lady was saying so i drove ahead . i got two small coffees one cream and sugar . i tried telling her what i wanted again but she couldn't speak canadian . so i took it and went home . i bought a can of tims coffee at the grocery store . much easier .

Last roll up the rim to win contest..there sat this SUV in front of the store for 3 months..2 days before the contest ends in walks a 18 year old buys a coffee and wins a SUV...she was asked if she bought coffee there alot and she said 4 or 5 times a month.....i bought 5 cups in the last 2 days and not evem a dam cookie.

Bernie -- I will give the insulting Artie thing a try next time I am in Richmond (I live in Delta, which is better than saying you're Surrey).
Simpleton -- I thought that before, when I handed over my licked and sucked soggy paper for redemption.
Mark -- thanks for the laugh.
John -- you would love it here in Vancouver.
The bottom line is true, though, it should be an appreciation thing. I have friends with franchises, and you might be surprised at the cost numbers they have thrown at me. You would think throwing a bit back at their supporters might be good business every now and then.

Roll up the rim and.... lose again. Yup, I haven't won anything in the past couple of years. Doesn't seem fair but c'est la vie.

Seriously, does anyone actually understand probability? I won with the first three cups of the contest.

Does that mean the contest is better, more generous? Nope it means I'm lucky.

And you were unlucky.

That's it.

I'm not making this up.

Last contest multiple Tims locations 28 cups of coffee and then... a donut! Made me realize I need to throw the cups out of my truck more often.

I lost a lot of respect for Timmy's when they quit making donuts on site. Cripes, even the fritters got smaller and all looked the same. but it is a Canadian symbol for the working stiff, just like the NHL, Hudson's Bay Co. and the Banff Springs Hotel. These days, a Canadian symbol is usually foreign owned.

BTW, all my friends that come down to visit bring a can of Tim Horton's with them and each cup brings back fond memories of having a cup of joe at o'dark thirty and smelling the early morning batch of donuts cooking in back. and then getting into a frozen car with square wheels and heading to work or home.

I didn't like tim coffee at first but out here it was the only 24 hr except gas staions. Now we have a 24hr pizza way. A good americano but I still get the odd tim and a cookie. I never win anything either but at least pizza way gives me a slice for a buck ... ( I'm special ).

p.s. it's $1.07 for the americano

Coffee break Time: Everybody up for Testing... testing... +

Hospital Orders DNA Testing of Employees to Solve "Urine Prank"
Posted by Ellesu
On 02/28/2006 3:41:57 AM PST · 22 replies · 295+ views

wafb.com ^ | 02/27/06 | Paul Gates
(Baton Rouge, Louisiana) Woman's Hospital is prepared to spend $25,000 to find the culprit behind an offensive workplace prank. The hospital has ordered two dozen employees to submit to DNA sampling to prove they're not guilty of committing the prank, or else be fired. An employee of building operations came back from several weeks and found someone had put urine in his toolbox. It's not the kind of thing the hospital will stand for. In a memo to 25 employees of the affected department, it was written: "...administration wants to know who did this and is willing to do whatever.. +
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1586891/posts

Ever since I discovered the 2nd Cup double Americano, I rarely drank Tim's coffee. Although not all 2nd Cups get it right.

But they totally lost me when I discovered that my apple fritter was a warmed-over, frozen, mini-bun from Winnipeg, that tasted almost, but not quite like an Apple Fritter.

Where can I find a good Apple Fritter in Mississauga?

Value + service = success

This is the traditional formula for winning in a competative market enviroment.

Cheap food + manipulative gimmicks + mass advertising = ????

Obviously the new owners feel that value and service do not exist in abundance in the Canadian market so they abandon these as being competative disadvantage and ( like our government) belive that massive doses of ad copy will get Canadians to accept less at a higher cost.

Strangely enough crispy creeme has better donuts at better prices...Mel's down the street from me has better soup and sandwiches...and decent coffee you can find just about anywhere these days....personally, I always try to patronize local businesses where ever possible and there are plenty on small local coffee, donut and sandwich shops....Horton's is total hype...has been for years.. it is neither a Canadian icon nor a particularly good deal....it just has exposure/saturation because of the hundreds of locations.

When my wife and I started our own coffee shop (in down town Rock Creek B.C. area population 400)we decided to call our Esspresso with hot water a Canadiano. We also decided that inorder to provide our customers with the best coffee we would roast the green beans ourself right on site.(When I roast the whole valley smells like coffee) The only drawback is we have become coffee snobs and have trouble drinking other people's coffee.
We also found that coffee made from freshly roasted beans is not bitter.

Sacrilege, I say! There are a bunch of losers here (you admit it!).

Yes, Timmy hooked up with Wendy; now he's going for an IPO.

Those of you in the Vancouver area can take solace in the fact that your coffee is probably fair-trade...gives you a warm fuzzy feeling with your buzz, doesn't it?

Craig- count yourself lucky if you haven't won even a "dam" cookie - causes blockage.

Yes, the fritters have frittered. And, they seem to put too much icing on the donuts...oops, Yank spelling...sorry BC.

Vancouver's Pacific Mall Star$$$$'s version of Tim's Ice Cap was ice water poured into regular coffee. Kill! Kill!

Second Cup has copied the Seattle slayer's coffee formula.

Locally, Coffee Time has gone south. Their muffins were great. And, I believe they had their own version of RUTR.

Tim still rules!

Can't handle buying something and only getting what you paid for?

Go play Lotto Canada you won't have to soil your hands rolling up that horrid little rim.

And if you win, you will have gotten something for buying nothing.

You should like that a lot eh?

And don't be so cheap, get a Starbucks once in awhile and get away from the Horton Hosers for awhile.

I have seem them, they mostly old, fat and broke. Are these truly your people?

The phoneys, at Starbucks are far more interesting to watch.

:0)

Hey, free coffee with this mornings cup -- it all seems like a Seinfeld episode. Brings my large cost down to 93 cents since the promo started.

Two Tims here. One in Courtenay and the other in Comox. The coffee at Tim Courtenay is excellent, yet the coffe at Tim Comox is excellent plus, and noticably so.

How does the Tim Comox team keep their coffee flavour a cut above?

I have asked if they do something to improve the coffee and while there is a knowing smile, they claim no special formula or trick.

The water could be better in Comox I guess. The coffee making routine and perker look the same at both places.

Others have noticed the difference in coffee taste between the two tims. It still is a mystery.

A restaurant in Montreal always put egg shells in their perc for better coffee.

That didn't seem to do much in our home made coffee. Results?

Still alert for the coffee enhancement trick. TG

Country Style has the roll-up promotion also and every cup is a winner! They make their doughnuts on site also (no Brantford hockey pucks). I go to Country Style because I'm doughnut first, coffee second.

Tims advertises that they are a Canadian Icon. remember the cup and back packers advertisements.

Yet they can't find it in their corporate hearts to put a tims in Afganistan where our Canadian Troops are fighting to further world peace and protect us from afar.

This from a company that isn't even Canadian owned anymore maybe that is why they can't find it in their corporate bank roles to support our troops they arent their troops seeing Tims is an American Company.

I say Boycott Tims until they support our troops on peace keeping missions.

It could be called
Don't Support TIMS until they Support our troops!

add a smidgen of salt . it helps bring out the flavor i think tims coffees gettin a bit thinner . thinner than mine anyway

It really is a probability thing. If you have the time, and desire to go blind reading small print, take a look at the official rules. They show the break down of how many prizes by region, and let me just say that they are not all the same. Some areas will not receive the same number of winning cups.

I worked at a Tim's to help myself through university. During the contest, sales definitely went up, and it was mostly regulars that complained they were not winning. Unfortunately, the more you drink, the more losing cups you are going to get. Simultaneously, it was a small Tims, and we only had 600-800 customers a day, but by then end of the contest, we usually had 3000 winners returned, which was a huge number for us.

Tim Horton's is what I call "road coffee", as in I have to get somewhere in as short amount of time as possible, but I REALLY need a coffee.

I don't know how they've managed to brainwash so many into thinking their coffee is any good - I'd rather have a cup of ANYTHING from Second Cup, Timothy's or Starbucks...real coffee that doesn't give me "gut rot".

And as far as the RRTRTW contest goes, I'm not a fan of debasing myself by trying to unroll the rim. How gauche.

George

Nat, thanks for the inside view. Tims seems to do more good than some firms with the summer camps and all.

George stands alone against Tim*s coffee. That seems brave enough, when millions state they like it by plunking their money down.

Not all Tim outlets give you the best version of their coffee. I think some operators use a trick or two, like adding a little salt.

Really good coffee should cost about $12 a pound. The supermarket brands compete price wise and are really inferior in the $4 to $7 price range.

The Canadian Sentinel could give us the scoop, he*s a roaster. TG

Nat says:
"It really is a probability thing."

Not always, Nat.

Remember a few years ago the fraud uncovered with the McDonald's monopoly promotion? The people winning big prizes were close associates of the company handling the promotion. Worse, it appeared that the fraud had been going on for years. How many people gained a pants size with artery clogging McGoo each year hoping to get the million (me included)?

I'm not passing judgment on Tim Bits yet but I've also noticed how the promotion benefits are getting squeezed to irrelevance.

TG: That was one thing I really liked about the company. From an organization point of view, the Roll up the Rim contest is not nearly as important as the limited events that were specific for fundraising. (At least that was my perception of it during my time there). The company really pushed the promotions for the camps and hockey programs.

Martin B: I can't speak to McDonald's or any scandal they have had (heck, I can't even speak to their food, I haven't eaten there in years). But I can say this. At Tim's, when the contest starts, each geographic region is alloted a set amount of cups, by size. Within those allocations, there are a set amount of winning cups. From that, each store is then allocated a set amount of cups, without any guarantee that a single cup will be a winner. (This also goes to explaining why some stores run out of the cups before the contest ends, because they are not allowed to order more) The winners in any region will be randomly distributed throughout, which can result in certain areas having very few winners, while others have a greater share than would otherwise make sense.

By the way, if anyone is interested, there a more winners in medium cups than the others.

The greedy trial lawyers at NPT Inc. are playing a similar game but they are winning bigtime - rolling up the RIM

So Tim Horton's has become an American Style franchise and not a peep from the Looney Left.

>"Seriously, does anyone actually understand >probability? I won with the first three cups of the >contest.
>Does that mean the contest is better, more >generous? Nope it means I'm lucky.
>And you were unlucky.
>That's it.
>I'm not making this up."

Ah yes, but you're forgetting something Dennis: these people aren't just buying a cup of coffee once a month and complaining about not winning - they're buying a lot of coffee. Statistically, the more coffee they buy the more likely they are to win. And if you buy 28 cups of coffee and don't win even a donut, that's one hell of a losing streak. There is more to this than just people simply being unlucky.

"I have seem them, they mostly old, fat and broke."
Okay Duke, who you calling fat & broke??
I'll concede the "old" part but fat& broke is below the belt. By not paying too many Canadian taxes down here I am actually not broke and if it wasn't for the wifey, I'd actually have money.
[Incommmming...]

Truthsayer: do you give a discount on coffee for being a member of Kate's Krew?

Tim's serves(d) a real purpose to those who don't have access to the local cafe either because it closed down or never existed in suburbia. The traveller also knew that the Tim sign meant there was hot coffee 24/7. Kind of like a Husky Truck Stop.
My wife and I always stop at the local cafes and eateries in our Texas travels but when you drive through both stop signs in Butts End Texas on a Sunday evening it would be nice to see a Tim Horton's open.

Nat,

Check out the rules and regulation, large cups have the most winners. Medium and extra large have about the same number.

http://www.timhortons.com/en/about/2006-rutw-rules.html

Just for curiosity sake, the US stores have about the same number of winners as the Alberta/Sask/NWT region.

Keith, thanks for the update, I haven't worked there in three years, so I would assume they changed the proportions. I know it was medium back in 2000-2003 because when we found out, we told our regular customers that drank Ls and XLs to try Ms, and some of them actually won a few things.

...like those "1 in 6 win" Coke contests they had last year. I drank maybe about 25 and only won one...

sniff sniff.

...and no, they weren't on the same day...sheesh.

Kate,

It's a typo. The losing cup was meant to read "thank you for PAYING". Somehow the 'L' was put in at the post production stage.

I don't think Timmy's Joe is so szchiddt-hot. They use the ROBUSTICA bean, and I am of the belief that the caffeine content is jacked up....

One thing I've never had to complain about at a Timmie's is their service. The worker's at the one by my place are some of the most motivated service industry people I've ever seen. There's a clock at the drive through that counts the seconds for serving customers. I haven't often seen that clock get much higher than 30. They've also shown care and attention for getting orders consistently right, have clean presentations and are very pleasant.

Great service will always trump marketing. Does it seem that rolling up the rim has jumped the shark? YAWWWNNN...tell me when they use smart cars as the grand prizes.

By the way Nat: I don't trust people enough to say that McDonald Monopoly promotion fraud couldn't happen at a Timmie's. It can happen anywhere. Glad to see you giving them so much positive support though as an ex-employee...obviously a good experience for you.

I hardly ever go 'out' for coffee because the coffee I make at home is so much better - and I can have a cigarette with my coffee at home without freezing in the cold (outside) or sitting in the car. I learned the 'secret' from a cookbook written by a lady named Nila Rubinstine. The 'drip' method of making coffee is the problem - if boiling water is not used the flavor of the coffee never develops. I use a Swiss coffee press and dark roasted coffee but it works with any kind of coffee. You pour furiously boiling water on the coffee grounds, stir briskly with a spoon, put a lid on the coffee jug (to keep the contents as hot as possible) and wait five minuites. If you own a press then you press the grounds to the bottom using the plunger mechanism, if you do not have a press just pour the coffee through a fine sive, to filter out the grounds, into your cup. You will never 'roll up the rim to win' again because your taste buds won't like the coffee. If a person perks coffee in an old fashioned perk it is just as good but cold water must be used and a dash of salt; also the saturated grounds must be taken out right away or the coffee turns bitter. If you make your own donuts they taste so much better that you will not buy Tim donuts either.

Home roast yourself, and you will spit out Timmies and Country Style and Coffee Time.

Starbucks is exceptionally bad coffee, with an elitist attitude,..... "I'll have a venti Seulawessi, please ."
Aaaa Hahahahahaha.