uwstudent.org

It seems to me that our beloved Tim Hortons now is mugging our campus, and only our campus. Now lets just review: first, two outlets, one in DC and one in ML (I believe). Then Tims required that to keep those operations, they would need a main outlet somewhere on campus with a bakery. Seemed reasonable, right? And with the promise of 24/7 hours, it wasn't so bad - we just lost a suffering FEDs run operation, oh, and a bunch of space we wish we could have kept for our beloved Bomber. Still reasonable. We like our Timmies coffee at any hour. It is a great place to get a joe while working on any all night project.

Now two new announcements. One, that summer hours will be cut. Second, a new outlet in South Campus Hall, thus ridding campus of another unique competitor from the campus. Also entrenching the Tim's near monopoly on coffee (is it even fair trade? inform me if it is, but I'm not sure). Now normally I'm used to the Tim's monopoly. I live near the home of Tims, Hamilton (where every two blocks there is an outlet). But Tims in the Waterloo takes a different approach. They conquer the student market, but leave parts of the city out of the loop. When I lived off campus in 1A, my landlady would often drive her son (and sometimes me) to campus and would take that opportunity to get a coffee. The SLC Tims was the closest to her home and the only one on her way to work in the country. However, it was only on the way if she made the extra trip to drop someone off.

I was thinking about this today and decided to use Google Local to get answers. Just how many Tim Horton locations are there in the area off campus? 6 are shown in the City of Waterloo. Most in K-W are Downtown (and area) Kitchener. See for yourself: Courtesty Google Local

So it appears that Tims likes to serve students coffee. Wouldn't it be smart of them to expand off campus instead? They cut the hours at our campus outlets. Also, there is no drive through at any of the four outlets on campus. They could definetly justify keeping our SLC Tims open longer if the franchisee were to open an outlet off campus to the growing (sprawling) West of Waterloo. If students living off campus can get there on foot, and the folks in their cars can support a drive through, the franchisee could worry less about losing a few bucks in the 24/7 operation of the SLC outlet. Yes?

Opinions on this? Maybe an entrepreneuring business student should make a shnazzy proposal to Tims about this.

Not that it matters much to me. I'll be locked in Res for the next two terms and be relying on my two favourites that wont soon be taken over by a tims outlet: The Grebel Caf (mmm, butter) and the ES Coffee Shop.