Food & Drink

Tim Hortons Sandwiches!!

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  • Jan 24th, 2013 11:56 am
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Member
Jun 8, 2012
442 posts
45 upvotes
Toronto
Tim Horton's is generally my last option. However, at 1am, theres not many places open. I have to give them some credit for being open 24/7.
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Aug 9, 2004
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Newmarket
death_hawk wrote: Heinz makes soup? That's news to me.
Then again... I always threw away the prepared food catalog because who the [expletive deleted] buys SOUP?
The entire point of soup is to clean out your fridge and make a profit on it.
To buy a soup that costs additional money compared to making one out of existing ingredients that are already paid for is [IMG]http://t0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9 ... CcsrZDEZHH[/IMG]
A lot of companies make stuff "for the industry" without selling to consumers in retail. Its expensive to sell to consumers....listing fees, marketing, price wars etc.
Some companies even source production to competitors and rebrand it with their own name....a recent example of this was when the Chapmans ice cream factory burned down, they still had contracts for product to stores, so they got nestle and other companies to make their product for them under the Chapmans name so that they wouldn't lose store presence, and short sell and lose loyal customers as they switch brands.
Sr. Member
Aug 12, 2012
878 posts
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Richmond Hill
death_hawk wrote: Heinz makes soup? That's news to me.
Then again... I always threw away the prepared food catalog because who the [expletive deleted] buys SOUP?
The entire point of soup is to clean out your fridge and make a profit on it.
To buy a soup that costs additional money compared to making one out of existing ingredients that are already paid for is [IMG]http://t0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9 ... CcsrZDEZHH[/IMG]
You can get Heinz soups at the grocery store (I think their tomato is pretty common), though I think they're more popular in the UK and other countries.

[IMG]http://www.concordextra.com/img_uploads ... 3-400g.jpg[/IMG]

And what existing ingredients does Tim's have lying around to make soup with? They can't exactly make anything with old donuts, buns, lettuce and tomatoes. A mom and pop diner would do what you're saying, but Tim's has the buying power to get cheap soup mixes in bulk and they don't have to train any of their staff to actually make anything from a recipe other than "add water".
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Mar 18, 2011
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Pickering
Well it's a fact that Tim's is known for their coffee and donuts, so that's what I was implying. I happen to like their doughnuts, scratch that, LOVE their donuts and their hot chocolate, cream cheese bagels, etc etc. There sandwiches are a different story, at least for me. It's like, almost worlds apart from the rest of their menu, where you can tell that it just tastes grocery-store cheap.
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Aug 22, 2006
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stealth wrote: A lot of companies make stuff "for the industry" without selling to consumers in retail. Its expensive to sell to consumers....listing fees, marketing, price wars etc.
Some companies even source production to competitors and rebrand it with their own name....a recent example of this was when the Chapmans ice cream factory burned down, they still had contracts for product to stores, so they got nestle and other companies to make their product for them under the Chapmans name so that they wouldn't lose store presence, and short sell and lose loyal customers as they switch brands.
I'm no stranger to industrial brands. I happen to like some of their products, but others are just awful.

Frank311 wrote: You can get Heinz soups at the grocery store (I think their tomato is pretty common), though I think they're more popular in the UK and other countries.

[IMG]http://www.concordextra.com/img_uploads ... 3-400g.jpg[/IMG]

And what existing ingredients does Tim's have lying around to make soup with? They can't exactly make anything with old donuts, buns, lettuce and tomatoes. A mom and pop diner would do what you're saying, but Tim's has the buying power to get cheap soup mixes in bulk and they don't have to train any of their staff to actually make anything from a recipe other than "add water".
Hmm. Never seen Heinz soup. Or Oxtail soup in a can for that matter. I wonder if it's any good.
Figures for someone that's mastered ketchup they'd have Tomato based soups in a can.

I'll give you the point for Tim's having to bring in soup. I was more making a general point to the 99% of other "restaurants" that bring in their soup. Then again... I'd still be making it from scratch even if I had very few or no existing ingredients.
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May 17, 2008
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death_hawk wrote: I'll give you the point for Tim's having to bring in soup. I was more making a general point to the 99% of other "restaurants" that bring in their soup. Then again... I'd still be making it from scratch even if I had very few or no existing ingredients.
For any restaurant that wants to have consistency across outlets, they really can't just make stuff up based on what is around. Going out to buy stuff to make a soup from scratch is more expensive and time consuming than just buying these prepared soups, which doesn't work for restaurants that want to keep prices low.

Prepared soups are also made with lower quality stuff that is mostly left over after the more desirable stuff is used for other purposes, so it pretty much is what you are talking about, but outsourced.
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Aug 22, 2006
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(Speaking strictly about restaurants since a coffee shop doesn't have on hand ingredients)
While I'll somewhat agree based on consistency across the chain, Soup is an ever changing item that doesn't really require consistency in terms of availability. Personally I like seeing unique soups instead of the standard 12 or whatever everyone serves.
And even if you don't have a unique soup, there's no reason you can't have a consistent recipe across the chain.
Then again... some chains DO bring everything in prepared and heat it up. Sadly... this is what's passing for food nowadays.

Prepared soup isn't cheap. It's about $3/L (probably a bit cheaper if you buy in a Volume that a nationwide chain has) or $0.75 per 8oz portion.
Even without on hand ingredients I can make it for much cheaper than that.
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Aug 9, 2004
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death_hawk wrote: (Speaking strictly about restaurants since a coffee shop doesn't have on hand ingredients)
While I'll somewhat agree based on consistency across the chain, Soup is an ever changing item that doesn't really require consistency in terms of availability. Personally I like seeing unique soups instead of the standard 12 or whatever everyone serves.
And even if you don't have a unique soup, there's no reason you can't have a consistent recipe across the chain.
Then again... some chains DO bring everything in prepared and heat it up. Sadly... this is what's passing for food nowadays.

Prepared soup isn't cheap. It's about $3/L (probably a bit cheaper if you buy in a Volume that a nationwide chain has) or $0.75 per 8oz portion.
Even without on hand ingredients I can make it for much cheaper than that.
You're forgetting that TH is a preparer of food, they don't really have chefs/cooks at each location. Like Subway, It's just an assembly line more or less of low skilled staff. Not to be confused with an actual restaurant in any way.
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May 17, 2008
15134 posts
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death_hawk wrote: (Speaking strictly about restaurants since a coffee shop doesn't have on hand ingredients)
While I'll somewhat agree based on consistency across the chain, Soup is an ever changing item that doesn't really require consistency in terms of availability. Personally I like seeing unique soups instead of the standard 12 or whatever everyone serves.
And even if you don't have a unique soup, there's no reason you can't have a consistent recipe across the chain.
Then again... some chains DO bring everything in prepared and heat it up. Sadly... this is what's passing for food nowadays.

Prepared soup isn't cheap. It's about $3/L (probably a bit cheaper if you buy in a Volume that a nationwide chain has) or $0.75 per 8oz portion.
Even without on hand ingredients I can make it for much cheaper than that.
Prepared food is pretty much always going to cost more than just buying the ingredients to make it yourself, but that is only part of the picture. The biggest expense for these restaurants is labor and training. Tim Hortons(and many other restaurants) pay significantly more for their supplies to bring in mostly prepared foods, in order to minimize labor and training costs. Their model relies on being able to plug in pretty much any able bodied human being so they can pay them minimum wage and not worry if they stay or leave. This is instead of having to find qualified chefs, train them to make Tims food properly, and then pay them enough so that they don't leave.
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Aug 22, 2006
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Ok both of you, go back and read the first line of my post.

But yeah, I know how chains operate. That's why I rarely go there. And every time I do go it's usually terrible.
Newbie
Oct 15, 2012
86 posts
8 upvotes
Tim's chili comes into the store in a "chili concentrate" plastic bag. All you do is add water and warm er up.
If buying food product in this fashion is to ensure consistency across the chain, why does it taste so different from location to location. Lately,(the past year) it's been absolutely awful. I think Tim's needs to rewire many things.
Sr. Member
Aug 12, 2012
878 posts
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Richmond Hill
dickblack07 wrote: Tim's chili comes into the store in a "chili concentrate" plastic bag. All you do is add water and warm er up.
If buying food product in this fashion is to ensure consistency across the chain, why does it taste so different from location to location. Lately,(the past year) it's been absolutely awful. I think Tim's needs to rewire many things.
Things like adding the right amount of water, and turning the 'temp' knob to the correct temperateure are very difficult tasks for some people. Not everyone can make a good old fashioned bag of chili.
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May 17, 2008
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death_hawk wrote: Ok both of you, go back and read the first line of my post.

But yeah, I know how chains operate. That's why I rarely go there. And every time I do go it's usually terrible.
I know what you said, but your post applies to places like Tims as well as other restaurants.
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Aug 5, 2011
2313 posts
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YF
didn't know the sandwiches are gone... but i never liked them anyway. Chicken or egg salad are the best and cheapest.

The soup/chili they don't come from powder, but individual bags of frozen concentrate, they heat them up and mix with water.

they are actually not that bad.
Sr. Member
Feb 1, 2008
895 posts
117 upvotes
i only eat their chicken salad sandwich as it's the cheapest sandwich on their menu. all the other ones, for the price they are charging i might as well go somewhere else to eat.

as for soup, i think only the chicken noodle is good. i remember seeing something on rfd some time ago where somebody said that chicken noodle was the only soup that wasnt a powder/mix. not sure if that's true or not
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Jul 10, 2006
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Toronto ontario
just had their veggie cheese panini, its sucked(little flavour and I could have made a better one). I miss their veggie sandwich.
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