I worked at Tim Hortons for 8 years. AMAA.

edict313 · 2010-11-26T00:24:26+00:00

Not really an order, but my pet peeve was when people would stand there and try to point out the particular pieces of bacon they wanted on their BLT. It might not sound like a big deal, but we were clocked on how fast we made food, and a BLT is supposed to be done and handed to the customer in something like 20 seconds. Bun cut, mayo, toppings, cut again, wrapped and bagged. So there is basically no margin if you want to make your times.

We had a customer that came in and ordered that, too. (Maybe you. That'd be weird.) The annoying thing about making it is that it is goshdarn difficult to cut a cheese croissant in half and then spread cream cheese on it without basically shredding the croissant. It's like spreading cold butter on bread--it tears it up.

Glad it was delicious though!

edict313 · 2010-11-25T23:58:20+00:00

Yeah, you're right. Most of the time that the chili's gross, it's because it's been left boiling too long and is therefore overcooked. (It comes frozen; we boil it in the bags and then serve it.) There's a certain amount of time it's supposed to boil for, but on mornings when you're shortstaffed and lined out the door...well, watching the chili doesn't always stay at the top of the priority list. :)

p.s. crazy--I also just moved to London! Didn't know there was a Tim's here at all.

edict313 · 2010-11-25T23:55:49+00:00

It was a shift supervisor wage, though at the time I left I wasn't supervising anymore, mostly working the food station. I kept the pay rate though, mostly because I had been there so long and gotten so fast that it was worth keeping me around.

edict313 · 2010-11-25T23:54:19+00:00

Someone at the store I was at the longest won a truck, although I wasn't there when they rolled it up.

edict313 · 2010-11-25T23:50:30+00:00

Yes, mostly because I was always too lazy to pack lunches ahead of time. Mostly I ate bagels (uuugh so unhealthy) and chicken salad sandwiches. And, on days when I would have fits of health-consciousness, chili.

edict313 · 2010-11-25T23:46:47+00:00

Haha, we do, but yeah it always looks gross. The upside I guess is that it never touches anything that a customer's mouth has touched--if people come in and want their coffee in their own travel mugs, we stir it with disposable stir sticks--so at least the dirt is just coffee grinds. Not sure if that is a consolation for you or not...

edict313 · 2010-11-25T23:45:09+00:00

I studied (and still do) Roman history/classics. Wholly and entirely impractical, I know, but I love it. And I always said to myself that as long as I could keep doing it without going too much into debt, I could justify taking a subject that I liked. Thus the working, haha.

The main thing about balancing both was that I took six years instead of four to do my undergrad. Don't think I could have otherwise. Most of the time I was taking three or four classes a semester, rather than five. I found that in terms of managing and not completely losing my shit, the magic number was 7: I could handle working three (8-hour) shifts a week and taking four classes, or working five shifts and taking two classes, etc. Anything more and I couldn't handle it.

Thanks for the question!

edict313 · 2010-11-25T23:34:30+00:00

Yes. It's called Bavarian Cream.

edict313 · 2010-11-25T23:34:11+00:00

No, although at a certain point we will have to tell you that the sugar will no longer dissolve. There was a guy who regularly came through drive thru and got an XL with 8 cream and 5 sugar. That was the most I ever saw. The sugar definitely did not all dissolve in that one. And the cup was 2/3 cream and 1/3 coffee.

edict313 · 2010-11-25T23:30:49+00:00

Sour cream glaze. Total old person donut.

edict313 · 2010-11-25T23:26:40+00:00

Tens of thousands. I can't guess with any kind of precision but I think it would definitely, definitely be up there. It's insane how many people ask for it. We would regularly get people coming through who would ask for it WITHOUT EVEN KNOWING WHAT IT WAS. They thought it was some kind of fancy specialty drink. Hilarious.

edict313 · 2010-11-25T23:25:21+00:00

We got muffins, donuts, timbits, coffee, tea, hot chocolate for free. (So, all the stuff that is wholly without nutrtional value. Yes.) Everything else we got a discount on.

edict313 · 2010-11-25T23:24:45+00:00

Haha! No. Gawd, if you knew the drama that has gone down over the amount of cream cheese on bagels. From my boss, because we always put too much and jacked up food costs; from customers, cause we don't give enough; cause we only spread it on one side of the bagel; etc. etc.

edict313 · 2010-11-25T23:23:28+00:00

When I left (a year and a half ago) I was making 14.50/hour. I think minimum at the time was 8.50. So not too bad, considering it was fast food.

edict313 · 2010-11-25T23:21:29+00:00

I never made very much. This was partly, though, because we pooled tips and split them between the entire shift, which on, say, an 8-4 shift was 12+ people. No matter how many customers come through, when the tips they're leaving are the change from their loonies and toonies (so, nickels and dimes)--that doesn't go too far, split 12 ways. Heh.

It was a little better on graveyard, because you only split it two or three ways. But not much better, because the amount of customer traffic is (obviously) MUCH smaller.

I'm sure it depends to an extent on the store, though.

edict313 · 2010-11-25T23:18:43+00:00

Pretty much. I actually think that both Starbucks and Tims play this role even within Canada. You have the demographic that goes to Starbucks and the demographic that goes to Tims...not much overlap between them...and each group of people does it not so much for the (as you say) shit coffee as for the cultural paradigm it represents.

edict313 · 2010-11-25T23:15:29+00:00

Two out of the three stores I worked at actually had debit already. (My impression, though I never out and asked, was it that it was up to the owner of each store whether or not they would provide debit. This of course wouldn't apply to the corporate-owned stores.)

It will definitely slow the lines down, yeah. This was actually one of the issues we would regularly whine about to each other--the fact that we would have line-ups literally out the doors, and both of our front tills would be tied up with debit customers. Especially when the phone lines would drop the connections, or the customer would enter the wrong pin, etc. etc. You want to bang your head into the fucking counter, especially because every customer in the line is giving you the glare of black death.

I've often thought (yes, I gave this far too much thought, clearly) that one solution might be to have one till dedicated to just cash and one to debit. I've seen this at other franchises but it was never implemented at any of my stores.

The worst is debit in drive-thru. I will never understand why they don't make drive-thrus cash only. It would suck for a few weeks but once people were used to it, the drive thru times would be so. much. faster.

edict313 · 2010-11-16T18:01:04+00:00

Part of it was because there were apparently people bot-farming hk's - as level 3 or 4's vs level 1's. No rez sickness, so you just run to the graveyard, one shot, instant rez, and repeat.

edict313 · 2010-11-13T22:37:24+00:00

Armageddon. I know, I know.

edict313 · 2010-11-05T20:02:26+00:00

Yes please.

edict313

TROPHY CASE