IDIOT NEWSPAPER PUBLISHERS and KRISPY KREME

Part of this is that corporate ownership, a la newspapers, is also a big thing in the chain restaurant space. Thanks to the Doughboys podcast, I'm now aware of this. A bunch of chains did huge expansions in the 2000s with borrowed money - Quizno's and Krispy Kreme with the biggest ones, I think - and then got clobbered when the market flipped. Both of them had other issues - Quizno's got killed by Subway adding toasters (even if they fucking sucked), and both of them were high-carb and high-calorie places when that went out of style - but they pretty much chose to do a wide expansion at the worst time, in hindsight.

 

Krispy Kreme doesn't have the menu Tims has, for breakfast, lunch etc., it wasn't a place like Starbucks known for its coffee and wasn't going to be on every other corner here in Canada. Sure it was pretty popular at first due to the novelty but there was little reason to go back. Quizno's also had a presence here - even had Don Cherry as a spokesman - but Subway clobbered them too.

 

Good thing Grapes wasn't plugging Krispy Kreme. Would have had to call the North Carolina-based company a Bunch of Jerks.

Could have made for a great 30-second spot, though. Storm Surge, a dozen glazed doughnuts ... a buffoon ...

 

People in SoCal are wondering what this Tim BS is all about.

 

My only experience with Tim's was on my honeymoon in Niagara Falls in 2002. We ordered a couple donuts and some coffee, paid with a U.S. $20 bill and got like $24 Canadian in change. I thought I hit the jackpot.

 

Glad to see you've gotten past this ...

 

I had completely forgotten about Quizno's. There were a ton of them around here in Ohio in that time. God, they sucked! I never knew how it was possible to make such a bad toasted sub.

Also IIRC, four of my shop's top 10 stories pageview-wise last year were restaurant-related.

 

We went to a Ducks game at Arizona and I was excited because I knew there was a Tim's stand at Gila River Arena. Alas, gone. Replaced by Dunkin' (garbage) Donuts. Musta been a Gretzky thing.

 

Didn't read the implied blue font ...

 

FWIW, Subway for years has been the biggest US fast food chain in terms of number of stores.

 

Quizno's made one decent sub -- the chicken carbonara. I noticed that three of the five shops in my burg are permanently closed.