Tim Hortons insights

[localtimhortonsworker]

Tim Hortons Staff Chores and More.

This is going to be the last blog post since I have almost covered everything. In this blog post I will be talking about how we all do our fair share of keeping the store clean. I am also realizing now that I forgot to discuss what our bakers do so I will cover that in this blog post as well. So at Tim Hortons each staff member working during a shift has to do the chore they were given before they go home. Now we have multiple chores in place at the store that have to be done at the end of every shift. For the store-front we have to stock, as well as drive-thru stock, the floors have to be done, washrooms have to be cleaned, garbage's have to be changed, capps and lattes have to be done, the sandwich station has to be stocked and the sauces for the sandwich station have to be stocked too. The person working in the store-front who was given the stock chore has to make sure all the cups and lids, item bags, coffee and steeped tea pouches, the sugar machine and any other little things are stocked. The same thing must be done by the person who was given the drive-thru stock. The person who was given the floors chore has to sweep and mop the store-front. The person who was given the washrooms chore has to clean all of the washrooms we have in the store by cleaning the toilet, the counter, mirror, make sure the toilet paper and soap is full, change the garbage's, and sweep and mop the floors. The person who does the garbage's has to change all of the garbage’s, put the garbage in the garbage dumpster, break down the boxes and put them in the cardboard dumpster, and do a lot sweep. The person who does the capps and lattes has to fill the hoppers in the french vanilla machines in both the store-front and drive-thru as well as clean them and clean the ice capp and neutral base machines also. They also have to put the expresso machine through a manual cleaning process then fill the expresso hopper. Then they have to make ice capp and neutral base mix for the machines. The people working the sandwich have to a chore to do each, one has to make sure that the sandwich station is all stocked for the next shift and other person has to make sure that the sauces are all filled and ready for the next shift. For the night shift people they have to clean everything when they have no work to do. The baker is responsible for making donuts, muffins and any other items we have displayed out front. They also have to make food for the sandwich station like eggs, sausages, chicken and buns. Morning bakers have to make sure the sandwich station has everything it needs and make sure that the front display is reasonably stocked. At the end of their shift they have to sweep and mop the back of store and the storage area. The afternoon bakers have to prep the cheese, cream cheese, and tomatoes for the sandwich station and make sure that the sandwich station has everything it needs and the keep the front display filled depending on how busy they are. Then around 7 they close the ovens down and put them through a manual cleaning process. Then put the dishwasher through a manual cleaning process. They have to switch over the fondant inserts and fill them up and clean the glaze tray. They also have to set back the night for the night bakers by getting the donuts ready for them to put in the oven right away in the morning and they have to take out bread and english muffins for them to thaw out for the next day and as well as sweep and mop too. Well this has been a fun journey, I hope you guys have a better understanding of how things are done at Tim Hortons and I thank you very much for reading.

 Linked here is another interesting blog about Tim Hortons: https://mikesbloggityblog.com/tag/tim-hortons/ 

Brancaccio N. (2018). [Windsor Star].

https://financialpost.com/news/local-news/local-tim-hortons-owners-struggle-with-wage-hike-told-not-to-talk/wcm/e558007c-1bbd-41bd-895d-694d8d1c2686 

Young C. (2012). [THE CANADIAN PRESS]. 

https://www.ctvnews.ca/business/tim-hortons-says-frugal-customers-cutting-back-on-snacks-1.909065 

[localtimhortonsworker]

Tim Hortons Covid-19 Procedures.

Since I’ve talked about the operations of service for the drive-thru and store-front, I think it’s time for the more important part given the pandemic we are in right now. The procedures we have in place to ensure the safety of our customers, staff, and management is what this blog post is going to be about. When they started the lockdown, Tim Hortons was still open as it is considered an essential service. I chose to stay home for a couple of months to stay safe so I don’t know what procedures they had in place during the time I was gone but I’m sure they were the same as the ones I learned about when I started working again. Now first, before any staff was able to go on the floor we had to get our temperature checked. If anyone’s temperature was higher than 37 they’d be sent home immediately. Also we would be asked if we had experienced any covid-like symptoms, been in contact with anyone who has tested positive for covid-19, and things related to covid-19. All staff and management had to wear a mask and gloves, also change their gloves and wash their hands every half hour. Now I have to say that I hated making drinks and doing regular work-like tasks with gloves on but hey, it was for the safety of everyone around so it was worth it. We had to wipe down all the high traffic areas like the drive-thru window counter and the store-front counters every 15 minutes. If we had any guest come into the store like the people delivering the food/dry produce order or someone coming in to do a repair, they would have to get their temperature checked and put their name and signature on the guest list. I believe this was put in place just in case any of these guest had covid-19, I am not 100% sure. Now all of this was part of phase 1 and part of phase 2, the only differences between phase 1 and 2 is that in phase 2 we had a choice of if we wanted to wear gloves or not but the people at drive-thru window and store-front counter always were gloves as we are coming into contact with a whole lot of people. I forgot to mention that during phase 1 we closed the front of the store and only offered take-out service meaning people could still come in and order through the store-front but they would have to leave right after they received their orders. Then in phase 2 we opened up the store-front for guest to come in and sit to eat/drink their food and coffee, etc. In order for this to happen we had to distance the tables to ensure that social distancing would be followed. During phase 2 since we had guest at the tables, the person working front counter was responsible for wiping down all of the tables every 2 hours or when guest were done using the tables with a special sanitizer. We used one door as the enter only and the other as the exit only to limit the contact between guest. Now phase 3 is in place and everything is the same except for the gloves, those are optional and guest are now required to wear a mask if they are going to enter the store. Hopefully this post makes you feel more safer to come and pay us a visit. My next blog post is going to be about our chores and things I may have left out. 

This link has more information on the reopening of the front like I mentioned in this post: https://www.ctvnews.ca/health/coronavirus/ready-to-reopen-how-tim-hortons-is-preparing-to-reinstate-its-seating-areas-1.4937609 

Charlebois S. (2018). [Niagara Falls Review].

https://www.niagarafallsreview.ca/ths/opinion/contributors/2018/04/19/the-decline-and-fall-of-timmies.html

Shaw M. (2018). [Vancouver Is Awesome]. 

https://www.vancouverisawesome.com/vancouver-news/tim-hortons-china-stores-1938597

[localtimhortonsworker]

Tim Hortons Store-Front Operation.

Like I said in the last blog post, I am now going to be talking about what we do in the store-front for service. I’ve talked about Tim Hortons history and how we operate in the drive-thru, now it’s time for me to discuss how we operate in the store-front. Often times our team uses tandem teams, tri-teams or one person working up front depending on how many staff members we have working that day or how busy it is. For those of you who don’t know what tandem team or tri-team is, well tandem team is a team of two and tri-team is a team of three. Usually when we have a tandem team we have one person taking orders, and the other making drinks as well as grabbing the side items the customer ordered like donuts, muffins, etc. Then we send the customers down to wait for the food if they ordered any. We tandem team to get the line moving quick so we avoid unnecessary waiting for our customers. You know how in the last post I mentioned a drive-thru sandwich person, well often times we have a store-front sandwich person working at the sandwich station as well. Other times we only have one person working on the sandwich station making food for both the drive-thru and store-front. Back to the main point, tandem team is what we do at my location and it is a very effective operation method. Tri-team is something we don’t do that much at our location but when we do we often have the same operation as tandem team, one person taking orders and the other making drinks and grabbing side items. Now this is where the third person comes in, when there is a tandem team, these two people are still responsible for starting coffee, and steeped tea and timing them properly, but the third person is there to do that as well as help the other two members with whatever they need help with like making the drinks and grabbing side items. When there is only one person working the store front, sadly they are responsible for taking the orders, making drinks, grabbing side items, starting coffee and steeped tea, and timing the coffee and tea properly. We also have to put the proper indications on the lids of the beverages like the beverage person has to in the drive-thru. Now as you can tell the way we operate in the store-front is a lot more different then how we operate in the drive-thru. I think next I will talk about the Covid-19 procedures we have in place to ensure the safety of our customers, staff members and management. 

Here is a link to a website that has some interesting facts about Tim Hortons: https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/70560/11-very-canadian-facts-about-tim-hortons#:~:text=AddThis%20Utility%20Frame.%201%201.%20BEFORE%20DOUGHNUTS%2C%20TIM,ORDER%20IS%20NOW%20IN%20THE%20DICTIONARY.%20More%20items 

Basu B. (2018). [Vitoria Buzz].

https://www.victoriabuzz.com/2018/03/tim-hortons-stores-in-canada-are-getting-a-700-million-facelift/ 

Atkins E. (2014). [The Globe and Mail].

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/tim-hortons-boosts-payout-23-posts-slight-rise-in-profit/article16993375/ 

[localtimhortonsworker]

Tim Hortons Drive-Thru Operation.

In my opinion I like working at Tim Hortons, I think it is a fun job. Now everyone knows that almost all of the Tim Hortons locations have a drive-thru. The location I work at does. In this blog post I am going to be talking about what my team does and all the other teams working at different locations do in the drive-thru. There are 7 positions in the drive-thru but at our store we often have 5 members working for the more important positions. The 7 positions are the window person, the order-taker, the runner, the drive-thru sandwich person, the beverage person, the beverage helper, and the expeditor. The window person is responsible for taking payments, handing out the correct items for the customers orders, and making sure we reach the correct timing for the hour which I will get into more details about timings later on in this post. The order-taker is responsible for kindly taking customers orders, re-reading the orders back to the customers to make sure the order is correct, and reminding the customers to have their payment and rewards card ready at the window to help with our timings. The runner is responsible for helping the order-taker. They are to run for items so that the order-taker doesn’t have to leave their position to grab these items themselves. So if a customer orders a donut, muffin, or any other baked good we have displayed in the front, the runner has to grab this item and bring it to the window. Runners also have to grab bottled drinks, start lattes, espressos, french vanillas, hot chocolates, make ice capps, frozen drinks, and iced coffees. The drive-thru sandwich person is responsible for making the food items any customer orders like breakfast sandwiches/wraps, lunch sandwiches/wraps, bagels, hashbrowns, potato wedges, as well as the soups we have displayed in the soup well. The beverage person is responsible for making coffee and teas, make the drinks following the correct builds, mark the lids with the correct indications, and to make sure that the coffee and steeped tea has the right time on them. The beverage helper is responsible for helping the beverage person with anything they need help with, as well as starting coffee and teas, and dumping out the coffee grinds so the bins don’t overflow and create an unnecessary mess. The expeditor is responsible for making sure that all of the drinks, food and side items are in order so the window person doesn’t have to struggle with finding the correct items. This also helps with the timings which I will now explain what exactly timings are. Timings is what we have to track down how many cars we serve and the average time the customers are waiting at the window during the hour. For an example at 8 in the morning we try to serve our customers under 25 seconds for the whole hour. Now this is how we operate in the drive-thru. Hopefully post has gave you a better understanding of what we do in the drive-thru. In my next blog posting I will talk about what we do in the store front. 

Linked here is a review on our salted caramel dream donut: https://insidetimmies.com/2020/11/22/review-tim-hortons-sea-salted-caramel-dream-donut/

Image by Hebbard G. (2014). [The Canadian Press].

https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2014/05/07/tim_hortons_drivethru_rampage_lands_alberta_man_in_jail.html

Image was contributed but was posted by Duncan J. (2017). [World News].

https://www.kamloopsbcnow.com/news/news/World_News/PHOTOS_Spain_just_opened_its_first_Tim_Hortons/ 

[localtimhortonsworker]

Introduction to Tim Hortons Insights.

         I’m sure many of you know what Tim Hortons is but for those of you who don’t, Tim Hortons is a fast food/coffee shop that can be found all across Canada. It is only in Canada as it is a Canadian store. For any Americans that may be curious, think of Tim Hortons as Dunkin Donuts. It is basically the American Tim Hortons even though it can still be found in Canada, but I am getting off topic here. The point is that I work at Tim Hortons here where I live and with these blog postings I am going to be giving anyone who is interested in reading, some insight of what it is like to work at Tim Hortons. Now here is background information on how Tim Hortons came to be. The first ever Tim Hortons opened up in April 1964 at the corner of Ottawa Street North and Dunsmure Road, in Hamilton, Ontario. Tim Horton was the Toronto Maple Leaf's hockey teams defensemen. Tim met Jim Charade in 1963 around the time that Charade left his job to open up a store called Your Do-nut. Given the fact that Tim had an interest of getting into the restaurant business for awhile, the two formed a company called Timanjim Ltd. They opened up four Tim Horton Drive-in stores in Toronto serving burgers and chicken, I know it’s shocking. Eventually, due to a separate deal made between the two, Charade licensed Horton’s name to turn Your Do-nut into Tim Horton Do-nut which was the first store named after Tim Horton. The burger and chicken drive-in struggled with business so Charade decided that the future for the store was donuts and restaurant franchising. So Charade sold the franchise rights to owner-operators, who would buy the equipment and supplies from the company, follow the menu and operating standards, and pay the company a share of their revenues. This is how Tim Hortons came to be and since then 3,665 stores have opened up across the country as of 2016. Tim Hortons is Canada’s largest restaurant chain and is a Canadian cultural phenomenon. For more information and where I got the information written in this blog visit:  https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/tim-hortons. Another interesting blog about Tim Hortons is linked here: https://www.blogto.com/cafes/tim-hortons-innovation-cafe-toronto/.

  Image by Luis. (2011). [Tim Horton’s on Lonsdale]. 

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Tim_Horton's.jpg 

Image by spintheblackcircle. (April 2, 2018) 

https://hfboards.mandatory.com/threads/the-sports-name-game-part-22.2465525/page-13