While my favourite Tim Horton's is on Kent Street in Charlottetown, my most recent visit was to a new Tim Horton's in Richmond, Indiana. Tim Horton's is making bold business moves including moving into the Middle East (Oman and Dubai), into combat zones (Afghan), and even U.S. military bases - like Fort Knox, Kentucky. (We have to keep those guards protecting the gold pumped up on coffee). As well, Tim's is making major expansions into the States - now being in about fourteen States.
Ah, the coffee and coffee shops. My impeccable backgrounding source, Wikipedia serves information that coffee shops first arose in Constantinople in1555, followed quickly in other places such as in Vienna, Austria and their famed coffee houses. The first known coffee shop in Vienna was established in 1638. Into the 20th century, while not having Dutchies, these Viennese coffee houses, nevertheless, were uber kuhl (as Viennese might say) and attracted a noted crowd with the likes of Sigmund Freud, Leon Trotsky, and Adolph Hitler and respectively, their patients, comrades, and crazed followers. Coffee shops remain just the same today - a spot to talk the full gamut of topics, from Anne to Zamboni. Occasionally, you'll find a coffee shop with patrons who seem to be kindred spirits to the old Vienna coffee house patrons - but modernized with anti-sealing advocates, Maritime Unionists, and flat-earthers.
In the 1600s, unable to ignore the coffee houses, King Charles II tried to suppress the London coffeehouses as "places where the disaffected met, and spread scandalous reports concerning the conduct of His Majesty and his Ministers." The public flocked to them not just because of the coffee but because of the chance for thought provoking talk.
Forgive my digression as my thoughts are to praise Tim Horton's and to chronicle its great business venture and I will as soon as I finish the preceding line of thought. We travel U.S. I-64 between Indiana and Virginia several times a year and we have seen the expansion of Tim Horton's along the Interstate. So, by my en route surveys, I concluded that their Richmond, Indiana store was their most westernly point in the U.S., and that a visit to the U.S. most westerly point may be akin to visit Tim's most southerly point in Florida or most northerly point in Yellow Knife. But, now, after research, I see that Tim's is now in California, thus erasing my daydream of supporting Tim's out on its fringes.
Tim's jumped into the New York City market in 2009 and opened 12 locations to include
shops on Broadway, at Madison Square Garden, at Penn Station, and at Times Square. Better yet, Tim's has two shops in irrepressible Brooklyn, fitting the diverse fashion already there.
Tim's Mission Statement causes understanding of its exceptional success:
Our guiding mission is to deliver superior quality products and services for our guests and communities through leadership, innovation and partnerships. Our vision is to be the quality leader in everything we do.
The Richmond, Indiana store fulfilled the ideals of the mission statement to this guest and continued my nostalgia for Prince Edward Island. Wherefore, I will make another Hajj to PEI in 2013, driving up from Bangor, Maine and enjoying the drive across Maine and New Brunswick, so different from my part of the world.
