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Tim Horton's shots repelled by Dunk's?
By oddjob60 on Thu, 11/11/2010 - 1:21pm
A few scant years after making its first forays into lower New England, Tim Horton's announced today that it is closing all of its locations in MA, RI, and CT-- 36 stores and 18 kiosks, according to the AP. Two stores in Portland are closing, though a couple of dozen other Maine locations will remain.
Is this more evidence of Dunkin' Dominance? The short article doesn't suggest why these stores weren't profitable, but geography seems to play a role: the company plans to open 300 more stores in the coming year.
Not yet clear: what will happen at the locations where Tim Horton's is combined with Cold Stone Creamery (a "co-branding" partnership that started in Rhode Island).
Tim Horton's till goes head-to-head with Dunkin' Donuts in NYC, including a TH store at Madison Square Garden, where the actual Tim Horton played for the Rangers.
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Comments
Noooooooooo!
Now we're down to Starbucks and Dunkin' Donuts - Both locked in an epic battle to determine which company can serve customers staler baked goods.
Time to thaw the donuts!
There are other places to get coffee in Boston
Or we could start checking out the independent coffee shops in and around Boston. It's not all Starbucks or Dunkin' Donuts out there.
http://www.boston.com/thingstodo/gallery/coffeeshops/
City Feed has the best coffee
I quite literally lived on it while working on my thesis. I think I consumed the LD50 of raisin scones by the time it was finished.
I nearly gave them a credit in the damn film.
I no longer live anywhere near JP, so I'm often forced to deal with whatever happens to be around. Which is usually... not so awesome.
Honeydew?
I don't often buy donuts or coffee, but they advertise a lot around here and I think they're locally-owned. Could be an option.
Suldog
http://jimsuldog.blogspot.com
Also Marylou's
though they seem to be only on the South Shore -- I've never seen or been to one.
Marylou's is pretty bad -
Marylou's is pretty bad - more bitter and heartburn inducing than Starbucks.
I really LIKE Tim Hortons - had a luch thing going on similar to Au Bon Pain, but with much better coffee.
I wouldn't bother
MaryLou's is one of those places that seems like it should be good but turns out to suck.
IMO, Honeydew's doughnuts are
IMO, Honeydew's doughnuts are far better than DD's, but their coffee isn't. DD's has good coffee, but they ruin it by making it too weak unless you ask for a shot of espresso in it. My favorite coffee chain is MaryLou's, but they haven't expanded north of Weymouth.
The best fast food coffee option around is McDonalds ever since they started selling Newman's. Prior to that they were about as good(bad) as gas station coffee.
Honey Don't
at least, not if you're in Boston, Cambridge, Somerville, or Brookline. They've got one in the South Station bus terminal, a couple in Eastie, but beyond that you've got to go out into the suburbs.
MA and RI locations already closed?
These two states are no longer in Tim Horton's Store Locator. Are they closed already? Where were the nearest ones to Boston?
Google is showing me the RI locations, but not the MA ones.
The entire list of states in
The entire list of states in their locator:
IN, KY, ME, MI, NY, OH, PA, VA, WV
Try ZIP code.
If you type in an appropriate Massachusetts zip code and set the radius to the maximum amount, you can get the RI/MA locations. (Or at least I can.) There really aren't that many Massachusetts locations. As far as I can tell, Tim Hortons was focusing on Providence, with the only Massachusetts locations being just over the border in North Attleboro.
I've never been to Tim Hortons, but I've heard nice things about it from my Canadian friends so I'm all for Canada expanding its tentacles into the United States.
But what if
I have an inappropriate Massachusetts ZIP code? I mean, every time I write it on an envelope, it starts humping my leg.
Well I meant like Amherst
Well I meant like a ZIP code in Western Massachusetts or something, since that's too far away from Providence for it to be able to pick up those locations, but that sounds like a serious problem you should contact the USPS about. Is that ZIP code a holdover from the Combat Zone or something?
I don't suppose we stand a
I don't suppose we stand a chance of Stan Makita's opening around here?
;-)
What we need
is a SpudNut. Best doughnuts ever.
Dunkie's may be the king around here, but
Honeydew donuts blow the portion controlled crap that Dunkie's calls donuts away! Add to that the Carlyle Group being one of the owners and I give all my fried bread business to Linda's in Belmont, Honeydew, and Kane's in Saugus. I hit a Starbucks in CT the other day, and they charged me 2 bucks for a croissant and 85 cents for what they called a "mini donut" that looked like one of the Hostess donettes.
I hate Starbucks.
Plenty of local places
I can usually avoid Dunks and others that make crap donuts with a web search. MA doesn't lack for plenty of family-owned local independents. I just wish there were some downtown.
Independent coffee shops downtown
Try Boston Common Coffee Co. with two locations downtown and one in the North End. Also Red Barn Coffee inside Faneuil Hall.
Boston Common Coffee
Boston Common Coffee makes awesome coffee and has great baked goods. No doughnuts though. And thankfully no "donuts" or "donuts" with sausage (a/k/a filth) inside them. Coffee shops are sadly mistaken if they think people don't want doughnuts anymore.
Red Barn's coffee is really good, but...
... Unfortunately their Faneuil Hall location closed a couple of weeks back to accommodate renovations of the whole ground level of that building. Word is they're looking for a new location nearby. Until that happens, I've had to make do at Au Bon Pain for my workday coffee. Not the best substitute, but at least there's an alternative to the "coffee" served at DD.
Was hoping they'd expand, not contract
This is grievously bad news as I am a Tim Hortons fanatic. BETTER coffee, BETTER and tastier baked goods, and lower prices than DD. I am mourning. I used to go out of my way to stop at a Fall River Tim Hortons every time I went to Horseneck Beach on the South Coast.
FYI, I believe Tim's made its original foray into southeastern MA and RI by acquiring the old Bess Eaton chain of shops.
Ironically...
The ad in the upper right corner of this page had a huge picture of a glazed donut, captioned "Boston One-Day Deals". But no info about whence the donut came (even when I clicked on the link).
I don't drink coffee but I do love a good donut. And sorry, Dunkin's just doesn't qualify. There used to be a few places that would buy donuts from Mike's. But Mike's store in Everett closed a couple of years ago. I think there are still Mike's on Tremont St. in Mission Hill and maybe inside Forest Hills T. But I rarely get over to those areas.