Lost in Translation? The Diffusion of Tim Hortons’ Restaurants in the Great Lakes Borderlands

Abstract

Tim Hortons’ first donut store was established in Hamilton, Ontario, in 1964; other stores were added over time as the chain gradually diffused across Canada to become the country’s largest quick-service restaurant chain with more than 2,400 restaurants. In achieving this dominant status it adopted one of the strategies of any successful restaurant chain; utilizing a uniform architectural style to emphasize to customers the consistency in its menu and operations. This article examines the processes underlying the development of the Tim Hortons brand and the diffusion of its restaurants into the US, specifically the appearance of their restaurants in the Great Lakes borderlands. The study found a consistent architectural style in Ontario but several different styles in Michigan and New York. It is suggested that this lack of consistency in brand identification in its US restaurants is a contributory factor to their lack of profitability and smaller sales.

Keywords:

• Tim Hortons
• brand
• diffusion
• borderlands
• signage

Acknowledgements

This research was funded by grants from the Canadian Embassy, Washington DC, and the College of Arts & Sciences, Northern Michigan University. The author is grateful for the reviewers’ helpful comments and John Broadway’s editorial assistance. Any mistakes or omissions are the sole responsibility of the author.

Notes

1. In an effort to increase the value of Wendy’s stock for its shareholders, the company divested itself of its Tim Hortons operations in 2006. Three years later the remaining legacy of Tim Hortons’ ties with Wendy’s were removed when the company’s registration was changed from Delaware to Ontario to take advantage of Canada’s lower corporate tax rate (Friend 2009).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Michael J. Broadway

Michael Broadway (PhD, Geography; University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign) is Dean of the College of Arts & Sciences at Northern Michigan University. He is a co-author with Donald Stull of Slaughterhouse Blues: The Meat and Poultry Industry in North America, 2^nd edition (Cengage 2013) and is a co-editor of Any Way You Cut It: Meatprocessing and the Transformation of Rural America published by Kansas University Press. In 2006 he was a visiting Fulbright Research Chair in the Department of Rural Economy at the University of Alberta, Canada, where he studied the impact of “mad cow disease” on a rural community, and the social changes accompanying the expansion of a meatpacking plant in Brooks, Alberta. He is the author of more than 70 journal articles and book chapters mostly dealing with the meat industry. From 2002 to 2006 he served on the Executive Council of the Association for Canadian Studies in the US.