Another reason to avoid Timmies

The first change I noticed after the Brazilian hedgies at 3G Capital took over Tim Hortons was they did away with the garbage containers in their drive-throughs.

Doesn't seem like a big deal on the face of it. After all, you're offering a convenience to the customer; a bin to collect yesterday's Timmies trash as you're going through the drive-thru today. And what does it cost them to provide this service? Next to nothing. A couple of times per day some min wage workee spends five minutes changing the bags in those garbage bins.

But here's why I'm an obscure blogger and brilliant big-picture capitalists are billionaire hedge fund managers. I figure emptying the trash costs next to nothing. The big-picture MBA types realize that "next to nothing" across thousands of stores equals enough of something to warrant stamping it out.

Here's another "next to nothing" the sharpies at 3G have eliminated; a serviette with your donut. You used to get a paper napkin when you picked up a donut at the drive-thru window. No more. Although a paper serviette costs next to nothing, the MBAs at 3G correctly concluded that next to nothing across millions of apple fritters per day could make the difference between a new Porsche and a used Dodge van when it's time to spend that annual bonus cheque.

There's a guy piloting a new 911 Turbo down a Brazilian expressway today who thanks you for licking the donut glaze off your fingers and wiping them on the bag your donut came in.

You don't even miss the serviettes, do you!

But these are mere micro-agressions. (micro-agressions! Am I with it or what?! My kid with the Social Justice degree from York University would be proud!)

Here's some more serious shit (macro-aggression?); Burger King animal feed sourced from deforested lands in Brazil and Bolivia. It appears that our brilliant 3G Brazillian hedgies who own Timmies and Burger King and Popeyes are all-in for raping the wilderness to get cheap cattle feed!

You can bet the guy who came up with that idea is driving more than a Porsche...

I'm guessing Bugatti or Maclaren.

Before Tim Hortons became the plaything of hedge funds, did Tim Hortons ever have to apologize for

this?

Ya, dousing sleeping homeless people with buckets of water is what made Timmys a Canadian icon.

I rest my case.

Tim takes it dry

Where's Eddie Shack when you need him?

Eddie once had the idea that he would be the next Tim Horton. Not on the ice, but in the world 'o donuts. For a few years you saw Eddie Shack donut stores here and there around Ontario, but alas, things never really caught fire for Eddie.

We got the news today that 350 Timmies employees, mostly head office folks with many years of service, got pink-slipped due to the new ownership of the venerable coffee and donut chain. It's all about synergies 'n efficiencies, don't ya know.

Mainly of course it's about making some filthy-rich hedge-fund shit-bags even richer.

So, what do you figure the future prospects are for some loyal employee who has worked at Timmies HQ for the last thirty years? I'd say they're pretty much screwed. Maybe, with a bit of luck, they can get a job passing coffee out the drive-thru window at their local Timmies.

I hit one of those pretty much every time I'm out and about. I'm inclined to boycott Timmies, but here's the problem; the success of the chain was built on the backs of the local franchisees. The gal who has the seven or eight stores in these parts is an incredibly hard-working woman who has a reputation for treating her employees well, and has always been actively engaged in the community. I don't want to boycott her.

If we had such a thing as government for the people, Industry Canada would not have rubber-stamped this deal. We do not have government for the people, however.

We have government for international capital.

The same government that allowed hedgies to destroy 5000 jobs at CP Rail while lining their pockets to the tune of billions.

The same government that allowed Caterpillar to shut down a perfectly viable locomotive manufacturer and destroy 400 well-paid manufacturing jobs in Ontario.

We need government that governs for the people of Canada, not for multinationals, hedge-fund managers, and international finance.

There's an election coming up soon. Obviously we've got to rid ourselves of this loathsome Harper crew. The tragedy is that there are no viable contenders on the horizon. Do you seriously think Trudeau will stand up for Canadian workers? He'll offer more in the way of banal pieties, but that will be that.

Regrettably,  now that the NDP has expunged their roots from their mission statement, I can't see anything changing with Mulcair either.

Canada needs to grow it's own Alexis Tsipras, and soon.