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| Traditional donuts on a string might've scored here |
Quebecers have long had a love affair with doughnuts, dating well back before a 1897 account describing a customary Christmas as involving a feast after midnight mass followed by a "immemorial custom doughnuts and potted head."
Fittingly, the doughey delight brought the first restaurant franchise to Quebec. The Dunkin Donut chain is said to be the first of all franchise restaurants to come to the province from the States in 1962.
By 1995 there were 250 across the province but by 2000 the head office in the States issued an edict ordering all local menu customization to end. So a place in the Beauce was ordered to cease selling beans for breakfast, which it had been doing for 20 years.
Muffins were suddenly twice as large, which isn't apparently favoured here as it is in the states.
Breakfast was meant to be consumed in the American way, just give me a big pot of coffee and doughnuts. Owners said that Quebecers didn't want to eat that sort of thing in the morning.
And the franchise owners complained that the ads weren't funny enough and including a poorly-cast ad featuring Mr. Charisma Mike Bossy.
So in May 2003, 30 franchisees sued the HQ for handcuffing their menus and not promoting the brand, which by now was getting whacked frequently by the Rock et Belles Oreilles skits featuring idiot police officers at the restaurant with a German Shepherd leading over the counter.
The cops-in-doughnut-shops jokes led Quebec City police to issue an edict to their officers to cease going so often to the doughnut joints. Montreal officers publicly defended the cliched visits to the doughnut shops but in fact you see them far less often at such places as before.
The 30 litigants sought $7 million but a decade later the total had risen to $17 million.
Dunkin' Donuts meanwhile was cleaned out by Tim Horton's in Quebec, which quickly went from almost nothing to 500 shops in the province. Meanwhile the Dunkin Donut total has dwindled to a mere 12, 9 of them in Montreal, many of those are in anglo-heavy parts of town (so if you like that theory that Rock et Belles Oreilles killed it off, go ahead and run with it).
So this week a judge decided in favour of the franchisees and that means they'll get about $500,000 each, although DD brass immediately said it'd set out to get the decision overturned.
Now this puts into doubt the idea that a franchisor can dictate every detail of how a franchise is run. The whole idea of uniformity, which is the appeal of a franchise, has been put in doubt.
Didn't think Mike Bossy would have enough time to appear in a doughnut commercial, one would think that shirking one's fiduciary responsibilities as a Director at Mount Real as hundreds of seniors were bilked by Mount Real/Diversifolio/Digital World Financial, would have drained all his time...but then, perhaps it worked up an appetite and those pastries and coffee kept him awake all night canoodling with Lino Matteo and Tony Tiberi
ReplyDeleteRegarding fast food franchises, I don't specifically remember what year it was when I first saw a Dunkin' Donuts outlet in Montreal, but by the mid-80s they--along with the Baskin-Robbins ice cream parlours--seemed to be popping up everywhere.
ReplyDeleteOf course, since the sales volume of ice cream decreases drastically up here in the wintertime, I cannot see how they could have been as profitable in Canada as they would obviously be south of the border, although I suppose the logic among some local franchisees was to make a reasonable profit during the summer months which would enable them to become "snowbirds" for 6 months of the year! How many actually pulled this off is questionable, however.
In recent decades I've seen a marked decrease in the quality of such "frozen treats", especially with crushed ice brazenly mixed in with any real cream and milk! But do the kids even notice or care that they are being ripped off in this way? I wonder. Anyway, such sacrilege has driven me to making my own chocolate malteds, thank you very much! Besides, when Borden's ceased manufacturing their famous malted powder many years ago, it was a real struggle to find a good malted anywhere!
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(free recipe alert: in a blender put two scoops of french vanilla ice cream; a quarter cup of Horlick's malted powder; a quarter cup of Ovaltine or Milo chocolate powder; a half cup of milk, and...blend away. Beats Dairy Queen by a mile!)
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But, I digress.
I do remember that A&W first appeared here in the mid-60s, one of which was located on the high-profile, northeast corner of Crescent and Ste. Catherine St. for many years.
The first McDonald's I ever saw was the one on Newman Blvd. in LaSalle in the mid-70s, by which time the few-remaining A&Ws seemed to have disappeared completely until their later resurgence in the late '90s early 2000s, and then not always as ideally-located as previously.
I always preferred the quality and ingredients of A&W's burgers (and later Harvey's) over McDonald's, Burger King, and Wendy's, though--the last three named which, in my opinion, soon became too predictable in their taste and preparation, which is why I have avoided them for years.
Inexplicably, the Monsieur Felix and Mr. Norton cookie franchise has for some reason seen fit to shrink down to only a few outlets. The only one I know of is (or was) the one at the Fairview Centre, Pte. Claire.
Despite the owner becoming a millionaire, he seems to have decided to become very low-profile. Perhaps he became concerned with the (originally very successful) U.S. Mrs. Fields franchise failures? Mrs. Fields headquarters quickly decided to sell prepackaged cookies through retail outlets like Pharmaprix, etc.
Lately, I am noticing some new players in the "sweet stuff" franchise market, but who knows how long they will last considering the recent backlash by the media, schools, as well as government health edicts against soft drinks, trans-fats, and so on.
Childhood obesity and "couch potatoes" are not a pretty picture.
I really don't get why Tim Hortons are more popular than Dunkin Donuts...clueless
ReplyDeleteDunkin' used to be everywhere in Quebec; like Tim Hortons is today. I always liked DD better. Also, the only Tims in reachable distance to me was the one on Rockland & the Met.
ReplyDeleteA&W does use higher quality ingredients. They cater to an older demo. as well. Their onion rings are the best I've ever had.
The first McDonald's in Canada to serve breakfast is also one of the first to open in Quebec (in 1972) - on Cote Vertu & Gohier.
The first Felix & Norton opened on Queen Mary rd. in 1986, closed in 2000. The baked goods market is saturated beyond belief and you better offer something truly unique if you want to make a go at it. You can now buy their frozen cookie dough at IGA. Do bear in mind the cookies are > 60% pure butter!
Let's face it: Tim Horton's donuts taste nothing like the gud ole Dunkin's use to taste like. After returning to Canada after 8 years living in Europe, we stopped at a Tim Hortons on the way back from the airport. I ordered one of those maple glazed twisty donuts and was appaled from the diminished size, increased price and overall sugar content of that piece of shite in my mouth...
ReplyDeleteWhen I lived in Côte-des-Neiges, there was a Dunkin Doughnuts and Tim Horton’s right accross each others.
ReplyDeleteOne day, I had the strange notion to get doughnuts and entered the Tim Horton’s only to see cops there.
They weren’t busy however with consuming the deep-fried stuff, but were asking a homeless guy sitting on a table with a box of Dunkin Doughnuts "what the hell he was doing in a Tim Horton's with a Dunkin Doughnuts box"...
When I was 12 we came up from the States to see the just opened Expo (man, the Metro was clean back then!), and stopped just over the border at a Dunkin Doughnuts, which, strangely to our New England eyes (where DD were only ever doughnuts, muffins, & coffee), served burgers. One of our burgers had ground glass in it...
ReplyDeleteI don't remember if they had poutine (not that I would've known what it was) or any other local customized menu items.
I like Dunkin' down in the States. I don't like Tim's doughnuts. I think their success is owed more to the coffee (which is strong and with 18% cream) and the sandwiches and soups. Also, TH seems to be a good corporate citizen with their charity work, kids hockey, and the rest of it.
ReplyDelete