It’s been a quite a while coming, but they’re finally here.
Tim’s introduced their new Flatbread Pizzas this month after a lot of testing and experimenting.
What they’re trying to do is broaden their appeal beyond coffee, donuts, and breakfasts. In other words, generate a more diverse, bigger spending customer base. Of course this attempt has been going on for years – with the introduction of menu items such as wraps, salads, and bowls.
But individual pizzas are a different matter. There is a ton of competition at every level. And creating a decent product quickly that doesn’t taste like it’s been sitting in a freezer is not easy. Mcdonald’s tried their unique version a few years ago. They lasted for a relatively short period of time, but were fairly quickly ditched. Williams used to sell a lot of “pizzettas”. They are still on the menu, but I rarely see them when visiting their restaurants.
Judy and I tried Tim’s plain cheese version a few days ago. We had read complaints that they would probably slow down wait times. But ours were ready within a few minutes, and were perfectly acceptable. They weren’t gourmet pizzas by any means, but once you set aside unrealistic expectations they were fine. And certainly not worthy of the criticisms I’ve read.
I predict they will succeed, but if they are going to last the price will have to go up a bit.
Fast food restaurants have quickly evolved over the last few years – hastened by Covid and the emergence of delivery outfits like Skip the Dishes, DoorDash, etc. – away from sit down, eat-in towards the take-out, delivery model.
This evolution makes older franchises like Tim Hortons, Burger King, and, yes, even McDonald’s seem a bit out of step. It will be interesting to see how older Tim’s locations, with relatively large seating areas, but without any real table service, will be transitioned to this newer model; and how menu items such as these pizzas will fit into the take-out model.
A big factor, which some complainers have pointed to, is the way they will mess with Tim’s drive-thrus. Morning traffic expects a quick in/quick out when they pick up their coffee. Will pizza orders screw that up? Will the drive-thru model even continue to be as central to Tim’s service as it has been? Or will it be replaced by order-in-advance-and-pick-up-or-deliver?
I guess we’ll see.