For anyone living in Southern Ontario, there are few landmarks more ubiquitous than our famous Tim Hortons donut shops. It seems like every other street corner, every mall, at gas stations, on campuses, on freeway exit signs, and city centres alike, one can locate somewhere to get a coffee that is dependable for its quality and price. All one has to do is travel abroad or go on a road trip South of the border to quickly realize how much they take for granted the convenience and quality of Tim Hortons coffee and food. Aside from the abundance of coffee shops, one can also see the “Timmy’s” logo on local sports team’s T-shirts, on banners at local events, on that box of Timbits that your boss brought in for the staff at work, or on cups in the hands of the zillions of people hustling off to work at the office, school, construction site, or hospital.
Aside from the vast choice of tasty products that out-compete many other enterprises in the food service industry for freshness, variety, and quality, Tim Hortons is well known for its charity work and community involvement projects. One of the most well known charity projects is the Tim Hortons Children’s Foundation. This wonderful charity was established in 1974 by Ron Joyce, a co-founder of Tim Hortons, as a way to give opportunity to underprivileged children. Over 10,000 children every year are able to enjoy a summer camp experience they otherwise may not have the opportunity to have. Funding for the Children’s Foundation camps comes primarily from donations from individual Tim Hortons store owners, from the TDL Group Corp., from many valued suppliers and from public donations collected through counter coin boxes located year round at every Tim Hortons outlet. (www.timhortons.com)
Among other community work, Tim Hortons sponsors children’s sports teams. Tim Hortons currently sponsors over 120,000 children who play on hockey, soccer, lacrosse, t-ball, baseball and ringette teams across Canada and in the U.S. Sponsored teams are supplied with Timbits Minor Sports jerseys or T-shirts, and hockey teams are often given the opportunity to play on-ice scrimmages during intermissions at Junior, American Hockey League (AHL) and National Hockey League (NHL) games. Timbits players also have the opportunity to play in their own “Timbits Jamboree”, a fun-filled event where everyone receives a prize, and Tim Hortons food and drinks are supplied. (www.timhortons.com)
Yet, this only touches the surface. Tim Hortons community involvement extends into sponsorship of free skating days by sponsoring skating at over 350 arenas in hundreds of cities across Ontario. Free reflective treat bags are distributed at Halloween. The “Smile Cookie” program was started in Hamilton in which the cookie proceeds are donated to a local charity. The “Earn a Bike Program” awards children who complete 30 hours of community service with their very own Tim Hortons Minelli-Leader mountain bike and Bell helmet courtesy of their local Tim Hortons store owner.
With all this apparent charity work and the giving away of so much free stuff ! from summer camp to bikes to free donuts and coffee ! one might wonder how on earth Tim Hortons survives. What is it that makes all this possible?
Undoubtedly, Tim Hortons is testament to the enormous productivity that is possible in a system of free enterprise. Providing a competitive edge in the food service industry by providing high quality coffee, donuts, sandwiches, muffins, bagels, and more, the Canadian population has been enriched by the productive genius of Tim Hortons for over 40 years. By keeping up with customer desires – such as expanding menus to include more health conscious foods such as sandwiches, soups, and chili; or accommodating changes in fads by adding muffins then later bagels with cream cheese; or even that ever famous summer treat the “Iced Cap” to serve those who favor an alternative coffee treat in the summer ! Tim Hortons has been able to serve its customers well and accrue its well deserved profits.
Other actions such as merging with Wendy’s in order to expand its market in the US no doubt also contributed to the productive engine of Tim Hortons. Contrary to the demagogic outcries from those who call this action “selling out to the American Corporation”, this improves the function of the business, increases capital investment, expands the market, and leaves everyone better off in the end.
This brings us to a crucial point regarding Tim Hortons capacity to be involved in such a plethora of charitable activities. It is due to the enormous productive capacity of Tim Hortons its charitable work is possible. This means that Tim Hortons is responsible for a tremendous amount of wealth creation. Before charity can be established, the charitable goods must first be created. There is a strict connection between cause and effect: in order to have wealth (the effect) to be given to charity, it must first be created (the cause).
What makes wealth creation possible? It is the principles of economic freedom. Everyone from the coffee growers to the ingredient makers, from the truck drivers to the capital investors, from the franchise owners to the person pouring your coffee is involved in a system of trade. Non-coercive exchange of value for value, in the under-celebrated free market system that we call capitalism, is what makes it all possible.
We must not forget the role of the mind in all of this. Crucially, it is the role of technology and human ingenuity that keeps the costs of production, and consequentially the cost to the consumer, at an affordable level. It is the technology involved in mass marketing and mass production that allows the incredible supply of fresh goods to reach every developed corner of this country at such a cheap price that Tim Hortons is not some treat solely for the privileged. For someone who has been involved in handing out food to the underprivileged, it is known that Tim Hortons is able to frequently donate a free surplus of donuts and snacks to inner city outreach clinics.
When considering the productiveness of Tim Hortons, we should not neglect its role in job creation. Detractors from my praise of Timmy’s would sneer at its role in job creation by suggesting that it only creates “McJobs” otherwise known as low paying service jobs. This charge is spurious and unfounded as well as rooted in ignorance and cynicism. When considering job creation, one must realize that prior to the creation of that job ! be it a back room baker or the girl who pours your coffee ! that job did not exist prior to being created. Those who sneer at “McJobs” seem to live in a fantasy land in which the evil corporate giant comes along and steals away jobs and puts in its place low paying service jobs. This not the case because, in fact, many of the front line employees are high school students entering the work force for the first time and senior citizens looking for part time employment to supplement pensions. The jobs are freely created and the positions are voluntarily filled. It is these low skilled jobs that provide excellent opportunity for people entering the work force for the first time to receive experience in responsibility, handling money, treating others with respect, to gain future work references, and much more. The above mentioned charge is finally refuted when considering the vast amount of jobs created and sustained throughout the country that amount to much more than low skilled service jobs: such as those in the marketing and business side to those in the production and sales side.
Finally, but certainly not of least importance, I would like to make a point concerning the moral status of Tim Hortons. No doubt, many people who typically have a cynical view of “greedy corporations” or “big business” and the “profit motive” would view Tim Hortons as an exception to the rule of the business world since it manages to be so heavily involved in charity work. Contrary to that view, I maintain that Tim Hortons is profoundly moral, not just because it manages to give so much away, but because it manages to create so much. Tim Hortons is a big business and it is driven by the profit motive and yes, it manages to engage in charitable activities. It is only able to engage in charity because it is driven by the profit motive. The only way it can make profits is by serving its fellow man with the goods that people want. My interests are served by having my favorite coffee and snacks, Timmy’s interests are served by receiving my money in exchange, and hundreds of thousands of people are served through job creation and the voluntary charity done by Tim Hortons. The primary source of virtue is the capacity to create wealth, a necessary precondition to giving it away. None of the government planned, bureaucracy laden, socialist “visions” in the history of mankind have ever created a more wonderful arrangement!