
Burger King in Talks to Buy Tim Hortons - julee04
http://online.wsj.com/articles/burger-king-in-talks-to-buy-tim-hortons-1408924294
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bhouston
Fun fact, Tim Hortons makes most of its money on its coffee, where the markup
is obscene. The rest of its offerings (which are considerable) are considered
to be nearly loss leaders by franchise operators.

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joezydeco
A lot of fast-food restaurants operate on the same margins, with soft-drinks
as the profit generator.

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robotpony
Drinks and french fries represent the largest margins, but profit on other
items (in the restaurants I managed) was solid as well. I think the misnomer
is that soft drinks and fries have huge margins, and that foodstuff has
standard foodservice margins.

Back in the day soft drinks cost ~.15 for a 32oz/1L serving, which sold for
~1.50 (including cup/straw/ice, Canada, 90s). Fry portions (large) were
somewhere in the ~.20 range and sold for ~1.80. Burgers were generally 30-40%
food costs (and 30-40% overhead). Not as profitable, but far from unprofitable
(given the large volume sold).

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danans
Perhaps with their combined strengths, they can produce the Luther Burger at
scale:
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luther_Burger](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luther_Burger)

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fleitz
Sweet! Seriously startups, come to Canada, free healthcare, lower taxes, and
you get major portions of your R&D costs refunded.

(Yes, refunded, as in if you spend $1 million, and don't make ANY income, you
get $500-700K back)

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possibilistic
That sounds incredible, but I still have environmental concerns. How cold does
it get on average, or how are the temperatures distributed? I'm a wimp and
literally cannot survive sub-zero celcius. I'm an Atlantan that thrives on
summers that reach 90 F. I'm not looking forward to winter. You know how we
handled snow here last year...

Don't take this as being too lazy to Google; I was hoping to hear some
anecdotes about acclimation or something.

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haversine
Most people assume that it's horrible up here but to give you a "sort of"
average idea for the whole country, you are looking at a range between a hot
month of 30C and a cold month of -30C if you're only going as north as Ottawa.
Winter is three months like anywhere else but it tends to begin in November
and end in March (get it? ha-ha)

There are local sub climates like anywhere else of course, so if you're living
on the far east coast, or next to the west coast mountains, you'll get worse
and better climate, respectively.

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PeterWhittaker
You forgot to mention our lovely Ottawa Valley humidity. While this summer has
been relatively dry (27 only feels 31 today), we usually get a few stifling
weeks in either July or August (sometimes both) where the highs are mid 30s+
and the humidity 90+%. Ugh.

My wife and I went to the US southwest a few years ago. When we left LA it was
a bearable 115F (dry as a bone). We got home to 21C and had to start the AC
because we couldn't breathe - it took us a day or so to reacclimatize, it was
so humid.

You also left out how windy our Ottawa winters can be, and how much snow we
can get (cf, e.g.,
[http://ottawa.weatherstats.ca/metrics/snow.html](http://ottawa.weatherstats.ca/metrics/snow.html))

There's a reason we invented humidex and issue so many wind chill warnings.

(Ottawa is one of the most beautiful cities ever, and was recently ranked
fourth most livable city in Canada by MoneySense, after Calgary and two
suburbs of Edmonton. Not bad for an urban area of about ~1M with sticky hot
summers, frigidly cold winters, and some of the most aggressive drivers ever
(we really do need to chill). It makes up for these with a splendid natural
setting, ready access to nature and the arts, and only one major source of
pollution, the car.)

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randlet
Yes Ottawa is a great city but the climate is really bad (even when compared
to somewhere as close as Toronto). The end of May/beginning of June and late
Sept are usually ok...

I must be one of those aggressive drivers because I can't believe how slowly
everyone seems to merge onto the 417 :)

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PeterWhittaker
Sigh, tell me about it. I made a comment to my wife the other day about how
the person ahead of us actually maintained speed going into an intersection,
accelerated in the merge lane, and merged onto the 416 unexpectedly well,
impeding neither me (behind him the whole time) or anyone else.

"Ah, soul mates", she said, sighing and shaking her head.

(All three of us complain near ceaselessly about how poorly our neighbours
navigate the rounabout we've had nearly a year. The ones who stop in the
middle to let in others nearly cause apoplexy.)

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dunno
If this goes through, Canada might as well just join the union. You guys like
Hockey, right?

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PeterWhittaker
Sure. We'll convert each province to a state, take our 20 Senators, and get
you real socialized medicine ASAP.

(OK, to be fair, the Maritimes can be one state, so 16 Senators - but Quebec
will likely want more in respect of its distinctiveness, so make it 24
Senators. And we'll need at least 2 bilingual justices on SCOTUS, and at least
4 SCOTUS justices will need to have been trained in civil law. Oh, and we
repeal the second amendment, of course, then put in place our amendment
process. You're just going to love it. But you'll gain from better copyright
and patent laws. Not to mention all the comedians who cannot get Green Cards
for various reasons. Then again, if it means you keep Celine, we'll stay the
way we are, thanks.)

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maerF0x0
julee04, how to get by paywall?

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Spoom
Alternative non-paywall source:
[http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2014/08/24/burger-king-in-
talks-...](http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2014/08/24/burger-king-in-talks-to-buy-
tim-hortons/)

