Tim Hortons in Maplewood (2721 S Big Bend Boulevard) closed its doors for good at 2 p.m. on Saturday.
Employees said they’ve known about the closing for about a week, but couldn’t say why. One said she plans to work at Raising Cane’s, across the street. Another said he has some options, including Raising Cane’s.
The Maplewood Tim Hortons was the first St. Louis location, opening in June 2015.
The fast food operator is facing a $850-million class-action lawsuit by franchisees to address their grievances with parent company Restaurant Brands International Inc., the Financial Post reported.
Its still shocking for such a new piece if real estate to be empty. Tim Hortons or whoever did the site choices made some strange moves. Did anyone see the locations inside the banks ? I didnt get that at all. Whats also surprising is that the local Dunkin Donuts are still open. They are truly horrible and i cant imagine how anyone could eat those defrosted corporate donuts when there are good places around the corner
There were 2 articles just the last few days on the St Louis on line paper that talked about Strattons cafe in Webster that closed down and Subway. Stratton’s is closing after 15 years and says it is due to competition. My thought on competition for Tiffany’s may be something to consider if another breakfast place opened up. When has Maplewood has this many choices of places to eat? Maybe breakfast is a weak spot for us but I also remember when your local gas station did not serve breakfast pizza or hot dogs or let you grab a donut or muffiin to get and go. Another competitor for a breakfast place to open up.
The article about Subway talked about trying to compete with other resturants. It said that there are nationwide more places to eat at than the population has increased by comparision. It also talked about how labor increases have taken a big chunk out of the profits as well as rises in utilities and corporate fees.
It is a tough business with small margins. Only a well run place that buys at the right price, keeps the table turn over quick, charges the right amount will make it at that location in that size of a place.
When Sigurdson’s Show Me Hospitality signed a franchise agreement with Tim Hortons in early 2014 to bring Tim Hortons to St. Louis, the franchisee agreed to open 40 standalone restaurants and smaller spaces within arenas or hospitals in the St. Louis region over five years, with an option to add 90 restaurants in 15 years. The expansion to St. Louis at the time was part of a larger push by the chain to add 300 U.S. restaurants by the end of 2018.
Before Show Me Hospitality opened its first location, Tim Hortons was acquired by Burger King, then became a subsidiary of Restaurant Brands International, a company controlled by Brazilian investment group 3G Capital.
After the change in ownership, Tim Hortons representatives wanted Show Me Hospitality to agree to a new franchise agreement to commit to open 205 restaurants in the St. Louis area within a decade and invest $20 million in capital, which was not part of the initial agreement, Sigurdson alleges.
Tim Hortons slowed down its process for approving new sites in the St. Louis area after Show Me Hospitality refused to sign a new franchise agreement, according to a lawsuit Show Me Hospitality filed against Tim Hortons USA in federal court in Miami in July. [editor: this comment is a copy and paste from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch]
^^^^This is what I am referring to.^^^^
In the interest of full disclosure: The cut-n-paste from P-D omits paragraph noting the St. Louis stores did not fulfill state mandated payments of sales taxes and employee withholdings. That, too, would be a compelling reason to shut down stores.
While it’s sad to see any business close, I never felt TH was a good fit for Maplewood.
I’m confident another business will snatch up that spot quickly. It would be a perfect location for Starbucks though I think we have enough of them already. Maybe caribou coffee or Seattle best.
I do expect hazel will remain a closed street because even with TH gone the egress onto Hazel remains and will be used by the next shop that occupies that spot.
Tim Hortons not a fit, but Starbucks would be? Seriously? Tim Hortons as a franchise is fine. Show Me Hospitality did not run them particularly well. The Maplewood one didn’t get a good system going for months. Until then, even the simplest orders (tim bits and a coffee) took way too long to fill. Pretty much anyone who tried them got mediocre service and poor food. It should have been more on par with how Chick-fil-a runs their restaurants (clean, with a smile, and fast). The Maplewood TH was more like going to an expensive and slower… well… Burger King…
It’s a shame that Burger King and company would torpedo an entire metro area when it comes to an up-and-coming brand that wants to make a serious push into the midwest like this.
We could use a breakfast restaurant in addition to the diner we currently have.
It is very unfortunate that many franchisers concentrate on the bottom line and don’t necessarily assist the franchisees in keeping the business model viable. Employees end up losing jobs and the significant investments in development are negated. It will be interesting to see how the lawsuit turns out and if the franchise can return to business. You can read a little more about it at:
https://www.thestar.com/business/2017/11/28/tim-hortons-sued-by-us-franchisee.html
I am guessing a lawsuit will take years before it gets settled if like so many lawsuits. In the meantime I have to wonder what will happen to the building and land? Does Tim Horton’s own the land and building or does the local business owner. That and rights to name a building and make it in Horton’s image may hold things up for anyone else going in there. Then there is what that new building would rent/lease for if someone else took it over. How many cups of coffee and orders of eggs sunny side up you have to sell just to pay the rent on the place?
Remember to issue with the stores at Deer Creek that had something like 5 years left to pay on their lease and nothing went in there until that was paid off. Basically a large chunk of real estate was held hostage for a while.
I am not sure we need another breakfast diner in town. I have to wonder how well Tiffany’s does and if it could stand competition. I do not know if it would be large enough for some of the other chains that open for breakfast and lunch based on the size of some of their other locations. We used to have a Bob Evans or something that is now where the CVS is and they did not make it. Not sure the reasons but who knows.
Tim Hortons has a land lease and based on the build out costs it would have to be a substantial term. I am not privy to the lease terms, so I can’t speculate as to what options are available. I mentioned a breakfast restaurant based on the wait times at Southwest Diner, assuming that besides having great food, the area is underserved.
My personal choice would be an Indian or vegetarian restaurant, since that is about the only thing we are missing in Maplewood with a wine bar and Thai restaurant coming soon.
Barry, thank you! I have been hoping a good vegetarian would go in!
Does McDonald’s even have 205 locations in the St. Louis area? That sounds insane.
It is insane! There is no where near 205 McDonald’s in the St. Louis metro area. The parameters they put into the new agreement are ridiculous. I couldn’t believe it when I saw the article.
Do you guys even know why they closed? Burger King bought them and tried to force the local franchisee to build 205 stores and spend 20 million dollars on the stores. The original agreement was for like 90 stores in the metro area. So screw Burger King and their greedy ways! I hope they lose the lawsuit and go out of business!!! The coffee wasn’t the best sure but it was a nice change of pace once in a while. The Blueberry muffins were good though. It’s a damn shame greed got in the way of the takeover. I hope Tim Norton’s eventually makes it’s way back into the metro area.
Both BK and the franchisee are smoking some serious crack if they think STL can support 90 Tim Hortons let alone 205! They both deserve to go under with these hair brained projections.
I’d like a Long John Silver’s restaurant in that spot.
Yes!
Yeah I remember the lines the first few days. We went and tried it after it had died down and were super underwhelmed given the hype. I’m not sure what could ever really work in that location.
Maybe it would be a good spot for a local coffee chain like Kaldis or Park Ave?
Even if they were not the best place to get coffee and doughnuts they were still part of Maplewood and provided jobs. I think it’s very selfish to say mean things when you all should be supporting your community and the opportunity for people to have jobs. A loss is a loss for our economy and people’s lively hoods . Shame on you.
Agreed Cyndi! Whatever opinions people may have about the quality of Tim Hortons products-they were a friendly corporate citizen, contributing to our community and local causes. Not sure why anyone would be happy about a business going under, vacant building, and loss of employment.
it wasn’t great coffee, but it was far more convenient than downtown maplewood. when in a hurry, the TH drive through was nice.
but, I hardly ever saw people there, so no surprise it closed.
Tim Hortons could never compete with all the locally owned doughnut shops here – was just a matter of time. Hopefully now they can reopen that side street to traffic.
The mistake they made was getting away from the Canadian Tim Horton’s model. They tried to be more like Bread Co instead. They should have focused on doughnuts.
I’m not going to miss them. We tried them once and the coffee was the usual commercial muck and the doughnuts were stale. They were always a slap in the face to the food culture of Maplewood.
I agree
Completely agree! I tried their donuts several times and was not impressed at all. Feel sorry for the folks losing their job though.