Canadian coffee and donut chain Tim Horton's has quietly closed one of its metro Atlanta locations after less than two years in business. The ground-up 1,800 square foot coffee shop at 6510 Tara Boulevard in Jonesboro opened to crowds and extensive drive-thru lines when it debuted November 15, 2024.
One review from a month ago seems to give a glimpse into what may have caused the closure:
"When they first opened, it was a much better experience… Since then, customer service has gone downhill and they don’t honor the apps, rewards or their signs. I pulled up this morning hoping to use the Tim’s trio deal. They had the sign still in the building and the offer was still activated in my app not set to expire for a while. After waiting at the speaker for about five minutes, I attempted to order and was told “we stopped doing deal two days ago”. If that’s the case, the sign should reflect it and all the information should be out of the app. The fact that they wouldn’t honor it was honestly disappointing.. I usually am a fan of the food and coffee, but there are too many other breakfast spots to be held up on Tim Hortons."
Tim Horton's entered Georgia in 2023 with a ground-up unit at 6741 Veterans Parkway in Columbus. Veteran multi-unit operator Abid Khutliwala is the franchisee of the Columbus, Fairburn, and Newnan units and owned the Jonesboro location too.
Khutliwala, experienced in both the Popeyes and Checker's franchise systems, signed a fifteen-unit development deal with Tim Horton's in 2022. Tim Horton's indicated in early 2023 that it planned to have thirty units open across Georgia by 2027.
Mit Patel, owner of the Suwanee Tim Hortons, is also an experienced multi-unit operator with brands such as Moe's Southwest Grill, Papa Johns, Huddle House, and Jamba Juice through his Royal Seven group. According to the Royal Seven website, Patel has four more Tim Horton's planned including a pair in Stockbridge as well as units in Hampton and McDonough.
In addition to Khutliwala's and Patel's cumulative four units, there are single units in Alpharetta, Johns Creek and one in Midtown Atlanta near Georgia Tech, meaning that as we enter the fourth quarter of 2026, there are a total of seven units open and operating in Georgia.
Tim Horton's is just the latest in a series of out of town franchises that have entered the Atlanta market in recent years, promoting dozens of locations, only to pull back or altogether cancel the ambitious growth.
Have you been to any of the Atlanta area Tim Horton's locations? Do you think Tim Horton's will find long term success in metro Atlanta? What franchise that is not currently in metro Atlanta would you most like to see enter the market?
Please share your thoughts below.
8 comments:
Metro Atlanta is overbuilt with coffee store chains. More local coffee stores needed.
Tim Horton’s is trash.
How about they bring back Dunk N Dine?
Not surprised. Everything that opens is horrible and will go out of business. Stop opening things, we have too many already and they are all awful. Everything sucks.
Yes, Tim Horton's does suck and is awful.
never visited the one in Jonesboro but Timmy's suffers from 2 major problem. 1) most people not from Canada or Upstate NY don't know what it is. they need some advertising. 2) the local Tims aren't near as good as the locations in Canada.
Biggest complaint is that the menu for the food is dialed way down from up north. You cannot buy original glazed Timbits at any Atlanta area location. There is a difference between the honey dipped ones and the original glazed. But the stores won't make those, just the original glazed doughnuts.
Normalish stuff like coffee and donuts can't make it in the metro except in the pin size places left standing as decent places to live. These out of town folks don't know better and so they open in mis-matched places. Atlanta and it's metro peaked some years ago and are trying hard not to get that memo out.
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