Toronto has gone from Ford Nation to … Starbucks Nation?
In earth-shattering news Monday morning, it was revealed Toronto’s new mayor, John Tory, prefers Starbucks over Tim Hortons.
Risking possible accusations of anti-patriotism from his political opponents, or at least people on Twitter, Tory told the National Post’s Natalie Alcoba that he prefers Starbucks over Timmies “because I like bitter coffee.”
Now, before you write off Tory as just another downtown Toronto elitist, consider this: Canada is the world’s largest market for Starbucks coffee.
Yes, that’s right. Despite Tim Hortons becoming seemingly synonymous with Canadian identity (outside of Vancouver, anyway), Canada has 39.54 Starbucks locations per one million people, the most anywhere.
Only the U.S. comes close, with 36.25 Starbucks per million people. Canadians are one coffee-shop-loving nation. Check out this chart from Quartz:
Toronto is sixth in the world on the list of cities with the most Starbucks. That’s 160 Starbucks locations, compared to 142 Starbucks in the chain’s home city, Seattle (which admittedly has little more than half the metro population of Toronto).
There are also a dozen Starbucks locations in Oakville, Ontario, headquarters of Tim Hortons. Of course Starbucks can’t win there, with more than two dozen Tim Hortons locations. Nor can it win in Toronto, where Tim Hortons has some 250 locations.
And Tim Hortons controls a whopping 42 per cent of the fast food restaurant market in Canada, something Starbucks could only dream of.
So double-doubles may still beat venti lattes for a plurality of Canadians, but John Tory’s preference for Starbucks is, well, pretty normal even for a Canuck.
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