Quote:
Originally Posted by Larla77
The Robins is opening on the other end of Torbay so not in the direct vicinity.
Honestly the food and coffee there is delicious. They serve Trinity coffee which I love and is heads above what Tims or Starbucks has. The baked goods are all homemade and their turkey wrap/sandwich I'd put above Breens. If you haven't tried it I highly suggest dropping by there.
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I've tried it, I was a regular for a while. I live just a stones throw from their doorstep. I dispute none of your claims about the quality of their food.
But to suggest it isn't in the "direct vicinity", while technically correct, would lead one to believe the Robin's will be miles and miles from TCH. Torbay isn't
that big. The time distance between them will be about 2-3 minutes, even in heavy traffic. One will have a drive-thru and the other doesn't and won't.
That in and of itself is going to hurt them. If you're coming from the North and driving to town after dropping the kids at the school, what's another 2 minutes drive waiting for coffee if it means I don't have to exit my vehicle. Rain and snow alone will virtually force people to Robin's.
In my opinion it would be naive to think Robin's won't have any effect on them. Forgetting the morning commute crowd and thinking specifically about the social crowd let's look at the Robin's in Bay Bull's, which does very, very well with the "let's go hang out and grab an evening coffee" group. They have nice comfy chairs and a relaxing tone.
I'm not suggesting 100% of the TCH's customers are going to bolt to Robin's — they're always going to have their loyal customers — but it would be daft to believe a new coffee shop in Torbay won't hurt them. And if you think the draw of a better tasting coffee (at a more expensive price, I might add) is going to keep people going to the TCH, well you only need look at the queue outside Tim's or Robin's in the morning to recognize that 99% of ppl in NL don't give a crap about the quality of their coffee.