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I tried to buy a coffee in my re-usable mug at a local outlet of the “billions and billions” served chian. They told me they don’t accept reusable mugs anymore — you have to get coffee in their paper cup.
—No morning Joe
This article appears in Dec 3-9, 2009.
23 Comments
thats so they don’t get your h1n1
That’s bullshit. Aren’t they giving coffee away for free right now or something? You’d think they’d want to save the cups to reduce the cost?
I say take a dump on the floor closest to the counter – Mc D’s is fuckin poison anyways – and all they serve is shit
What are you doing getting your coffee from McDirty’s anyways?
yeah, reusable mugs are considered a bio-hazard in food prep areas. Its a dirty dish anyway you look at it. There are plenty of saliva born illnesses than can catch a ride on the spoon they use to stir the coffee for you if that spoon is shared between mugs.
I am all for waste reduction. However, I for one am glad they do this….wish Tims would get on board with this policy.
I drink my coffee black.
So the spoon excuse won’t cut it.
Secondly the billions served coffee tastes better than the dead hockey guy’s product.
third they have these thermoses that hold the coffee above where the cup sits & at no time does the cup, come near the spout nor does anyones hands come anywhere near the coffee !
So I just don’t get it !?!
Also even if they used a spoon, just rinse it off !
More- its still considered contamination in the food prep area, regardless of how you happen take your coffee.
In the remote chance someone else might walk into an establishment who is not you and order a coffee with such exotic items as cream and sugar its good that at least something is in place to limit the saliva content.
And Yes, I have watched the people at Tims pour coffee plenty of times and YES they do sometimes let the coffee spout touch the rim of the cup. I have also seen the subway emplyees touch the floor with their gloved hands to pick something up and then ask me ” what can I get you” without changing gloves. When you eat out ( he he ) you have to keep an eye our for this sort of thing. Its not a sterile world by any stretch and I am certainly no germaphobe but when its RIGHT IN FRONT of you its hard to ignore it.
May I suggest writing an angry letter to the government in crayon to have the health and safety laws changed?
jump over the counter and pour your own coffee.
Actually Lovinglife, I have had my reusable cup refused at the billions & billions place, they hand me the paper cup…I dump the contents into my cup & then hand it back. Once the woman at the window said “we can’t accept anything through the window…I said no problem & let it fall between my car & her window.
Hopefully she was as happy with the solution to this ‘problem’ cup as I was. This ‘contamination’ so called problem is BULLSHIT, & our germ phobia is directly responsible for increased asthma & digestion & infection problems.
Think ole More’s just on another rant ?
See http://www.candidafree.net/resource_44.htm
well More, this IS how viruses are passed, not sure what germ phobia has to do with this ?
“”Once the woman at the window said “we can’t accept anything through the window…I said no problem & let it fall between my car & her window.”‘
Excellent.
No germs here;)
“”Once the woman at the window said “we can’t accept anything through the window…I said no problem & let it fall between my car & her window.”‘
Well there goes any argument you may have had considering you just littered!!! WTF????
Ever see the Mythbusters episode where they did the double-dipping experiment? That’ll teach you that trace amounts of saliva breed little or no more bacteria than air…
the problem with this is not breeding bacteria. There are only a few types of bacteria that are actually harmful, the rest of pretty benign. Its passing on a VIRUS that is already there to start with, like a flu or cold virus, that spells trouble.
It’s transmission that lead to the creation of these rules. The same health and safety regulations that disallow an employee to accept items through the drive through window.
after re-reading the past few posts, it seems the confusion is stemming from the fact the most people use bacteria and viruses interchangeably.
To be clear, I am sticky speaking of virus transmission and NOT bacteria.
Loving life: the coffee urns are right by the window…not over in the food prep area at all ! So seeing as nothing but liquid drinks dispensed from the coffee urns or soda fountains, I fail to see this as a food prep area !
Lorilulu :I didn’t litter, I brought a reusable mug. She littered by refusing to take her cup back. If she hadn’t forced her garbage on me…It never would have had a chance to be thrown away by myself ,would it ?
So the simple solution is to fill our mugs from their urn, which is so high that no reusable mug i’ve ever seen can come in contact with the spout. Seeing as many coffee shops have reusable spoons that come from a clean container on the counter, & then go into a used container for washing, after use. I thought we as a group were attempting to cut down on the amount of garbage were creating everyday for no reason !
Obviously, I again am mistaken.
But the way I see it makes sense to me.
Mark me, been using the same dishes for years…no ones gotten sick from them yet !
More: don’t get too hung up on the word “food” prep. Its an umbrella term that includes anything being prepared that you are going to ingest. Solid ( sandwich ) or liquid ( the horrible coffee ). If its behind the counter its probably considered the “food prep” area by JOHAS rules.
I think what this chain is mostly worried about is time. My brother works at the main Canadian coffee chain and he says that there are some people who don’t wash out their re-usable mugs when they get handed to him. This takes more time for him to wash them out. Which is kinda gross…why would you let old gross coffee and cream sit in a cup and then not even rinse it? Disgusting. Most fast food places have time as a priority, especially drive-thrus, so adding even 10 seconds to wash out a nasty mug is something they want to eliminate. Also, I’m sure that “billions” doesn’t want their coffee in a “T” mug. They want everyone to be seen with their cups in hand, it’s good advertising.
Loving Life…I have noticed they have absolutely NO PROBLEM with taking my (& everyone elses) money through those windows ~;)
We all know just how filthy money can be ! (all of us except a troll who likes to argue about everything here, whether they have their facts right or not) but hey…no problem taking the money you just picked up off the car floor for your purchase…but for fucks sakes don’t dare pass that filthy paper cup they handed you 3 seconds ago back into their window! ! ! !
As for washing out said reusable cup…I take black coffee, I use the cup several times a day, I wash it once in awhile…with nothing but hot (often scalding) coffee, put in there. I’ve never had any problems, maybe if there was sugar or cream/milk, it would get pretty gross, but I’ve never noticed that from just black coffee. At another coffee chain, the one which has a name of a red breasted bird, they will often dump a little hot water in there, even if the cups clean, as the girl there once told me, its to help kill any germs & preheat the cup so your hot coffee, goes into a hot cup ! They always get the best tips from me, nonjudgemental, smiling & happy to rinse your cup out…if only they weren’t always out of walnut crunches by lunch time.
Oh well, you can’t have everything you want all the time.
More: Money is not considered “garbage” by the people who make the Health and safety regulations for restaurants. If you don’t like the outrageous hypocrisy of the garbage vs. money rule then like I suggested before, break out the crayons, turn up the death metal music, close the blinds and start penning your manifesto to the government.
Not to digress from the conversation, but I have to ask… in your drive through window coffee cup drama scenario, why didn’t you simply put the cup you were attempting to give them back into a garbage can in lieu of just dropping it to the ground?
Melectic: That is actually a good point about the time consideration. I thinks its reasonable to not expect TIMS employees to have to do your dirty dishes for you while at the same time holding up the line. I never even thought of that side of it.
Loving Life…there isn’t one any more !
They removed it when they renovated the place. THey also have 2 windows where usually you pay at one & collect the ‘food’ at the other. But on this occassion the first window was closed & they were taking money & passing ‘food’ out the same window.
Which I really don’t have a problem with. My problem is they watch me digging in my consol for a bunch of change, & they take it no problem…but that woman handed me a cup, that I didn’t even bring into my car…I simply filled my metal vacum cup just outside the window…literally in a couple of seconds, & she refused to take the now empty paper cup back !
Because it was ‘dirty’, well if it was dirty now…it must have been dirty when she handed it to me.
I would love to write to my MLA about this nonsense…but most of my crayons are blunt and very short. the blue is all gone from drawing pictures with lots of sky, & so’s the green & yellow from my favorite attempts of drawing trees (which always turn out that the trees get lost in the forest, created by accident) & I always do sunny days, with big happy suns. Somehow I don’t believe using reds, browns & black colors will be as upbeat 😉
Just another reason to boycott a shitty restaurant, as if you need any more.
Any restaurant worried about cross contamination should know better than to use the same stirring device twice even if they’re both paper cups. My travel mug could be freshly washed, this could be my first cup of the day. If the employees are trained properly they should be able to handle the task of making a cup of coffee in a possibly dirty mug without somehow rubbing that mug all over everything else.