TLo

@Jeffdthompson And with this valuable perspective, I do not see "Canada runnin' on Dunkin" anywhere close to the penetration that Tim Hortons has built up over 60 years. New premium drive thru sites will be difficult to build and maintain profitability #qsr

One of the largest owners of retail real estate in Canada, RioCan, just reported Q1 2026 earnings and the numbers tell a story every retail landlord in Canada should be paying attention to. Retail occupancy sitting at 99%. Renewal rents up 20.1% in the quarter. New tenant rents up 58.5% over prior rates. That last number is not a typo. But the most interesting part of the story isn’t the headline rent growth. It’s what RioCan is embedding into their new leases annual rent escalations of 2% to 4% on almost every deal they sign. This is something landlords have been pushing for in leases for a long time but it looks like RioCan is using its strength in the market to successfully execute on the strategy. This will pay dividends for both cash flow and long-term value. Here’s why. A flat lease and an escalating lease might look similar in year one. By year five they are very different assets. Embedded rent growth compounds. It builds value quietly and consistently in the background whether the market is hot or cold. The reason RioCan can do this is simple. High construction costs, lack of land, and zoning constraints mean new retail supply is essentially off the table. As RioCan’s CEO Jonathan Gitlin put it, if RioCan can’t find viable land to build new sites, it’s likely others face the same challenges. No new supply. 99% occupancy. Tenants competing for space. That’s the formula for pricing power. And pricing power is exactly what RioCan is using to reshape their lease structures for the next decade. With 1.7 million square feet of lease maturities still remaining in 2026, the mark-to-market opportunity is far from over. The Canadian retail market was written off a decade ago. The landlords who held their assets and stayed patient are now collecting.

CLOSURE: Entire chain restaurant shutting down all locations in Canada | #basilbox #franchising #restaurants share.google/2KU0dbGopBDLZ0…

@kurobytevt @Alina_Stygienne False. share.google/hg5EzRUB3lsCsc…

@Alina_Stygienne Fun fact: McDonalds bought the coffee recipe from Tim Hortons when they made the switch. It’s the closest thing to the actual coffee

Vtubers! Where are you from?? I originated in the land of toques, skidoos, ice skating, and coffee that used to be SO much better! My feed has been nothing but Canadian vtubers for the past couple days with deranged food choices and I LOVE IT 🍁🍁🍁

@stcrawford2 @ToddJMcCarthy Hopefully you toured this area at 17:39 (not mid-morning) to effectively show him what traffic already looks like at prime time in the Trafalgar/Rebecca/Cross corridor.

Yesterday, I had the opportunity to welcome Minister @ToddJMcCarthy to midtown Oakville for a tour of the proposed Oakville Transit-Oriented Community.

@MorganSeaport @McFranchisee And the cigarette butts... 🚭

@McFranchisee The worst is when people put down the rocks and then the weeds come up through them. That looks horrible

A new QSR opened up, ripped out all the previous landscaping and grass, and just put in crushed rock, not even river rock. No plants. It looks awful. I don’t know how the city even allowed this. Please don’t do this.

@McFranchisee Nasty! Definitely a pet peeve, right up there with dirty restrooms, fuzzy ceiling grids and staff that have the following in their vocabs: "next!", "no problem" and "that's it?"

I drove by one of my competitors today, they struggle a bit. It’s even a Corp restro of a national QSR. One thing that gets me, they don’t put their garbage dumpster in the corral (for over a decade). Every customer that drives on their lot passes it. It’s disgusting. I have probably driven past this place a few thousand times and have never gotten anything from them. Maybe it’s just a pet peeve of mine and it’s not a big deal for others. Am I the only one?

@gothburz TLDR @grok please summarize into 3 bullet points

Last quarter I rolled out Microsoft Copilot to 4,000 employees. $30 per seat per month. $1.4 million annually. I called it "digital transformation." The board loved that phrase. They approved it in eleven minutes. No one asked what it would actually do. Including me. I told everyone it would "10x productivity." That's not a real number. But it sounds like one. HR asked how we'd measure the 10x. I said we'd "leverage analytics dashboards." They stopped asking. Three months later I checked the usage reports. 47 people had opened it. 12 had used it more than once. One of them was me. I used it to summarize an email I could have read in 30 seconds. It took 45 seconds. Plus the time it took to fix the hallucinations. But I called it a "pilot success." Success means the pilot didn't visibly fail. The CFO asked about ROI. I showed him a graph. The graph went up and to the right. It measured "AI enablement." I made that metric up. He nodded approvingly. We're "AI-enabled" now. I don't know what that means. But it's in our investor deck. A senior developer asked why we didn't use Claude or ChatGPT. I said we needed "enterprise-grade security." He asked what that meant. I said "compliance." He asked which compliance. I said "all of them." He looked skeptical. I scheduled him for a "career development conversation." He stopped asking questions. Microsoft sent a case study team. They wanted to feature us as a success story. I told them we "saved 40,000 hours." I calculated that number by multiplying employees by a number I made up. They didn't verify it. They never do. Now we're on Microsoft's website. "Global enterprise achieves 40,000 hours of productivity gains with Copilot." The CEO shared it on LinkedIn. He got 3,000 likes. He's never used Copilot. None of the executives have. We have an exemption. "Strategic focus requires minimal digital distraction." I wrote that policy. The licenses renew next month. I'm requesting an expansion. 5,000 more seats. We haven't used the first 4,000. But this time we'll "drive adoption." Adoption means mandatory training. Training means a 45-minute webinar no one watches. But completion will be tracked. Completion is a metric. Metrics go in dashboards. Dashboards go in board presentations. Board presentations get me promoted. I'll be SVP by Q3. I still don't know what Copilot does. But I know what it's for. It's for showing we're "investing in AI." Investment means spending. Spending means commitment. Commitment means we're serious about the future. The future is whatever I say it is. As long as the graph goes up and to the right.

Rising Costs Are Pummeling Restaurants labusinessjournal.com/featured/risin… via @LABJnews

"Abolish the Soviet Fast Food Council" editorial from @SoCalNewsGroup sgvtribune.com/2025/12/04/abo… #AB1228 #FASTact #California #minimumwage #californiarestaurants @CalMatters @jonathanmaze @CalRestaurants

@bagel_biz_guy Many POS options out there for monthly fee vs % of every trx, especially if CC fees on top. That's a lot of money coming off the top unless they have strong loyalty or other solutions built in... not criticizing, just a comment

Our POS takes about 4% of every sale. Customers complain about prices; meanwhile, the credit-card processor buys a new yacht.

I run a bagel shop in Western NY. It’s not glamorous, it’s not passive income, and it’s definitely not “set it and forget it.” Here’s what the business actually looks like from the inside. 🧵

@londo402 @altruafinancial The whole "Fast Pizza" concept is floundering... many casualities that even LeBron and PE investors can't save; Pieology, MOD, Pie Five....

@flawless_exe @altruafinancial That blaze pizza place didn't survive? Shocked overpriced pizza didn't work

There used to be 5 Guys Now there are No Guys Canadians are feeling the pinch and are pulling back on discretionary spending

@altruafinancial The location that you posted will be relocating 4.5km away.... to a busier and more affluent trade area. Smart move by the Franchisee!

@altruafinancial Doesn't fit your narrative, but there's a new one coming soon in west GTA

@Raptors Have yall seen this one yet? Made entirely from vintage license plates and reclaimed hardwood #wethenorth @Raptors @HelloooJack instagram.com/p/DQHO5jBDqsj/…

Trick or Treat? Treating y’all to a lil sneak peek of our City Jerseys 👀

@sportslogosnet Friday night... city connects, or alternate blues #wantitall

World Series Game 6 First pitch: Devon White US Anthem: John Vincent Canadian: David Grenon (aka SoulBear)

Go see Kat at @SCADDABUSH on Front St. She is AMAZING. Always a good time, GREAT food and grateful for the staff! LETS GO JAYS!!! #WANTITALL

@McFranchisee @McDonalds @ChipotleTweets

When somebody on X tells me that a new beautiful @McDonalds looks soulless, I just think of a @ChipotleTweets restroom. That my friend is soulless. Concrete floor, FRP bottom panel, drywall up top…can’t get a cheaper build. Prison vibes.

Obviously there are many / bigger priorities in our province, but would love to see Ontario offer some new choices for license plates. Take a look at these beauties that Alberta has to choose from... (I voted for #8✅️) @PrabSarkaria @fordnation alberta.ca/alberta-pick-a…

@McFranchisee @alohawolf I do think they've helped to build credibility for the McCafe brand (tho I'd appreciate an alt dairy choice for my drip coffee ie whole or 2% milk). DD & Tim Hortons shared a portion of retail KCup sales with zees / natl ad fund in recognition of traffic concerns as i recall

@flawless_exe @alohawolf You aren’t the first person to talk about our McCafe coffeee and decreased visits…

I’m being infiltrated from the inside 🚨 I come home and see this lineup in my fridge. IN MY McFRIDGE!! 😂 Retail: I’m not a fan of retail. If proceeds are share equally amongst all restaurants (corp+franchisees), I can start to get onboard. While not all retail products will result in less visits, I can certainly say that ever since @BWWings dropped their sauces in grocery stores, I’m not sure I’ve ever stepped back into their restro. Lost visits. Lost sales. Over $5 bottle. What restaurant product have you bought in a grocery store that has resulted into less visits to that restaurant?

@McFranchisee @alohawolf 3 McD sauces were sold in Canada at grocery a few years back. Bought the mac sauce a few times and did not change our frequency at resto level. K cups on the other hand..... x.com/McDonaldsCanad…

@alohawolf I hope I never see our Big Mac sauce in the refrigerated section of the grocery store