jon wrote:... Nonetheless, Alberta's only location is a kiosk in a food court in the basement of the Royal Alex Hospital just North of Downtown Edmonton. They get hammered by the neighboring Tim Horton's even though their prices are lower. I really don't know how they survive.
I've patronized the Alex location on a few occasions. Triple-O's mid-day (11 AM to 2 PM) lineups are nowhere as long as those next-door at Tim's, but there always seems to be a customer or three perched at their service counter during that period. Given the size of the kiosk (the entire service counter spans about six feet), that would seem to be about all they can accommodate anyway. As for their grub, I can honestly tell you, they serve the best tasting fries I've ever encountered.
Real potatoes with nary a hint of that dreaded, bland fast-food greasiness. Their burgers are very good - I'd rate them far higher than most. But these fries... man those fries!
As for the secret of "survival," an explanation of sorts may lie in how that particular location efficiently restricts it's business hours to only the busiest part of the day. Unlike retail mall courts that coerce tenants to be up and running during all "open" hours, or a stand-alone location fighting an all-hours competitor down the street, the hospital court has a far more relaxed business environment. As far as I've been able to observe, the Alex Triple-O's (in addition to some of it's neighboring tenants) is only open from around 11 AM to 5 PM. While that only makes for a six hour business day - those are bound to be six relatively profitable hours. On the other hand, Tim's is open much later- until 9:00 PM, well into and through a much softer time of the day. From a business perspective, it seems plausible that they're effectively subsidizing those less-profitable, slow late-day hours by charging comparatively higher prices overall.