This morning, and I went to the Tim Horton’s, and I got served by Haley Joel Osmet!

Okay, it wasn’t really him. But the kid behind the counter looked exactly like him. They should totally get Haley Joel to play Tim Horton’s Kid in a movie about his life. Or vice versa.

So as is usual for a Saturday morning, when we arrived at the Tim’s, it was crazy with cars and people. This kind of overcrowding always leads to the inevitable debate: drive through, or store front?

On one hand, the store line splits into two cashiers, and we learned in university that one line, multiple cashes, is the most efficient way to move people. On the other hand, the inside cashiers have to handle the cash and the getting of food, while the drive through has a whole team of people with specialised jobs to move the folks along. And also, the store tends to put the trainees and newbies inside the store, with the more experienced people manning the drive through, to keep the parking lot from clogging up.

On one hand, the line up for the drive through appears longer than it is, because cars take up more space. But on the other hand, the inside line can appear larger than it actually is as well, because it tends to be made up of groups of people, who will leave the line in twos and threes, moving it along.

On one hand, I find that the drive through customers are just after a coffee and a muffin, or maybe some Timbits — simple, fast orders. On the other hand, the inside customers can see the merchandise that is currently available, and have plenty of time to think about their order because they are not trying to pilot a vehicle while simultaneously digging through the glove box for change, so they should be able to order quickly and efficiently as soon as they get to the front. Although, in practice, I find that inside orderers are all about the dozen donuts, and it’s not like, “Give me a nice mix,” but instead, it’s like, “Give me a dozen, but no chocolate, except chocolate dip is okay, and no honey dips, but honey crullers are okay, and if you have chocolate crullers, I’ll take at least three of those, and nothing with sprinkles.” Grrrr.

It definitely used to be that if the drive through looked very busy, and you had both a driver and a passenger, it was a real advantage for your passenger to hop out and go inside. But I think now it is worth it to sit in the drive through, even if you have to deal with aggressive twits who think their need for coffee is SO much greater than yours that they feel the need to cut in line, like, I bet your friends call you BUDDY, BUDDY.

Today we chose to go inside, and I got to meet (almost) Haley Joel Osmet, so that was worth it. But in terms of service time, we totally got screwed, and the drive through was moving much faster. So I think we’re a drive through family from now on.