job interviews/ The Community League Pub Night

This was in Sept. 2025.

Feb. 15, 2026 The Fast Food Chicken Place: This was on Kijiji.  This was a job fair.  

Pros:

1. The hours.  I can work the day time hours.  They're open till midnight.

2. The pay is $15/ hr.

3. The discount on the food is 50% of when working.

4. I can take 2 buses to get there.  They come often.

5. The duties are food prep, making burgers, taking orders, cleaning, and washing dishes.

Cons: none.

My opinion: I would work there if I got hired.

This was in Oct. 2025.

Mar. 2, 2026:

The Best Buy Express Hiring Fair: The rule is not write the company's name, but I'm not going to write anything negative about this.

Pros:

1. There are a few locations that I can get to easily.

2. If I remember correctly, the pay was $15/hr.

3. I can do the job and learn about the products and technology.  I'm good at customer service.

Cons: none.

My opinion: I would work there if I got hired.  I was mildly interested.

The Burger Place: This was on Kijiji.

Pros:

1. It was easy to get to like 2 buses that come by frequently.

2. This is $15/ hr.  There are tips.  They pool the tips together and divide them by hours worked.

3. The hours are Mon -Thurs. 11:30 am -9pm.  They're open till 10 pm on Fri. and Sat.  They will close and you can leave by 10:30pm.

This is part -time like 20-25 hrs/ week.

4. I can do the duties of when opening: set up chairs, make coffee, serve customers 

There is 1 back -of- house to cook.  There are 4 front -of -house.

Cons:

1. I don't want to work after 10pm.

My opinion: I would work there if I got hired.

Mar. 17, 2026 The Gift Basket Company: This was a phone interview.  This was on Kijiji.

Pros:

1. It was easy to get to like 2 buses that come by frequently.

2. The hours are part -time.  Thurs, Fri, and Sat in the afternoons.

3. The duties are wrapping gifts.

Cons: none.

My opinion: I would work there if I got hired.

The Breakfast and Lunch Restaurant: This was on Indeed.

Pros:

1. The hours are day time like 7am-3pm.

2.  It was easy to get to like 2 buses that come by frequently.

3. The pay is $15/ hr.

The tips are pooled together.  They're divided by how many hours you work.

4. The discount is 50% off the food when you work on a shift.

5. I would start as a host and then be trained as a server.

I would be wiping and setting tables, and taking dirty dishes to the dishwasher.  

I told him that is my job as a busser when I was working at the Hotel Restaurant job.

Cons: none.

My opinion: I would work there if I got hired.  I did see him write an "x" on my resume so I had a feeling I wouldn't get hired.

The Asian Full -Service Restaurant: This was on Indeed.

Pros:

1. It was easy to get to like 2 buses that come by frequently.

2. The hours are Tues. -Fri.

3. The pay is $15/ hr.  There are tips so it can add up to $18/hr.

4. There are benefits and the company will pay 80% of it.

5. The duties are taking orders, make drinks, customer service and serving food.  There is usually 4-6 tables a shift. 

6. On weekdays there are 2 workers at the front.  The assistant manager and the server.

On the weekends, it is 4 workers.  1 host, 2 servers, and 1 runner/ busser.

Cons:

1. This may be kind of hard if it gets busy.

My opinion: I would work there if I got hired. 

The Workplace Cafeteria: This was on Indeed.

Pros:

1. It's easy to get to like 1 bus.

2. The hours are full -time.  Mon -Fri. 6:30 am -2:30pm.

3. The pay is $17.50/hr.

There are tips where they're pooled together, and divided by how many hours you work.

4. The duties are like making sandwiches, making coffee, fill the cooler, and handling the till.

5. There is a discount.   $1.50 is taken off your daily wages.

Cons: none.

My opinion: I would work there if I got hired. 

The Sandwich Restaurant:

Pros:

1. It was easy to get to like 2 buses that come by frequently.

2. The hours are day time and not that late like 8pm.

3. The pay is $15-18/hr.

There is a free meal on shift.

4. The duties are being a server or a kitchen helper.

There are cleaning like sweeping, mopping, and wiping tables.

Cons: none.

My opinion: I would work there if I got hired. 

The Burrito Place: This was on Indeed.  This was on Zoom.

Pros:

1. It was easy to get to like 2 buses that come by frequently.

2. They're open 11am -11pm.  If I were to open I would get there at 10am.

3. The pay is $15/hr.

There are tips.

There is 20% off the food when on shift.  (Most restaurants are free or 50% off.)

4. The duties are food prep, serving customers, and handling the till.

Cons: 

1. This is a mild con.  This is a new restaurant and a lot of new restaurants like 50% close down within the first 2 years.  

My opinion: I would work there if I got hired. 

The Post -Secondary Cafeteria:

Pros:

1. The hours were Mon -Fri 7am -3pm.

2. The pay was $16/hr.

3. The discount is $2 off a day/ over 4 hr shift from your paycheck.

That goes toward your meal.

10 min break: Coffee and a muffin.

30 min break: A burger.

4. There will be 1 day of training.

5. The duties are you make pizzas, bread, fries.  You learn to use the ovens and fryers.

Cons: 

1. This is a mild con.  There is the school schedule so you can get temporary lay off during the summer.

My opinion: I would work there if I got hired. 

Mar. 20, 2026: Last week I attended 5 job interviews.  1 of them was a phone interview.

This week I attended 3 job interviews.

My week:

Sun. Mar. 15, 2026:

Lori F, Kelowna, British Columbia, would like to know:

Have political differences ever affected one of your friendships?

No

76.03% (2893)

Yes

23.97% (912)

My opinion: No.

Tues. Mar. 17, 2026:

Jaedon D, Spruce Grove, Alberta, would like to know:

How confident are you in the training and practices of your local police force?

Somewhat confident

54.36% (2542)

Very confident

18.88% (883)

Neither confident nor not confident

17.02% (796)

Somewhat not confident

9.73% (455)

My opinion: Somewhat confident.

There should be another answer "Not confident at all." 

Thurs. Mar. 19, 2026:

Chrystel B, Saint-Félix-de-Valois , Quebec, would like to know:

Have you changed your consumption habits to reduce overconsumption?

Yes

61.87% (2432)

No

38.13% (1499)

My opinion: Yes.  However, I don't really buy things to own.  I reduce, reuse, and recycle.

Fri. Mar. 13, 2026 The Community League Pub Night: I went there and invited my neighbor Theron to go there.  I wrote a note and left it in her mail box.

We were there from 7-9:30pm.  There was tortilla chips and salsa, pretzels, and caramel and cheese powder popcorn.  There was salt and pepper dry ribs and mini sausage rolls.  I ate all that.

This was a St. Patrick's Day theme so there were green and gold clover paper plates, and green plastic cups.  The table had a pot of gold centre piece and 4 leaf clover foam stickers.

We had fun talking and getting to know each other.

We also talked about neighbors and the changes in the neighborhood.

There were about 20 people who were there.

Sat. Mar. 14, 2026 The Wokkery: My family and I went there for dinner to celebrate my little brother P's birthday.  We ordered:

-peking duck with wraps

-sweet and sour pork

-chow mein with pork

The food was good as usual.

However, the restaurant was really busy.  After we placed our order, we had to wait 40 min. to get one dish.  The last time we were there, we waited for 30 min.

"Tim Hortons tweaking English muffins, espresso and beverage machinery: president"/ "Burger King is updating its Whopper, so that's one less thing that's falling apart"

Feb. 12, 2026 "Tim Hortons tweaking English muffins, espresso and beverage machinery: president": Today I found this article on BNN Bloomberg:

TORONTO — Perceptive Tim Hortons guests might soon notice a few changes at the café chain.

The company is rolling out 

an improved English muffin, 

adding fountain drink machines to some restaurants 

and debuting new espresso equipment, 

president Axel Schwan said Thursday.

While he thought Tims already had a “great” English muffin, he told The Canadian Press his company wanted to tweak the vessel for many of its breakfast sandwiches 

“to make it even fluffier 

and even more enjoyable to eat.”

By the end of this week, the new muffin will have launched in western Canada and by the end of the quarter, it will be in all restaurants across the country.

“It shows you that we are really fully, fully focused ... on guest feedback and then, 

we keep improving the core 

in addition to innovating,” 

he said.

The changes to the English muffin come on the heels of improvements to several other Tims staples. 

Last year, its chocolate chunk cookies were made bigger 

and pumped with more chocolate 

to boost its ooey gooey factor.

The company has also 

added more fruit to its apple fritters 

and more filling to its Boston Cream doughnut.

These kinds of tweaks don’t just hearken to the “back to basics” strategy Schwan launched after becoming Tims Canada and U.S.’s president in 2019, 

but also show how the company is trying to 

push itself forward in an ultracompetitive market where customers are feeling squeezed.

In recent years, Tims started taking on most big fast-food players by launching

wraps, 

rice-based bowls 

and flatbread pizzas 

to grow sales in the afternoon and evening.

It also edged into Starbucks’ territory with more inventive and trendy beverages. 

It now sells 

energy drinks 

and beverages boosted with protein 

or made with carbonated bases 

or cold foam.

In its latest quarter, 

cold beverages made up 27 per cent of the company’s total drink sales. 

They grew 8.6 per cent despite colder than usual temperatures in December.

New espresso and fountain drink machines stand to fuel even more growth.

The espresso machine took years to develop 

but is much faster than Tims’ previous equipment, 

Schwan said.

“Think of it like this: 

better quality product, 

better tasting product 

that we can deliver faster,” 

he said.

So far, it’s in about 10 per cent of the company’s restaurants but as locations get remodelled and the older machines age, it will become a standard across the brand.

The fountain machines are an even newer development Tims has been working on with Coca-Cola.

They haven’t hit every store yet, but the machines are a way to drive more combo sales and they “play a key role” with many of the other cold beverages the brand has been exploring, he said.

Schwan’s remarks came after RBI, the company that owns 

Tims, 

Burger King, 

Popeyes 

and Firehouse Subs, 

revealed its fourth-quarter profit fell compared with a year ago 

but its revenue rose.

RBI, which keeps its books in U.S. dollars, said its profit attributable to common shareholders amounted to US$113 million or 34 cents US per diluted share for the quarter ended Dec. 31. 

The result compared with a profit of US$259 million or 79 cents US per diluted share in the last three months of 2024.

On an adjusted basis, RBI says it earned 96 cents US per diluted share, up from an adjusted profit of 81 cents US per diluted share a year earlier.

Revenue for the quarter totalled US$2.47 billion, up from US$2.30 billion in the fourth quarter of 2024, while system-wide sales amounted to US$12.13 billion, up from US$11.28 billion.

Some segments of the company, especially Burger King, 

were hampered by higher beef prices that have come from depleted U.S. cattle herds.

Others grappled with higher coffee costs 

— the result of extreme weather events in coffee-growing countries 

and tariff uncertainty.

Tims doesn’t have many beef products, so the rising meat costs “are not playing a big role” at the chain, 

but it raised coffee prices an average of three cents per cup last year, 

marking the first time in about three years that it adjusted the price of coffee.

On Thursday, Schwan said the company was starting to see relief. 

Coffee costs have “come down significantly” in recent months, he said.

Patrick Doyle, RBI’s executive chairman, said on a Thursday earnings call that the company has handled the headwinds well.

Its comparable sales in Canada grew 2.8 per cent in the last quarter, outperforming the broader Canadian quick-serve restaurant industry by nearly two points.

Overall, he said last year was “demanding” for restaurant operators, 

when you consider the rising costs 

and how the geopolitical uncertainty of U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariff war weighed on the business and consumers alike.

“Taken together, 

it was the kind of environment that serves as a pretty good test of the 

fundamentals of a restaurant business,” 

Doyle said.

“And in that context, 

our performance demonstrated that the underlying fundamentals of our portfolio are not only resilient but improving.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 12, 2026.

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/business/company-news/2026/02/12/restaurant-brands-reports-q4-profit-down-from-year-ago-revenue-up/

Feb. 27, 2026 "Burger King is updating its Whopper, so that's one less thing that's falling apart": Today I found this article by Natalie Stechyson on CBC:

Do you ever feel like everything is falling apart? 

Like nothing is stable? 

Like it's all just slipping through your fingers?

Specifically, we're talking about some people's experience of eating a Whopper, 

but you'd be forgiven for thinking we're speaking in metaphors.

Fast food chain Burger King announced Thursday that it's updating its signature Whopper burger for the first time in a decade,

adding a sturdier bun 

and serving it in a cardboard box 

after years of customer complaints about smashed burgers that fell apart.

"Are you one of the people that's been asking me about why your burger is smushed? 

I think we have a solution for you," 

Tom Curtis, president of Burger King U.S. and Canada, says in an Instagram video.

The company's news release explains that the "higher-quality" Whopper includes 

a premium bun, 

a better tasting mayo 

and a box "to ensure it makes it to guests exactly the way it left the kitchen."

CBC News has reached out to Burger King about whether the updated Whopper is coming to Canada. The U.S. news release only notes the new Whopper is rolling out "nationwide."

In an email response, a spokesperson for Burger King Canada said it "has been working on some exciting menu changes, including the Whopper," that will be announced next month. 

When we asked at a downtown Toronto Burger King food court location Friday, it appeared that the new Whopper isn't available yet.

While some people online rejoiced that "the buns finally won’t be a flattened paste," not everyone is pleased with the changes. 

On the Burger King subreddit, some users complained that 

buns taste worse now, 

they miss the wrappers 

and that they preferred their burgers flattened.

"The volume of the new bun offsets the bread: meat ratio, which used to be perfect in my opinion," one person wrote. 

"I like the burger diapers," wrote another person, a reference to the burger wrapper that we now can't unsee.

A focus on value

The fast-food industry has struggled in recent years 

as operating costs increase 

but consumers spend less. 

Rival chain Wendy's, for instance, announced earlier in February 

that it's closing several hundred U.S. restaurants 

and increasing its focus on value 

after a weaker-than-expected fourth quarter.

And restaurants overall are struggling to turn a profit, 

according to a new report from Restaurants Canada, 

which found that 26 per cent of restaurants surveyed were operating at a loss as of November 2025, 

while another 18 per cent were just breaking even.

They also face competition from other companies trying to move into that market. 

7-Eleven Canada, for instance, is revamping its business model to offer 

more diverse 

and quality food, 

along with in-store dining options.

As Reuters notes, some fast-food chains are offering certain items at lower prices to attract consumers who were turning away from dining out due to high menu prices over the last two years.

McDonald's cut prices on some U.S. combo meals in September. 

And in January, 

McDonald's Canada announced it's freezing the price of a small cup of coffee at $1 for at least a year 

and dropping the price of its McValue meals to $5 for the same duration.

Same-store sales at Burger King U.S. rose 2.6 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2025, but missed estimates of a 3.5 per cent rise, according to Reuters.

Criticized for AI in headsets

Burger King, for its part, has focused on guest feedback with a recent initiative encouraging customers to call or text its president Tom Curtis directly. 

And that, according to the company, is why they decided to upgrade its Whopper.

But a glance at Burger King's most recent Instagram post announcing the upgrade suggests the chain might have bigger problems than smushed buns. 

Many of the comments left on the post don't mention the Whopper at all, 

and instead are critical of Burger King's new initiative testing AI in employee headsets in 500 of its U.S. restaurants.

The system, called "Patty," 

can track when employees say key words like "welcome," "please" and "thank you" 

and share that with managers.

"Boycotting until you remove AI," one person commented.

"AI monitoring your underpaid staff? Naaah time to go elsewhere," wrote another person.

Burger King told The Associated Press the intent is to use 

Patty as a coaching tool, 

not a tracker of individual employees.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/burger-king-whopper-9.7108107

My opinion: I haven't been to Burger King in years because there aren't any close by where I live and I hardly ever eat out.