MONTREAL – He might not always have time for Tim Hortons but Luka Magnotta certainly has a lot more of it than before to sip iced cappuccinos from the giant Ontario-based coffee retailer.
The freezing caffeine drink was at the top of Magnotta’s wish list when a TV interviewer asked him after his return to Canada Monday what he most wanted to do.
“This is stupid,” Magnotta, now Canada’s most notorious male model, told Radio-Canada. “I’d like to have an iced cappuccino. An iced cappuccino from Tim Hortons, that’s what I’d like to do.”
Company spokesman Greg Skinner said Magnotta’s remarks in the French-only interview won’t have any impact on sales.
“We know our customers differentiate our company and the relationship from his comments,” Skinner said in an interview Tuesday.
“And we have faith they can make that distinction.”
Reaction from Tim Hortons employees in Magnotta’s hometown of Scarborough, Ont., where he is very well known but not well liked, made it clear Magnotta should stick to his newly adopted province of Quebec for his caffeine hits.
“Absolutely not,” the manager of one outlet replied when asked whether Magnotta would be served in his store.
The man, who said he didn’t appreciate Homolka’s or Magnotta’s comment.
An employee at another Tim Hortons in St. Catharines was also perplexed.
“It is a very strange thing to say actually — an iced cappuccino,” said the young woman. “He doesn’t deserve an iced cappuccino. They are good but we hope he doesn’t come here to get one.
“We did talk about Karla Homolka today but nobody brought up an iced cap.”
The company introduced the drink in 1999 midway through her 12-year sentence.
An employee at yet another St. Catharines Tim Hortons who identified herself as Jeannette had heard the comment and said people were talking about it.
“I was surprised that was the first thing he’d want to do,” said Jeannette. “It’s just a cappuccino. A lot of the girls don’t want to see him in Tim Hortons.
“I knew Kristen French very well, so the woman makes me ill. So does Magnotta”
There were no reported sightings of Homolka at two downtown Montreal Tim Hortons on Tuesday, although one employee said she hadn’t even heard of her or Magnotta.
One observer of the retail industry said he doesn’t believe the 2,500-store chain will suffer from the unusual endorsement.
Homolka has also returned to Canada after being denied a Visa in the Caribean, she is residing in Montreal’s south shore.
“Tim Hortons is so ubiquitous,” said Ken Jones, research associate at Ryerson University’s Centre for the Study of Commercial Activity.
“I don’t think that will have an impact on their sales. Mind you, it’s not the person you want giving you a testimonial.”
Jones said the chain has become part of the Canadian lexicon because “you can’t go around the corner without seeing one.”
But he found it ironic that in an interview obviously tailored to his new province, Magnotta was thinking of “a Maple Leaf hockey player, an old Maple Leaf hockey player.”
Tim Hortons’ website says Ontario has 1,366 of the company’s stores, compared with 284 in Quebec.
