Current Events > Why is the milkshake machine at McDonald's always down

(+) Yeah! (+)

But the frosty machine at Wendys is never down?

because someone been humping it probably...

Wendy has never gone down on you?
I'm sorry to hear that. I heard she does good work.

Pretty much this:

https://youtu.be/zR7LOtMix9w?t=90

shake machines are just bastard pieces of technology really.

Because they use a crappy ice cream machine from a specific vendor that is prone to all sorts of errors

and sometimes it needs to be cleaned and they dont want to do it

Its the olde switch and bait scam to get you in, everyone and their adoptive mother knows that theres nothing like a milkshake to keep the repressed memories of a tumultuous childhood repressed, so you saunter into the joint like a jaunty sailor expecting to get that sweet beverage only to be disappointed yet again and end up settling for a big Mac or as daddy used to call them a big boy burger

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iXwD_HeC8Ms

TL;DW version: The company that produced the ice cream machines very deliberately made it virtually impossible for a store to maintain on their own and prone to errors because they make most of their money off service charges on "repairs". The ice cream machines are designed to break frequently.

My understanding is that McDonald's is contractually obligated to use the same, extremely shitty ice cream machine everywhere. This machine is prone to breaking and the service is terrible.

Wendy's doesn't have that issue. Also the Frosty is a significantly more important menu item to Wendy's than any ice cream product is to McDonald's so they are much more incentivized to keep it available.

Compsognathus posted...

My understanding is that McDonald's is contractually obligated to use the same, extremely shitty ice cream machine everywhere. This machine is prone to breaking and the service is terrible.

Why do they keep renewing their contract with said shitty ice cream machine company though? Like this issue has been going on for decades, surely their contract with them doesn't go on in perpetuity.

Compsognathus posted...

My understanding is that McDonald's is contractually obligated to use the same, extremely shitty ice cream machine everywhere. This machine is prone to breaking and the service is terrible.

Is McDonald's getting huge kickbacks and pass on the pain to their franchisees? Only reason I can see to keep such a stupid arrangement.

Sir_Will posted...

Is McDonald's getting huge kickbacks and pass on the pain to their franchisees? Only reason I can see to keep such a stupid arrangement.

Most likely.

Because all the boys are in the yard

WilliamPorygon posted...

Why do they keep renewing their contract with said shitty ice cream machine company though? Like this issue has been going on for decades, surely their contract with them doesn't go on in perpetuity.

Without any additonal insight, I'd wager they have determined that the cost of replacing all of their machines and retraining everyone is too high just to have more uptime on a mid-tier menu item.

because you have to take the whole thing apart every 14 days to clean it, which takes a while, has a lot of steps and is done by an underpaid mcdonald's employee working in a perpetually under-staffed restaurant, leading to an eventual fuck up during the process and the machine being unusable until it is serviced by someone who knows what they're doing

plus the aforementioned fact that they're basically designed to break in all sorts of fun ways, even outside the cleaning process

Because they just cleaned it and don't want to clean it again.

Shadow-Bolt posted...

TL;DW version: The company that produced the ice cream machines very deliberately made it virtually impossible for a store to maintain on their own and prone to errors because they make most of their money off service charges on "repairs". The ice cream machines are designed to break frequently.

One of the franchisee owners created a free simple program that solved the problems with McDonalds's ice cream machine. McDonalds changed the firmware so that it would no longer work. Then they threatened the franchisees that their licenses would be revoked if they were caught tampering with the machines again.

The "tampering" was merely a database that translated the icecream machines cryptic error codes into simple English that anyone can understand. McDonalds simply changed all the codes, rendering the database useless.

BB_mofo posted...

One of the franchisee owners created a free simple program that solved the problems with McDonalds's ice cream machine. McDonalds changed the firmware so that it would no longer work. Then they threatened the franchisees that their licenses would be revoked if they were caught tampering with the machines again.

The "tampering" was merely a database that translated the icecream machines cryptic error codes into simple English that anyone can understand. McDonalds simply changed all the codes, rendering the database useless.

Wow that is fucked up. So, yeah, the company is getting huge kickbacks to fuck over their franchisees. That is so gross.