[HN Gopher] McDonald's unreliable ice cream machines reportedly ...
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McDonald's unreliable ice cream machines reportedly under FTC
investigation
Author : thereare5lights
Score : 62 points
Date : 2021-09-03 18:19 UTC (4 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.ktvu.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.ktvu.com)
| KindOne wrote:
| Related discussions:
|
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24861623 - October 2020 - "I
| reverse engineered McDonalds' internal API" - (Orders ice cream
| at every McDonalds to see if the machines are broken)
|
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26936774 - April 2021 -
| "Investigating why McDonald's ice cream machines are often broken
| [video]"
|
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28386567 - 1 day ago - "The
| Feds Want to Know What the McFuck Is Going on with the McFlurry
| Machines"
| krony wrote:
| The joke in college was that our dorm snackbar icecream machine
| was always "broken" on the night when my friends worked there. I
| just assumed McDonald's had the same issue where the manager on
| that shift just didn't want to deal with cleaning it later and
| marked it broken.
| fsckboy wrote:
| on reddit, numerous fast food workers have chimed in to say
| that it's not true, the machines are easy to clean, and it's a
| normal part of the job and management wouldn't let them get
| away with not cleaning them
| twicetwice wrote:
| I worked at an ice cream shop and cleaning our soft serve
| machine was always a miserable chore that no one wanted to
| do.
| fsckboy wrote:
| i think the fast food chain restaurants have streamlined
| it, compared to a mom and pop shoppe
| sayhar wrote:
| Matt Stoller pretty convincingly lays out why this is a monopoly
| issue here: https://mattstoller.substack.com/p/what-broken-
| mcdonalds-ice...
| ProfessorLayton wrote:
| What I still don't understand about this whole situation is why
| McDonalds corporate would allow this to happen in the first
| place.
|
| Is the profiteering on the contracts with the vendor actually
| higher than the lost sales from having these machines unavailable
| so often?
|
| Is it worth marring your reputation with unreliable service? One
| of the appeals of fast food is consistency, that's what the
| franchise is supposed to provide.
|
| Is it worth ceding this product to your competitors, who don't
| have as many issues providing it?
|
| I must be missing something here.
| DangitBobby wrote:
| > Is it worth marring your reputation with unreliable service?
|
| McDonald's seems to be doing just fine. Even so, you know as
| well as I do that short term profits trump long term health of
| the company.
| avidiax wrote:
| Yes, or the franchise equipment team books lots of kickbacks
| partner revenue and the customer satisfaction team can't or
| doesn't want to show that unavailable ice cream hurts sales.
| ProfessorLayton wrote:
| I wasn't trying to imply that this is hurting corporate as a
| whole, but questioning why take this particular hit in the
| first place.
|
| I'm also questioning if the status quo really is more
| profitable than actually selling the product. Is it really
| profitable to do this at all? Because the competition doesn't
| seem to be doing it.
| paxys wrote:
| > The WSJ reported that McDonald's ice cream products account for
| 60% of the franchise's revenue.
|
| Is anyone else really surprised by this number? 60%??
| jjulius wrote:
| This article poorly references the original WSJ source article
| that it links to. From the source:
|
| "The shiny metal machines crank out concoctions that account
| for about 60% of the chain's dessert sales in the U.S.,
| according to a consumer survey by research firm Technomic Inc."
|
| https://archive.is/QQHsS
| spoonjim wrote:
| I didn't even know they had other desserts.
| isk517 wrote:
| They've always had apple pies as long as I can remember.
| [deleted]
| twicetwice wrote:
| They're actually quite tasty, too!
| dredmorbius wrote:
| Dupe:
|
| 236 points 153 comments 1 day ago
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28386567
|
| KTVU's coverage is a rehash of an earlier WSJ article.
|
| Numerous others, see:
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28408579
| vondur wrote:
| This investigation deals with an add on device some restaurants
| were using to monitor the machines which the manufacturer claims
| can harm it and seeks to stop its use. I used to work fast food
| many years ago and we never really had issues with ours. We did
| however clean and disinfect them nightly.
| robervin wrote:
| Johnny Harris has a pretty good video about this.
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SrDEtSlqJC4
| neom wrote:
| It is a good watch. Leonard French did a good synopsis of the
| case (Kytch v. Taylor) for the startup referenced in the Johnny
| Harris video:
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iXwD_HeC8Ms
| ghostbrainalpha wrote:
| The way he takes everything so seriously, but doesn't become a
| joke himself. I love that dude's style.
|
| I hope he gets funding to do a major show on Discovery Channel
| or something some day. He could be the David Attenborough of
| interesting but trival things.
| cmckn wrote:
| I think the "machine is always broken" meme is mostly
| confirmation bias. I can't even remember the last time I swung
| through McDonalds for a cone and the machine was down. It's
| probably been 5 years. Not that I do this very often, but still.
|
| Obviously, if you pull up within an ~hour of closing, the
| supervisor may have made the call to go ahead and start the
| lengthy cleaning cycle, and ice cream isn't available. You'll
| find that many other menu items aren't available under these
| circumstances either. Worth the FTC investigating? I doubt it.
|
| edit: I wasn't aware of the racket that is the ice cream machine
| business -- apparently franchises pay for expensive support
| contracts and the inner workings of the machine is a closely
| guarded trade secret.
| [deleted]
| bretpiatt wrote:
| Here's actual data: https://mcbroken.com/
|
| As of my posting: 9.73% overall Currently Broken (all
| locations), 28.57% in New York, 18.75% in Seattle, 17.95% in
| Philadelphia, 17.74% in Houston, 16.36% in Dallas, 13.79% in
| Phoenix
| cmckn wrote:
| I don't really have any way to contextualize these rates --
| like how often is the Icee machine at 7-11 down? 30% is
| definitely crazy high, though. Would love to see it broken
| down by franchises, because I'd wager that the machine is out
| more often at specific locations.
| hadlock wrote:
| Generally commercial/industrial grade equipment has an
| uptime measured in 9s, the only time it goes down is during
| scheduled maintenance. When was the last time you ordered
| french fries and they told you "our french frier is out" or
| "sorry we're not serving burgers today, the grill is down".
| The main failure mode for this device is in the automated
| nightly sterilization process.
|
| Granted, this ice cream machine is pretty complex, it
| basically autoclaves itself at medium/high pressure nightly
| to sterilize any residual dairy mix, but it's well
| documented that the failures caused by the autoclaving
| process could be fixed with a couple of small changes. Even
| without these improvements, the machines could be user
| serviceable with better error codes. It's not completely
| air tight case against the manufacturer wanting more
| maintenance revenue, but the FTC certainly has enough
| evidence to go investigate further.
| sumtechguy wrote:
| What is more crazy is the mcd's let it go on this long...
| They are the kind of whale customer you hate to get. They
| order tons of stuff from you but if they jump you are in
| a world of hurt. This should have been along the lines of
| the mcd's CEO calls the Taylor CEO and says 'fix it' and
| that is the end of the call.
| ramesh31 wrote:
| > I can't even remember the last time I swung through McDonalds
| for a cone and the machine was down. It's probably been 5
| years. Not that I do this very often, but still.
|
| Really? I've literally stopped even bothering to ask, since the
| actual uptime seems to be about 20%, and only during peak
| times.
| danhon wrote:
| Linked article:
|
| "An error on a Taylor ice cream machine could look something like
| this: "ERROR: XSndhUIF LHPR>45F 1HR LPROD too VISC," according to
| WSJ. Taylor rebutted and said any codes that appear on its
| machines can be easily found in the machine's manual."
|
| Hm, what does this remind me of?
|
| "But the plans were on display..."
|
| "On display? I eventually had to go down to the cellar to find
| them."
|
| "That's the display department."
|
| "With a flashlight."
|
| "Ah, well, the lights had probably gone."
|
| "So had the stairs."
|
| "But look, you found the notice, didn't you?"
|
| "Yes," said Arthur, "yes I did. It was on display in the bottom
| of a locked filing cabinet stuck in a disused lavatory with a
| sign on the door saying 'Beware of the Leopard."
| scrollaway wrote:
| Where is that little story from? Sounds fun
| samizdis wrote:
| The books are available pretty much anywhere. The original
| HHGTTG was actually written for BBC Radio. There's info at
| the BBC (but sadly none of the programmes are available atm;
| they will probably resurface at some point, though).
|
| https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b03v379k
|
| I cannot recommend the radio series highly enough, and they
| should be available to buy (or find) somewhere. Mind you, the
| books are also terrific - there are minor alterations in plot
| details.
|
| For me, though, the TV series and film were disappointing,
| but to each their own.
|
| Edit to add:
|
| The radio series are available at archive.org. There's an
| HHGTTG "omnibus page". The navigation is rather confusing,
| but in the listings panel, the first programme in the first
| series (Primary Phase) is number 10 [1], followed by listings
| 11 to 15 for the rest of the first series.
|
| The second series (Secondary Phase) start after that, and so
| on for the subsequent series.
|
| I've skipped through a few episodes to check and it all seems
| in order.
|
| [1] https://archive.org/details/s01e00hhgttgdouglasadamsbbcbo
| o/S...
| scrollaway wrote:
| Ah yes! I've listened to the radio series before! I do not
| remember that bit though. It was a while ago, all i
| remember is that it was great. Maybe I'll give it another
| listen.
|
| Didn't know there was a film...
| samizdis wrote:
| Ah, well the bit quoted was from the very first episode
| when Arthur explains to the workmen who have come to
| knock down his house how he found out about the plans to
| build a bypass, and hence demolish his house. It's at
| 2min 39-ish, in the link above, so might as well settle
| down with a nice cup of tea and listen to it from the
| start :-)
| cornstalks wrote:
| The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
| [deleted]
| awesomeusername wrote:
| Omg you get to enjoy HHGTTG fresh for the first time! Lucky
| you.
|
| Hitchhikers guide to the galaxy, Douglass Adams
| sopooneo wrote:
| "...Ahhhh now I get all the 42 references"
| scrollaway wrote:
| Hah I figured it might be. I've only read bits of it. It's
| on the list...
|
| Saving it for a rainy day :)
| vidanay wrote:
| If you're into rainy days, you might also want to try
| Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency
| scrollaway wrote:
| Thanks for the recommendation!
| domador wrote:
| Sounds like "PC LOAD LETTER".
|
| I'm already visualizing an ice cream machine getting a beatdown
| with a baseball bat in the middle of a field...
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(page generated 2021-09-03 23:04 UTC)