McDonald’s has always been the favorite eatery of all generations. After having spicy and tangy burgers, fries, and chicken nuggets, McFlurry is something that everyone craves.
This craving always ends with disappointment and heartbreak, when the server says that the ice cream machine is out of order. It has become a joke of the hour that the McDonald’s ice-cream machine is always broken.
This problem has been rampant for the past many years now. McDonald’s employees state that it is because it takes a lot of time to clean and sanitize the ice cream machine. Also, it needs to be cleaned every single day. So, to avoid the hustle, the staff usually says that the machine is not working.
An employee at McDonald’s once stated when asked that these machines have very strict cleaning laws and need deep cleaning every day. This includes dumping the ice cream mixture, taking all the parts out, cleaning all the parts, putting back in the parts, adding the ice cream mixture, and waiting until ice cream comes out instead of watery milk.
These machines are high maintenance and need a lot of time and labor. The employees refrain from wasting the time cleaning it and rather prefer to focus on other food and beverage orders. This problem has been acknowledged by McDonald’s when back in 2017, it announced the installation of new machines which have low maintenance. But it was never implemented.
Another problem that is stated by the employees is that it has to maintain opposing temperatures. It has to be cold for the ice-creams but also comparatively hot to maintain the hygiene standards to clean the devices.
The machine that McDonald’s uses are quite different from any order machine. Most franchisees use digital ice-cream machines which can make both soft serve and milkshakes at the same time. It also helps in making 10 ice cream cones every minute.
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Although some reports have stated that these machines are comparatively low-maintenance than an ordinary ice-cream machine, most of the franchise owners and the workers have always complained of this issue.
This machine issue has become a social media meme. Many reports claim that it isn’t the problem with the cleanliness of the machines or any other maintenance issue. The problem simply is that the McDonald’s staff is lazy. Other ice-cream servers like Wendy’s, Burger King, etc. use the same machine but they don’t face these issues.
An American journalist, Johnny Harris shared a YouTube video explaining where this issue is actually coming from. McDonald’s has signed an agreement with Taylor company which makes these machines for it.
As it is a complex machine, only an authorized service technician from Taylor can fix it. Also, if the franchise owner calls a technician from some other company, he loses his contract with the company and the warranty of the machine.
Now the issue that comes in is with the amount that these Taylor repair people cost. The prices are extravagantly high that any franchise owner can hardly afford. So, the owner is left in a dilemma to either fulfill the needs of the customers or bear with these prices.
So, it is basically the monopoly of one company that is creating the whole problem. And the franchise owners are forced to deal with all these issues.
Solution
A service called McBroken was developed by Rashiq Zahid in 2020 which can track broken McDonald’s ice cream machines in real-time.
This works by using McDonald’s app to add McFlurry from every McDonald’s store into its cart every 30 minutes. If it isn’t available, it shows that the ice cream machine is broken and a red dot gets put up on the McBroken map.
This has been a very useful get away from the hustle of standing in long queues and coming back disappointed.
Disclaimer: This article is fact-checked
Sources: Reader’s Digest, Mashed, Youtube
Image sources: Google Images
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This post is tagged under: McDonald’s, McFlurry, burger, french fries, chicken, nuggets, ice-cream, machine, taylor, employees, high maintenance, time consuming, cleaning, sanitizing, Johnny Harris, Youtube, social media, meme, monopoly, franchise, owners, businesses, contract, agreement, McBroken
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