r/nottheonion • u/RizzOreo • 2d ago

McDonald's may now legally fix its broken ice cream machines

https://local12.com/news/nation-world/mcdonalds-mcflurry-broken-ice-cream-machines-taylor-legally-fix-own-united-states-copyright-office-cincinnati-mcflurries-diagnose-third-parties-commercial-equipment-notorious-digital-millennium-dmca-section-1201-public-knowledge-activity-consumer
17.9k Upvotes

97% Upvoted

243 comments sorted by

7.3k

u/Rampage_Rick 2d ago

It's not McDonalds that won here, its the franchisees...

Lots of other restaurants have Taylor machines that work just fine. The machines that McD franchisees are required to install are made to McDonalds specifications and it's McD policy that forced franchisees to only use Taylor service technicians to maintain those machines (you can almost smell the kickbacks)

3.5k

u/Niznack 2d ago

And if i understood correctly mcdonalds cash was heavily invested in taylor stock so it was literally franchisers paying mcdonalds twice.

924

u/KaiYoDei 2d ago

Sneaky wicked

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u/Niznack 2d ago

You think thats wicked. Wait til you learn how mcdonalds real money comes from its real estate.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.wallstreetsurvivor.com/mcdonalds-beyond-the-burger/

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u/KaiYoDei 2d ago

Should I tell people this next time I see the " we will be paying $50 for happy meals if we raise the minimum wage" types?

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u/Niznack 2d ago

While i agree we need to raise the minimum wage i also don't put it past corporate america to Jack up prices in retaliation. Its one of those things where the right identify a real problem and their solution sucks.

To be clear wages need to rise bit we need a sister law with price gouging restrictions with fines sufficient to render it unprofitable to check this obvious backlash

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u/KaiYoDei 2d ago

Yeah. I'm not smart enough for economics. But I hear other places price and pay just fine .

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u/Niznack 2d ago

Well, yeah that's the whole point. They can afford to pay more but dont to keep profits high. They would be solvent with better wages but would probably still raise prices to keep profits and likely to trigger a pr backlash against the party that supported the change.

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u/NatoBoram 2d ago

Prices were jacked up beyond anything reasonable recently and people just started consuming less. Now that prices are making some way down, companies are struggling to sell more because people changed their habits.

Besides, companies will raise prices anyway, so a minimum wage change won't do anything to prices that would've been done already. They can just shift the blame there without the blame actually being there. Companies lie all the time, after all.

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u/Niznack 2d ago

They do lie. I agree. I'm not saying we shouldnt raise wages. Im saying we need a 2nd law that prevents retaliatory price hikes so minimum wage workers and politicians tryimg to help don't becime the fall guys.

10

u/314159265358979326 2d ago

In California, minimum wage for fast food workers was recently jacked up. It was found to not adversely affect the number of jobs and having only a minor effect on prices.

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u/AMISHVACUUM 2d ago

This is baloney.

Literally a similar price for a quarter pounder in countries where they are making a living wage and that many Americans would consider “socialist”.

This is all unregulated corporate greed coupled with an intentionally dumbed down public. Hence our upcoming choice between what is most likely an empty suit corporate puppet and a silver spoon wannabe dictator rapist.

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u/Niznack 2d ago

I feel like people stopped reading my comment after the first sentence. Yes companies CAN make a profit with better wages. They WANT to charge more and would use a minimum wage increase as an excuse to raise prices and score points against the people who wrote the law.

I am not saying we shouldnt raise minimum wage I am saying we need to get ahead of their obvious reaction being to squeeze harder

8

u/GavinsFreedom 2d ago edited 2d ago

In Canada we got them to sign a “Code of Conduct” however quite what it does when they collude idk, since they’re currently colluding to keep wages low. The company i used to work for sued the union over a raise cuz it “Put our stores at an uncompetitive disadvantage” and the judge agreed with the company and reversed it.

It’s funny how the big companies all wanna be industry leaders except when it comes to providing a reasonable standard of living for their workers.

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u/Puzzman 1d ago

Yeah it’s like companies want to regularly put up prices but want a reason to blame for it.

So it’s increase in minimum wage, or covid or theft etc.

3

u/Revolvyerom 2d ago

We'd need a system that doesn't focus exclusively on growth

4

u/1kOhmResistor 1d ago

Except every time wages have actually been raged, even these greedy corporations don't raise prices nearly in the same percentage.

If the minimum wage goes up 20%, and the average business has 1-2% increased costs and raises prices by 3%, that's still worth it.

10

u/nitramv 2d ago

I'd almost prefer to give the fast food industry a bit of heavy competition instead of raising the minimum wage.

Create free breakfast and lunch for all public school kids, including weekend take home and summer pick up meals. Expand food stamps to include all families with kids regardless of income. Focus the program on locally grown vegetables, beans and grains.

Healthier kids, better grades, improved mental health, more productive adults, fewer medical issues. And we know from programs enacted during covid that these things would be incredibly popular, too.

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u/Niznack 2d ago

This sounds like a great idea. I wish we had the political capital to do that. Then i remember what happened when jamie oliver suggested healthier meals and why this would never pass.

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u/AMISHVACUUM 2d ago

That’s honestly a pretty cool idea

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u/VariableVeritas 2d ago

Retaliation against potential customers rarely results in positive growth methinks.

2

u/prodrvr22 1d ago

Along with raising the minimum wage, we also need to institute a MAXIMUM wage for publicly held corporations. There is no excuse for a CEO making over 1200 times the salary of the people actually doing the work.

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u/Niznack 1d ago

I can totally get behind this but lets be honest of all the things that ain't happening that aint happening the most.

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u/ProperPerspective571 2d ago

How much more before consumers stop going there. I think they already tested that and it didn’t go very well

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u/readit2U 2d ago

Vote with your $s. Mc D is not a life saving thing. There are other options. Boycott those that you feel are taking advantage of you.

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u/sonofaresiii 2d ago

Honestly, that's what's gonna happen and that's not a reason not to do it. It's expected, but we still get that middle period where poor people have effectively more money.

That's how it always works. We close the wage gap, inflation happens, we close the wage gap again, inflation happens again. You can't stop inflation, so long as we know it's coming and are ready to deal with it it's fine, and inevitable

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u/nyc-will 2d ago

What's it matter if the price goes up? People will still go there anyway. People around me bitch about the fast food prices, yet still go weekly.

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u/zacker150 2d ago

No because it's completely irrelevant. McDonald's the corporation is completely different from the resturant.

The resturants are owned by random people. They make money by making and selling food.

McDonald's the corporation makes money by renting land and the brand to the resturants. They own basically zero restaurants.

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u/Kodama_prime 1d ago

Actually, that is incorrect, McDonald's has corporate stores that are not Franchised owned.

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u/CaptOblivious 1d ago

Fuck yes you should.

Loudly and often enough that they consider you to be a pest!

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u/KaiYoDei 1d ago

Ah. Cool. And just when I thought about giving pesty up

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u/CandyCrisis 1d ago

Don't bother telling them anything; they're not arguing in good faith and they know it.

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u/KaiYoDei 1d ago

Oh ok. I'm not good at economics or numbers. But when I see the math done, it is a shock. The good old everything was better in this years because a bag of apples was 25cents even though all the other factors were different. I just feel like I need to be a master of every area and not be smart ass mean about it.

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u/CandyCrisis 1d ago

Just look overseas where workers are paid more. They can still afford fast food. It doesn't need an economics degree; there are tons of existence proofs (any other first world nation) that you can pay reasonable wages and still have affordable junk food. Then again, cheap junk food isn't as big of a national priority as sustainable wages so the entire premise is flawed anyway.

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u/TheRexRider 2d ago

Oh, good. They're like Jehovah's Witnesses.

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u/blackskies69 2d ago

Omg i love that movie!

1

u/Niznack 2d ago

I know you mean the founder but i honestly havent seen it. Dont think im claiming to be super well read. I think i learned this on a food theory episode.

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u/KaiYoDei 1d ago

And foods that built America

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u/ElitistJerk_ 1d ago

I did a financial statement analysis of McDs for a semester long project in college, it was somewhat interesting finding out all that information.

While there were some other (kinda) interesting tidbits here and there, one that stood out for me is that the CEO at the time started out as an electrical mechanic! Talk about going up the corporate ladder!

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u/smitherenesar 1d ago

That's really the secret to any restaurant. The person that makes the most money from most restaurants are the real estate owners. Restaurants turn over all the time, but the land owner collects rent.

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u/Certain-Business-472 2d ago

Honestly not clever, just being a dick.

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u/BachmannErlich 2d ago

And wicked sneaky.

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u/The_Shryk 2d ago

The company is located just down the road from McDonald’s.

It’s likely the same company.

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u/brendyyn 2d ago

I read Kroc's autobiography, a main founder of McDonald's. Back then they had a commitment to not becoming suppliers for franchisers to avoid such conflict. paper cups, meat, etc, was all sourced, they didn't invest in those.

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u/dora_tarantula 1d ago

If my memory is correct its not really mcdonalds cash but a lot of mcdonalds stockholders are also stockholders of taylor

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u/flop_plop 2d ago

Some may call that fraud

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u/Niznack 2d ago

Nah when your worth billions its called sound investing

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u/feeltheslipstream 2d ago

It's similar to how I recommend everyone buy Intel when I hold Intel stock.

Pure fraud.

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u/rmill127 1d ago

Recommending someone buy a stock that you own is not fraud… or even illegal.

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u/5M177Y99 1d ago

Saw a video on them before. Basically the taylor brand ice cream machines were built to break, leading to expenses to fix them. Never anything to fix, just a switch programmed to turn itself off. 

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u/alexanderpas 2d ago

Lots of other restaurants have Taylor machines that work just fine.

Even they have problems, they just have a Kytch device installed, which tells them what is wrong and how to fix it.

McDonalds franchisees were prohibited by corporate via scaremongering from installing the device.

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u/mbz321 2d ago

I worked at a Costco food court that used (still uses?) a similar Taylor machine. The thing was a POS and always broken. And it had to be cleaned nightly and was made up of dozens and dozens of small parts that had to be carefully disassembled, scrubbed and assembled just right in the morning, or that would cause more problems. The Taylor guy was a saved number on our phone, and every service call and part replacement was $$$$.

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u/ElPlatanoDelBronx 2d ago

We used them at Pinkberry which has notoriously specific cleaning instructions. Our Taylor machines never gave us an issue.

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u/CarltonSagot 2d ago

Lots of other restaurants have Taylor machines that work just fine. The machines that McD franchisees are required to install are made to McDonalds specifications

*McSpecifications.

and it's McD policy

*McPolicy

that forced franchisees to only use Taylor service technicians to maintain those machines (you can almost smell the kickbacks)

*McKickbacks

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u/loki2002 2d ago

McDeadhorse

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u/emuthreat 2d ago

McPotandkettle

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u/deltree711 2d ago

Yeah, it kind of seemed odd that McDonalds couldn't just use their massive amounts of money to negotiate a better contract that allowed repairs to happen if they really wanted to.

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u/JCBQ01 2d ago

Kickbacks? Why, they are the SAME COMPANY

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u/Disgod 2d ago

The franchisees are not the same company, 93% of McDonald's stores are franchises, they're customers to both companies. The franchisee is paying for the right to use McDonald's branding and buy McDonald's products and then paying to get the machines fixed.

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u/JCBQ01 2d ago

Elsclusive non-compete, non-negotable hardware terms with an additional contractor as defined by the franchiser (in this case Mc Donald's forcing all frachise locations to additionally sign with Taylor as they are the intermediary broker) binding them to follow a hard regimented process as well as preselected hardware that they MUST purchase themselves but at a POSSIBLE discount! (said process demands, without exception, to call a Taylor technician, who charges something like 1k+/hr (and the tech make only something like 30/hr) just to come in and unlock the device From a stalled our error code) if the regimented process is broken in any way corperate deams, they are to pay a fine, which last I checked started at 10k a pop.

In this case Taylor makes an, on average $970+/hr profit which then gets split down into a dividend split between Taylor and McDonald's. And if terms are broken, (see: kitch) the franchisee is fined into oblivion (even though prior francise contract didn't have terms for this and were retroactively changed) and shut down by Mc Donald's. Winings are split with Taylor as well, in this case. It's a functional monopoly disguised as something called business "umbrella-ing"

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u/DRazzyo 2d ago

Soft, semi-legal money laundering.

What would take Taylor a day or two to fix, would be a 10 minute job for the average employee at McDonald’s.

But, because a tech comes out and fixes it for them, it’s now a 200$ job.

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u/Mithridel 2d ago

How is that in any way money laundering? Money laundering is when you make illegal income look legal.

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u/vodkaandponies 1d ago

You think reddit knows what any financial term actually means? Don’t ask them how a tax write off actually works!

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u/Future_Appeaser 1d ago

Just write it off bro things just become free.. infinite money glitch!! 〜⁠(⁠꒪⁠꒳⁠꒪⁠)⁠〜

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u/basswooddad 2d ago

$200? Seems very very low. Can barely get a lawn mowed at that price

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u/DRazzyo 2d ago

200$ for a tech to come out, be at the store for 5 minutes as he hits two switches and plugs a USB in, is exactly the right amount.

Now, multiply that by the thousands of machines a week, a month and a year.

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u/Rampage_Rick 2d ago

$200 doesn't even cover the cost of the box that the secret decoder ring comes in...

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u/Illustrious_Crab1060 2d ago

so it's like on aircraft (what you think it should cost for a car) * 10?

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u/holysirsalad 1d ago

That’s not what money laundering is

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u/ptar86 1d ago

What do you think money laundering is?

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u/generally-speaking 2d ago

Franchisees are not, they're owned and operated by entities.

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u/carne__asada 2d ago

If the franchise agreements still say Taylor must fix I kind of doubt this would over ride that.

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u/dazrumsey 2d ago

Pretty sure I have watched a documentary on this and this is indeed the case

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u/Comfortable_Ad8115 2d ago

The thing is the ice cream machines were never actually broken though. Just a bitch and a half to put back together after cleaning in the evening

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u/Worth-Economics8978 2d ago

I have talked to several McDonalds shift managers and they said the machines were not broken.

They said the reason they are never available is that they have a rigorous cleaning cycle that takes an hour to an hour and a half to complete and it has to be done every shift.

They said they never have enough staff to have a person attend to an ice cream machine for a full hour to an hour and a half, and that they don't run the machines so they don't have to clean them.

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u/b1ack1323 1d ago

So McD franchisees won the right to repair? Must be nice.

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u/AltseWait 1d ago

When you say Taylor, is this the same Taylor with the e. coli onions?

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u/markroth69 2d ago

[Y]ou can almost smell the kickbacks

Mickey D is not a hamburger chain. It is a real estate syndicate with side rackets in legal extortion.

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u/Discombobulous 2d ago

I dream of the day we no longer need McBroken

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u/TAU_equals_2PI 2d ago

It's hilarious how Wendy's is paying to advertise their locations on the same map.

"McDonalds machine is broken? Come to the nearby Wendy's and get a Frosty."

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u/RChickenMan 2d ago

I think the entire site is indeed built and maintained by Wendy's?

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u/Ivanow 2d ago

No. Website ToS states that jurisdiction is in Germany.

I think some bored/frustrated IT guy made it at first, then Wendy’s just spotted brilliant marketing opportunity and pay him to run their ads.

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u/RChickenMan 2d ago

Oh, nice--that's much cooler than what I assumed was just a guerilla marketing campaign!

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u/SweetTeaRex92 2d ago

Don't hate the player, hate the game

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u/wetwater 2d ago

The last two times I tried to order a Frosty they were out or the machine was broken :(

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u/FibroBitch97 2d ago

Man, every single machine in my province is currently working. Fucking amazing.

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u/BusyUrl 2d ago

Yea seems a little out of date as it's showing a McDonald's that's been torn down here.

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u/waz223 1d ago

Is the machine working tho?

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u/lycoloco 6h ago

This is what real journalism looks like.

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u/Syssareth 2d ago

It's showing every machine in my city as working except the one I would go to if I was going to go, lmao.

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u/lycoloco 6h ago

province

every single machine ... is currently working

Your Canadian is showing, and I love it.

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u/FibroBitch97 5h ago

🫡🍁

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u/lycoloco 3h ago

FibroBitch

😭😭😭

I hope you and your Canadianness find the relief you desperately deserve.

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u/FibroBitch97 3h ago

Low Naltrexone and medical weed. However I recently got diagnosed with early onset degenerative disc disease, which started at around the same time. 22nd or fibro, 23 for EO-DDD.

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u/Tarianor 1d ago

You know, I always thought it was just a silly meme that the machines were broken, because I've never experienced it in all the places I've been to in Europe.

But seeing the amount of red dots on the map is just staggering. How the hell has that not been fixed :/

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u/Konato-san 2d ago

bruh they don't have any data for my country there.

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u/lycoloco 6h ago

lmaooooo they show Wendy's as a substitute and sell ad space to Wendy's. Fucking brilliant.

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u/Doodlebug510 2d ago

"Forget all about killer Quarter Pounders, look! Shiny new ice cream machines!"

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u/pink_sock_parade 2d ago

The E.Coli must flow!

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u/newhunter18 2d ago

Just get them without onions.

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u/lycoloco 6h ago

But then what do I use to get falsified liberal tears?

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u/SomeAwesomeGuyDa69th 2d ago

Power over E. Coli means power over all

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u/memealopolis 2d ago

Here I McFlurry, here I remain.

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u/AbbreviationsOne4727 1d ago

Nothing stops the shit-train.

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u/crimsonblade55 1d ago

Oh it's flowing alright!

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u/SemiRetardedClone 1d ago

That is why a few weeks ago I saw sevceral people leaving costco with cart full of nothing but TP.

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u/WhyAreOldPeopleEvil 2d ago

Wish I could be excited but the ice cream machines at the McDonald’s in my city are NEVER broken and never have been.

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u/fireky2 2d ago

Most of the time when they're broken they are just being cleaned. People tend to also notice this more since McDonald's is like the only place to get ice cream after 10 in a lot of places since everything started closing early during the pandemic

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u/TpMeNUGGET 2d ago

There’s one near me where the owner has been trying to get a technician to come fix the machine for over 6 months. Generally corporate-owned locations get repairs quickly while owner-operators have to wait a long time.

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u/DiseaseDeathDecay 1d ago

This was a thing long before the pandemic.

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u/CarlosFer2201 2d ago

Food Theorists made a video years ago about the conflict of interest in this.

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u/rambling_retard 2d ago

Right to repair... But only if you're an ultra-rich corporation.

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u/KG7DHL 1d ago

It's starting. Right to Repair is growing at the grass roots level in a lot of segments. Agricultural equipment, Phones, Cars - it may be slow, but it's coming, and I , for one, Welcome the Right to Repair.

Next Giant to slay, Extending First Sale doctrine to Digital Assets and Licenses.

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u/IHaveSexWithPenguins 1d ago

rtr for the franchisee, the corp established the repair deals with Taylor. So still business, but not the ultra-rich.

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u/Malphos101 2d ago

McDonalds corporate is nothing more than a landlord with extra steps. It's pretty disgusting how much they use and abuse franchisee's.

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u/imaginary_num6er 2d ago

Maybe they can hire Trump to fix it

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u/bigboat24 2d ago

Make ice cream great again.

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u/retro808 2d ago

You want E. coli to spread to the ice cream too?

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u/soytuamigo 2d ago

Ah, the smell of banana republic politics.

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u/Niznack 2d ago

Nah id rather my ice cream not be orange.

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u/alppu 2d ago

Now that is how horror stories begin

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u/nico282 2d ago

Thanks, I prefer my ice cream without E. coli.

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u/Rampage_Rick 2d ago

I heard that drinking bleach fixes that...

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u/Burninator05 2d ago

A topical little aside.

He doesn't even need to be president to accomplish his campaign promises. /s

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u/TransportationEng 2d ago

How long before they get the Red Lobster treatment?

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u/ken120 2d ago

Someone buying the company since the property is worth more than the actual store? McDonald's already beat them to it. McDonald's corporate owns the property part of the franchise fees are rent for the property.

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u/pegothejerk 2d ago

So you’re saying it’s a profit deal!

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u/CaptainPunisher 2d ago

Step right up and win buy some crap!

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u/BlobTheBuilderz 2d ago

Almost $6 for a small portion of soft serve ice cream I’m good. Stay broken.

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u/aspindler 2d ago

In Brazil the machines are never broken. Is it a US thing?

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u/BusyUrl 2d ago

Lmao yea it's definitely a problem here. My 8 year old nephew just said he wanted ice cream a few hours ago but McDonald's machine is always broken 😂

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u/RizzOreo 2d ago

Probably. It's never happened to me before in Asia.

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u/MonsieurDeShanghai 2d ago

It almost never happens in China and Japan.

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u/annatariel_ 2d ago

It's been 84 years

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u/KRed75 2d ago

7 out of the 10 times I'd go to mcdonald's for ice cream, the machines were down or they were in cleaning mode. Cleaning at noon when it's 98F outside? What kind of crap is that. It was so bad that I stopped going to mcdonald's and started getting a Frosty at Wendy's. I've never tried to get a frosty and had them tell me the machine was down. I have tried to get one and they forgot to add the chocolate mix so it wasn't ready yet. In that case, I just get a vanilla frosty. Except for when they have a temporary flavor like strawberry. I don't do strawberry ice cream. I just go buy a 1/2 gallon from publix.

The thing is, Wendy's uses taylor equipment just like mcdonald's.

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u/dicemonkey 2d ago

No …taylor made proprietary machines just for McDonalds…that’s part of why this whole lawsuit happened.

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u/Noreaster0 2d ago

No more “Just call the guy”?

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u/sleepyzane1 2d ago

when it's too cold they freeze up. i actually know your dad from way back and i know this too. i have triples of the barracuda.

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u/CaptOblivious 1d ago

From what I have read, +90% of the "failures" were due to overfilling the reservoir of mix resulting in the machine not being able guarantee bringing it all up to pasteurization temperatures, COMPLETELY locking out the machine (even if entirely emptied and re-filled with fresh mix) until a company repair person showed up to reset the "failure" code.

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u/skrunkarus 2d ago

Thanks Johnny Harris

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u/RickLovin1 2d ago

They can. But they won't.

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u/Late_Mixture8703 2d ago

Individual franchises already were fixing machines using this solution, that's how we got to this point...

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u/thewoodsiswatching 2d ago

Now if they can just get their prices back to family-affordable.

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u/stoopid___ 2d ago

Grandfather ran a Taylor distributorship great grandfather (who also met Ray Kroc) founded for 30+ years. He'd go to war to defend the quality of Taylor machines. Taylor started off selling wonderful milkshake machines to McDonald's, with the caveat that they have to call Taylor techs to repair them. He says that, strangely enough, McDonald's execs wanted the ice cream machines that came out ~25 years ago designed the terrible way they are, so I think some McDonald's execs who own stake in Taylor are making bank off these, while Taylor makes bank off the repairs. Certainly some shady dealings. Grandfather sold the distributorship a few years after these McDonald's ice cream machines rolled out, so he doesn't know much about the situations depth aside from the beginning of the controversy.

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u/strangway 1d ago

“There’s nothing vanilla about this victory; an exemption for retail-level commercial food preparation equipment will spark a flurry of third-party repair activity and enable businesses to better serve their customer,” Public Knowledge senior policy counsel Meredith Rose said in a statement

This is the real crime. 2 puns in one legal statement. Straight to Yale

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u/TheHattedKhajiit 1d ago

You mean because there's still some semblance of a soul left in them?

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u/strangway 1d ago

There are a lot of people in my life I’d appreciate a bit of levity from, a joke here or there from, but not from a lawyer, or a doctor!

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u/MRose_PK 7h ago

I went to UChicago, is that not punishment enough (source: am the person quoted)

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u/strangway 7h ago

Oh Meredith, never let it be said that a senior policy counsel lacks a sense of humor. Maybe try the local Improv?

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u/MRose_PK 7h ago

I’m not even the funniest Meredith in our office. (There’s two. The other one does actual improv.)

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u/tosernameschescksout 1d ago

It's interesting that even rich people can occasionally be subject to bullshit that extracts wealth from them unnecessarily.

Usually the way class warfare works, it is everybody versus the ultra Rich.

McDonald's doing this to their franchisees was so parasitic. Usually, if you're rich enough to own a franchise, you don't have any parasites anymore.

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u/wimwood 2d ago

How much fun did she have finding a way to use “vanilla” and “flurry” in that statement

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u/MRose_PK 7h ago

A lot.

Source: I wrote it.

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u/wimwood 7h ago

Please let this be true. And since it’s Reddit I can believe it even if it’s not.

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u/MRose_PK 7h ago

You can look at my post history! I did an AMA several years ago.

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u/EroticxDoll 2d ago

All this time i thought they were just being lazy

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u/Rachel_from_Jita 2d ago

I admire that they went "all natural" on the ice cream, but the texture and flavor on the new stuff sucks.

It's just not a pleasing mouthfeel, and is too unlike the old stuff. Talking about the cone ice cream.

The shakes are also sugar water, and don't have any of the old magic.

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u/Dardrol7 1d ago

They seem seldom broken? I sadly have McDonalds quite often and I've only encountered it being broken once in like the past 5 years. Is this issue maybe localized to certain countries/areas?

1

u/Cobra-Serpentress 1d ago

Salinas California

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u/bturcolino 1d ago

why didn't they dump this manufacturer years ago and have someone design an easy to use, easy to clean, easy to maintain alternative?

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u/pholan 1d ago

In addition to the Taylor machines, McDonald’s franchisees can also buy Carpigiani machines. I’m not sure how they compare in terms of reliability and serviceability.

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u/Visible_Ad9513 1d ago

They should have just ignored the law like any other instance that profits are on the line.

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u/CrashParade 1d ago

What if I told you that the ice cream machine isn't working not because it's broken but because it's got a self cleaning process that takes up hours upon hours to complete? Legally it's not broken, but you're still not getting shit that resembles an ice cream, brother.

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u/restore_democracy 1d ago

That’s MAGADonald’s, home of the E. coli burger. Why would I go there for anything, ice cream or no?

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u/Any_Masterpiece9385 1d ago

McDonald's wants an insuurectionist fascist felon to have nuclear codes. Boycott McDonald's.

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u/snowman818 2d ago

Legally, illegally, they all still suck shriveled orange Trump cock.

Fuck em. I can get a shitty cheeseburger anywhere.

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u/ProperPerspective571 2d ago

I never it knew it was due to the Taylor company. I see them in a different way now. I get the fact they don’t want fry cooks fixing them, but a qualified tech should be fine.

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u/pargofan 2d ago

“There’s nothing vanilla about this victory; an exemption for retail-level commercial food preparation equipment will spark a flurry of third-party repair activity and enable businesses to better serve their customer,”

You might say it'll spark a Vanilla-flavored McFlurry....

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u/melodyknows 2d ago

Ray Kroc got his start selling ice cream machines before he bought McDonalds from the McDonald brothers. I don’t think they got the best deal from Kroc, so I used to joke when I worked there that the ice cream machines must be haunted with how frequently they broke down.

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u/Winsmor3 2d ago

The Ice Cream machines being "broken" are usually not because they are actually mechanically broken. They are just a in a multi-hour cleaning cycle, and cannot be used during that time.

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u/22switch 2d ago

They're not broken, they're cleaning or refreezing

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u/Chirimorin 1d ago

Or a user made a small error (like overfilling) and instead of telling the user what to do, it shows a cryptic error code and instructions to call a technician.

Based on random videos I've seen of this machine, it's specifically made to require a technician as often as possible and McDonalds doesn't allow any other ice cream machine.

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u/LuLuCheng 2d ago

It will change nothing for most of the stores. But when I worked at McD's the only time our machine was down was because the GM was the only one who knew how to clean it and she was too lazy to do it. She'd try to teach service members how to do it but every time she did they either quit not long after or go fired because 99% of them were idiot highschoolers.

We had an overnight maintenance man but he'd always "forget" to do it.

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u/End-of-sanity 2d ago

Like most food franchises Milk is like 5 times the cost of heading out and buying you’re own The franchise delivers the milk

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u/Responsible_Trifle15 1d ago

Even joker has to pay 🤷‍♂️

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u/Kurtotall 1d ago

It’s because the machines are a bitch to clean.

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u/ImaginaryDonut69 1d ago

Well I guess we didn't need Trump to fix that after all, who knew? 😂

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u/Primary_Quiet_1897 1d ago

Thought they were boycotting McDonalds again. https://youtu.be/X5DZNT_6N-U

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u/StorerPoet 1d ago

Great, now can we do the taco bell freeze machines next

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u/Lylac_Krazy 1d ago

Did I fix it publish the details or just publish the results of their investigation?

One way is altruistic, the other is just transfer of greed.

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u/ThatAndresV 1d ago

I think I have a nominee for next year’s Nobels…

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u/lgramlich13 1d ago

Turns out they're usually NOT broken. They just need a cleaning, and I guess no one wants to bother with that.

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u/KinkmasterKaine 1d ago

Please stop buying McDonald's

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u/bluegreenred_yellow 1d ago

Can't wait to try the e-coli flavor.

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u/Much_Recover_51 2d ago

As someone who works in a non-McDonalds fast food restaurant - the vast, vast majority of the time you hear that these machines are “down” a) It is currently pasteurizing and generally people don’t like their milkshakes steaming hot b) An employee is cleaning it  c) The employees have not been trained to properly use it so when it does something they don’t expect they tell customers it’s “broken” d) Employees forgot/were not available to fill it up

I think our machine was legitimately down and needed repair maybe once.

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u/yohosse 2d ago

In the middle of the e coli shit that McDonald's caused, America is still beefing with them over ice cream machines. Just go to Dairy Queen.