FTC Investigates Why the McDonald's Shake Macine is Always Broken

[BTR1701]

https://www.bostonglobe.com/2021/09/02/business/why-are-mcdonalds-mcflurry-machines-often-broken-ftc-wants-figure-it-out/

No kidding. It's a coin flip every time I pull into a McD's for a chocolate
shake whether they'll tell me no shake for you because the machine is broken.
(I actually prefer the Wendy's Frosty, but they're so thick you have to eat
them with a spoon, which is problematic while driving.)

The article says the machines are manufactured and maintained by a separate
company which basically holds the franchisees hostage, forcing them into
expensive maintenance contracts.

McDonald's isn't exactly a tiny burger joint with a razor-thin profit margin.
If I was running this multi-billion dollar multi-national company, I'd tell
this other company to screw off and just start manufacturing the shake
machines in-house. A machine that makes soft-serve ice cream is hardly the
world's most complex technology. Just set up a manufacturing plant and make
ice cream machines for your franchisees and then teach them how to do basic
maintenance on them so they can fix the damn things themselves when they go
off-line.

[chromebook test]

On Thursday, September 2, 2021 at 8:48:30 PM UTC-4, BTR1701 wrote:
> https://www.bostonglobe.com/2021/09/02/business/why-are-mcdonalds-mcflurry-machines-often-broken-ftc-wants-figure-it-out/
>
> No kidding. It's a coin flip every time I pull into a McD's for a chocolate
> shake whether they'll tell me no shake for you because the machine is broken.
> (I actually prefer the Wendy's Frosty, but they're so thick you have to eat
> them with a spoon, which is problematic while driving.)
>
> The article says the machines are manufactured and maintained by a separate
> company which basically holds the franchisees hostage, forcing them into
> expensive maintenance contracts.

"Some assembly required"

> McDonald's isn't exactly a tiny burger joint with a razor-thin profit margin.
> If I was running this multi-billion dollar multi-national company, I'd tell
> this other company to screw off and just start manufacturing the shake
> machines in-house. A machine that makes soft-serve ice cream is hardly the
> world's most complex technology. Just set up a manufacturing plant and make
> ice cream machines for your franchisees and then teach them how to do basic
> maintenance on them so they can fix the damn things themselves when they go
> off-line.

Every two weeks, all of Taylor's precisely engineered components have to be disassembled and sanitized. Some pieces have to be carefully lubricated. The machine’s parts include no fewer than two dozen rubber and plastic O-rings of different sizes. Leave a single one out, and the pump can fail or liquid ingredients can leak out of the machine. The tech manager for one McDonald’s franchisee told me he has reassembled Taylor’s ice cream machines more than a hundred times, and had them work on the first try at most 10 of those times. “They’re very, very, very finicky,”

https://media.wired.com/photos/607f5200a2b5c89083d59160/master/w_1600,c_limit/web2_2021_04_06_Kytch_14530.jpg




---------

Here in Dayton they let the kid with the 75 IQ clean the machine. The egg mcmuffins taste like carp and the sausage biscuits are the size of a quarter. Wendy's hot and juicy sounds nasty, but their spicy chicken sandwich, 2 for $5 is worth it.



https://www.wired.com/story/they-hacked-mcdonalds-ice-cream-makers-started-cold-war/

[BTR1701]

On Sep 2, 2021 at 6:13:57 PM PDT, "chromebook test" <chromiu...@gmail.com>
wrote:

> On Thursday, September 2, 2021 at 8:48:30 PM UTC-4, BTR1701 wrote:
>>
>> https://www.bostonglobe.com/2021/09/02/business/why-are-mcdonalds-mcflurry-machines-often-broken-ftc-wants-figure-it-out/
>>
>>
>> No kidding. It's a coin flip every time I pull into a McD's for a chocolate
>> shake whether they'll tell me no shake for you because the machine is
>> broken.
>> (I actually prefer the Wendy's Frosty, but they're so thick you have to eat
>> them with a spoon, which is problematic while driving.)
>>
>> The article says the machines are manufactured and maintained by a separate
>> company which basically holds the franchisees hostage, forcing them into
>> expensive maintenance contracts.
>
> "Some assembly required"
>
>
>> McDonald's isn't exactly a tiny burger joint with a razor-thin profit
>> margin.
>> If I was running this multi-billion dollar multi-national company, I'd tell
>> this other company to screw off and just start manufacturing the shake
>> machines in-house. A machine that makes soft-serve ice cream is hardly the
>> world's most complex technology. Just set up a manufacturing plant and make
>> ice cream machines for your franchisees and then teach them how to do basic
>> maintenance on them so they can fix the damn things themselves when they go
>> off-line.
>

> Here in Dayton they let the kid with the 75 IQ clean the machine. The egg
> mcmuffins taste like carp

An egg and cheese sandwich tastes like fish? Yeah, something ain't right
there.

[anim8rfsk]

BTR1701 <atr...@mac.com> wrote:
>
https://www.bostonglobe.com/2021/09/02/business/why-are-mcdonalds-mcflurry-machines-often-broken-ftc-wants-figure-it-out/
>
> No kidding. It's a coin flip every time I pull into a McD's for a chocolate
shake whether they'll tell me no shake for you because the machine is
broken.
(I actually prefer the Wendy's Frosty, but they're so thick you have to eat
them with a spoon, which is problematic while driving.)
>

I prefer the frosty as well. Needing a spoon isn’t really a problem in
Arizona. After driving with it for 35 or 40 seconds you’ll be able to drink
it with a straw.

The thing I have never figured out is how the Wendy’s fries, which I also
prefer, manage to go stone cold by the time you get them home while the
frosty is melting.


—
“The last thing I want to do is hurt you, but it’s still on my list.”

[BTR1701]

In article
<785594108.652332714.42...@news.easynews.com>,
anim8rfsk <anim...@cox.net> wrote:

> BTR1701 <atr...@mac.com> wrote:
> >
> https://www.bostonglobe.com/2021/09/02/business/why-are-mcdonalds-mcflurry-mac

> hines-often-broken-ftc-wants-figure-it-out/
> >
> > No kidding. It's a coin flip every time I pull into a McD's for a chocolate
> > shake whether they'll tell me no shake for you because the machine is
> > broken. (I actually prefer the Wendy's Frosty, but they're so thick you
> > have to eat them with a spoon, which is problematic while driving.)

> I prefer the Frosty as well. Needing a spoon isn't really a problem in

> Arizona. After driving with it for 35 or 40 seconds you'll be able to drink
> it with a straw.
>
> The thing I have never figured out is how the Wendy's fries, which I also
> prefer, manage to go stone cold by the time you get them home while the

> Frosty is melting.

In & Out's fries are the worst about that. They're great if you sit down
and eat them right there in the restaurant, but if you take them home,
they turn to cardboard by the time you get there.

[RichA]

Shake machines were notorious for contamination. Even if little in McDonald's shakes is really fresh or even organic.

[shawn]

Here's a good video I saw some time ago talking about the issue. It's
all about the money.

[moviePig]

Well, if you keep them in the same bag...

Meanwhile, I haven't consumed a processed foam extrusion in many years.
Have they acquired any resemblance to an actual milkshake/frappe?

[anim8rfsk]

I have to stay away from them entirely since they don’t clean the machines
or even the cups between shakes and they do all these stupid mixed things
that they put peanuts and peanut candy in.

[anim8rfsk]

Wow, that *is* a good video!

[anim8rfsk]

Yeah, I’ve only gotten food from there once, and it’s some distance away so
I took it home, and was wildly unimpressed. Only later did I read that if
you take it any further away than the parking lot you can just forget about
it.

[Adam H. Kerman]

Will you please provide the URL?

[trotsky]

On 9/2/21 7:48 PM, BTR1701 wrote:
>
> https://www.bostonglobe.com/2021/09/02/business/why-are-mcdonalds-mcflurry-machines-often-broken-ftc-wants-figure-it-out/
>
> No kidding. It's a coin flip every time I pull into a McD's for a chocolate
> shake whether they'll tell me no shake for you because the machine is broken.
> (I actually prefer the Wendy's Frosty, but they're so thick you have to eat
> them with a spoon, which is problematic while driving.)
>
> The article says the machines are manufactured and maintained by a separate
> company which basically holds the franchisees hostage, forcing them into
> expensive maintenance contracts.
>
> McDonald's isn't exactly a tiny burger joint with a razor-thin profit margin.

What the flying fuck does that have to do with individual franchises you
stupid asshole?

[trotsky]

Holy fuck that's interesting.

[shawn]

On Fri, 3 Sep 2021 07:38:06 -0700, anim8rfsk <anim...@cox.net>
wrote:

It's even better when you watch it. ;)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SrDEtSlqJC4

Basically the idea is that McDonald's and Taylor (the ice cream
machine maker) have had a long relationship and so McDonald's ends up
protecting Taylor's business and Taylor sees no need to spend the
money improving their McDonald's machines. Given that Taylor gets
called when ever a machine needs repair and gets to bill the
franchisees at a hefty rate (note McDonald's doesn't get billed for
the machines or the repair.)

[shawn]

Done.

[shawn]

What makes this so bizarre is it seems that the same company, Taylor,
sells/services machines for most of the other big fast food companies
but those companies demand better/different machines from the company
while McDonald's lets Taylor keep using the same difficult to use
machines. If that's all true there must be some really special
relationship between the top management at the two companies.

[shawn]

On Fri, 3 Sep 2021 07:38:05 -0700, anim8rfsk <anim...@cox.net>
wrote:

Given that it apparently takes four hours for the machine to go
through a cleaning cycle (if it works) it's little wonder they don't
go through cleaning during the day.

[BTR1701]

In article
<1442726614.652372445.8...@news.easynews.com>,

They have good burgers but everyone else is apparently much more wildly
impressed with them than I. Every time I drive by an In & Out and think
I'm in the mood for one, I find the drive-thru backed up out of the
parking lot and lines 20 people deep inside. Like I said, it's a decent
burger, but it's not worth waiting through all that to get one. At least
not for me.

[Adam H. Kerman]

That was interesting. Good find.

>. . .

[anim8rfsk]

I am concerned that even if the machines didn’t work correctly they would
be continuously heating the dairy mixture to 150°F and re-freezing it.

[anim8rfsk]

There are literally 50 fast food drive-through‘s between me and the nearest
In-N-Out. I’d have to really have a craving to not settle for a closer fat
burger instead.

[Adam H. Kerman]

anim8rfsk <anim...@cox.net> wrote:

>I am concerned that even if the machines didn’t work correctly they would
>be continuously heating the dairy mixture to 150°F and re-freezing it.

Heh

What's in that stuff that it's not ruined at any temperature?

[anim8rfsk]

Adam H. Kerman <a...@chinet.com> wrote:

I am thinking chlorine bleach?

We have stuff on the supermarket shelves that’s OK to leave at room
temperature but it’s in small foil sealed containers. Once you open it you
need to keep it refrigerated and this stuff is just in a open bin they take
the top off routinely.

I figured this heating cycle cleaned and emptied the machine out but not so
much.

[BTR1701]

In article
<1912472874.652393822.7...@news.easynews.com>,

anim8rfsk <anim...@cox.net> wrote:

> Adam H. Kerman <a...@chinet.com> wrote:
> > anim8rfsk <anim...@cox.net> wrote:
> >
> >> I am concerned that even if the machines didn't work correctly they would
> >> be continuously heating the dairy mixture to 150°F and re-freezing it.
> >
> > Heh
> >
> > What's in that stuff that it's not ruined at any temperature?

> I am thinking chlorine bleach?

Whatever it is, it's great for soothing a scratchy throat when you have
Wuhan Flu.

[shawn]

On Fri, 3 Sep 2021 13:19:45 -0700, anim8rfsk <anim...@cox.net>

there are more than a few thousand between me and the nearest
In-N-Out. Given that the chain is only on the West Coast as far as I
know and I'm sitting very much on the East Coast. So if I'm craving a
burger I'm not heading to In-N-Out but I will head to Fudrucker's if I
don't want to make one at home.

[anim8rfsk]

God I wish we still had a Fuddruckers.
There was one walking distance from my office it was just wonderful but it
was constantly under attack by militant vegans.
There’s one down by the University now but it has a limited delivery range
which doesn’t include me and it has a limited menu which doesn’t include
the stuff I used to get.
My Fuddruckers is now a Panera. It doesn’t tempt me in the least.

[suzeeq]

Panera does good soups and sandwiches, but it's not a burger joint.

[BTR1701]

In article <d485jghmam6u8uk7h...@4ax.com>,

> >There are literally 50 fast food drive-thrus between me and the nearest
> >In-N-Out. I'd have to really have a craving to not settle for a closer Fat
> >Burger instead.

>
> there are more than a few thousand between me and the nearest
> In-N-Out. Given that the chain is only on the West Coast as far as I
> know

They're in Texas.

> I will head to Fudrucker's if I don't want to make one at home.

The Wuhan Flu killed all the Fuddruckers in L.A.

[anim8rfsk]

I’ve been wondering what they’re doing with the condiments bar.

--

[BTR1701]

They didn't even bother. They all just went out of business permanently.

[Dimensional Traveler]

At one point they were made from potatoes.

--
I've done good in this world. Now I'm tired and just want to be a cranky
dirty old man.

[Dimensional Traveler]

I don't know about their soups but the Panera sandwiches I've had
recently (free lunches at my current temp job) didn't particularly
impress me.

[Ed Stasiak]

> anim8rfsk

>
> God I wish we still had a Fuddruckers.

https://i.postimg.cc/1z1PTkn3/Fuddruckers-Idiocracy.jpg
https://ibb.co/prYzFGn

[suzeeq]

On 9/3/2021 7:10 PM, Dimensional Traveler wrote:
> On 9/3/2021 1:22 PM, Adam H. Kerman wrote:
>> anim8rfsk <anim...@cox.net> wrote:
>>
>>> I am concerned that even if the machines didn’t work correctly they
>>> would
>>> be continuously heating the dairy mixture to 150°F and re-freezing it.
>>
>> Heh
>>
>> What's in that stuff that it's not ruined at any temperature?
>>
> At one point they were made from potatoes.
>

The shakes?

[suzeeq]

It's been more than 10 years since I had one, and it may depend on the
individual shop.

[Dimensional Traveler]

And the "ice cream". When I was in the college chemistry lab
mumblty-mumble years ago one of the TAs ran in holding a McD ice cream
cone telling everyone it had been sitting in his car for hours and
hadn't started to melt. (It was a warm day.) He was going to run some
tests on it to find out what it was made of. I had to leave before he
finished but did find out some years later from another source about the
potatoes bit. :)

[Dimensional Traveler]

I think it has more to do with them using kale instead of lettuce and
similar such things. After the first couple of sandwiches I started
opening them and picking out all the garbage plant parts before I'd eat it.

[anim8rfsk]

Eek

--

[trotsky]

Did it? Or had it become a white supremacists hangout?

[suzeeq]

Oh yeah, they weren't using kale when I had them. I agree, Yuck!

[Ubiquitous]

nanof...@notforg.m.a.i.l.com wrote:

>there are more than a few thousand between me and the nearest
>In-N-Out. Given that the chain is only on the West Coast as far as I
>know and I'm sitting very much on the East Coast. So if I'm craving a
>burger I'm not heading to In-N-Out but I will head to Fudrucker's if I
>don't want to make one at home.

We used to have a Fuddruckers in Tallahassee decades ago.
On my trip to a family reunion in TX, I discovered they still exist.
I wish we still had one.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Izhg-FPYOeU

--
Trump won.

[BTR1701]

On Sep 2, 2021 at 5:48:21 PM PDT, "BTR1701" <atr...@mac.com> wrote:

> >
>
> https://www.bostonglobe.com/2021/09/02/business/why-are-mcdonalds-mcflurry-machines-often-broken-ftc-wants-figure-it-out/
>

> No kidding. It's a coin flip every time I pull into a McD's for a chocolate
> shake whether they'll tell me no shake for you because the machine is broken.
> (I actually prefer the Wendy's Frosty, but they're so thick you have to eat
> them with a spoon, which is problematic while driving.)
>

> The article says the machines are manufactured and maintained by a separate
> company which basically holds the franchisees hostage, forcing them into
> expensive maintenance contracts.
>
> McDonald's isn't exactly a tiny burger joint with a razor-thin profit margin.
> If I was running this multi-billion dollar multi-national company, I'd tell
> this other company to screw off and just start manufacturing the shake
> machines in-house. A machine that makes soft-serve ice cream is hardly the
> world's most complex technology. Just set up a manufacturing plant and make
> ice cream machines for your franchisees and then teach them how to do basic
> maintenance on them so they can fix the damn things themselves when they go
> off-line.

UPDATE:

McDonald's Sued for Thwarting Third Party's Solution to Its Broken Ice Cream
Machine Problem


https://www.techdirt.com/2022/03/07/mcdonalds-sued-for-thwarting-third-partys-solution-to-its-broken-ice-cream-machine-problem/

The ice cream machines used by a majority of McDonald's franchise owners are
notoriously flaky. Produced by Taylor Restaurant Equipment, the machines are
so unreliable even the McDonald's corporate Twitter account has made jokes
about them:

@McDonalds: We have a joke about our soft-serve machine we're worried it won't
work.

This unreliability has created a (very small) cottage industry of solutions.
One solution is web-based: it simply tells you which ice cream machines are
down, allowing customers to avoid wasting a trip to their local franchise in
search of a product that can’t be acquired at the moment.

Another solution was created by Melissa Nelson and Jeremy O'Sullivan. It’s
called "Kytch". It’s a phone-sized gadget that unscrambles the purposely
inscrutable error codes generated by Taylor Restaurant Equipment ice cream
machines, allowing franchisees to troubleshoot issues without having to call
in a Taylor service tech at their own expense. It also allows franchisees to
track problem over time to head off future problems and/or address recurring
problems.

Taylor doesn't like this. It has a lucrative contract with McDonald's that
pretty much ensures franchisees are locked into both the machines and their
service contracts. The worse the machines perform, the more money Taylor
makes. McDonald's ensures Taylor's profitability by only allowing certain
equipment to be purchased and used by franchise owners. If owners decide to
use unapproved equipment, McDonald's has the power to terminate contracts and
eject franchisees. In most cases, McDonald's owns the land under the
restaurant, which gives it considerable leverage when it comes to enforcing
contracts.

Kytch had the potential to change the game for franchise owners by saving
money on unneeded service calls and generating more revenue with increased up
time. Taylor didn't care for this at all. It managed to secure a device from
Kytch through some (alleged) subterfuge and set about making its own
(presumably much more expensive) version to sell to franchise owners. It also
secured a lawsuit from Kytch over its anti-competitive behavior and (again,
alleged) deliberate deception. And that lawsuit has resulted in a temporary
restraining order against Taylor-- something that followed the Federal Trade
Commission opening up a preliminary investigation of McDonald's and Taylor's
inability to produce soft-serve ice cream on a regular basis.

Now, it's time for McDonald's to get sued. Kytch's co-founders have filed a
lawsuit against the company, again alleging anti-competitive behavior and
other shady dealings by the most recognizable fast food franchise in the
world. This news comes via Andy Greenberg, writing for Wired:

"Late Tuesday night, Kytch filed a long-expected legal complaint against
McDonald's, accusing the company of false advertising and tortious
interference in its contracts with customers. Kytch's cofounders, Melissa
Nelson and Jeremy O'Sullivan, are asking for no less than $900 million in
damages."

$900 million is a big ask, no matter what the claims are. But Kytch had a
potential market of nearly 20,000 franchises in North America alone. And that
market has been completely destroyed by Taylor Restaurant Machines and its
primary enabler, McDonald's. Rather than allow a third-party to address a
problem Taylor obviously feels is more profitable to ignore, McDonald's and
its soft-serve machinery provider of choice colluded to lock Kytch out of the
market.

Apparently, McDonald's and Taylor believe this is an acceptable failure rate.
(Screenshot taken at 11:00 am CST, March 6, 2022.)


https://i0.wp.com/www.techdirt.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/Screenshot-2022-03-06-11.04.58-AM.png?resize=768%2C283&ssl=1

Nearly 13% of the soft-serve machines in the nation are down. And that
percentage is likely on the low side. The rate is much higher in major cities
where a higher number of customers means more accurate reporting of machine
downtime. Unbelievably, this 13% is likely an undercount, what with
less-populated areas having yet to discover the machine is down and/or report
it. And it's unlikely many people is time zones further west are seeking ice
cream at 9 or 10 in the morning.

The first lawsuit filed by Kytch, which targeted alleged Taylor wrongdoing,
has given the company access to a large number of internal communications
between McDonald's and the soft-serve machine maker. And those communications
have indicated McDonald's is at least just as culpable in Kytch's ejection
from the market as Taylor is. In fact, it's beginning to look like McDonald's
did more to lock Kytch out than Taylor did:

Kytch's co-founders have hinted that they intended to use the discovery
process in their lawsuit against Taylor to dig up evidence for a suit against
McDonald's too. In fact, the 800 pages of internal Taylor emails and
presentations that Kytch has so far obtained in discovery show that it was
McDonald's, not Taylor, that at many points led the effort to study and
develop a response to Kytch in 2020. In February of that year, Taylor
president Jeremy Dobrowolski wrote in an email that "McDonald's is all hot and
heavy about this," referring to Kytch's growing adoption. A McDonald's
executive later asked for a conference call with Taylor in June of that year
to discuss Kytch. When McDonald's shared with Taylor a draft of the
Kytch-killing email it planned to send franchisees, a Taylor executive
commented to a colleague that "I am a bit in shock they are willing to take
such a strong position."

This is how the lawsuit [PDF] details just a small portion of the allegations
against McDonald's:

Kytch was the only product on the market that was positioned to fix the
soft-serve machines at McDonald's. Kytch soon gained market dominance after
the largest organization of independent McDonald’s operators-- the National
Owners Association-- endorsed Kytch at its national conference.

McDonald's took note and met with Taylor after the endorsement. According to
Taylor's internal emails, "McDonald's [was] putting all of their eggs in this
basket to fight Kytch" because "[t]hey have nothing else ready from their own
IT Team".

In the days that followed, McDonald's Director of Equipment, Mike Zagorski,
directed that "[t]hings need to go much faster" with Taylor's Open Kitchen
development, which was moving at a "turtle[']s pace". McDonald's also warned
Taylor that independent restaurant operators were demanding that McDonald's
integrate Kytch into the McDonald's system. This threatened to undermine
Taylor's longstanding service and repair racket that the new Open Kitchen
device was being designed to protect. McDonald's and Taylor needed to buy more
time to get Open Kitchen to the market.

To that end, McDonald's and Taylor worked together to create a stall tactic.
Together they fabricated bogus "safety" claims to mislead Kytch's customers
into believing that safety testing determined that the Kytch Solution would
cause "serious human injury" to users--claims that are, and that McDonald's
and Taylor both knew at the time to be, demonstrably false.

Emails sent franchisees from McDonald's corporate offices stated two things:
Taylor was coming up with its own version of Kytch (a "strategic connectivity
solution" that would allow operators to receive text notifications when their
machines went down and provide data on products dispensed) and that franchise
owners using Kytch would "completely void any existing OEM equipment
warranty".

The email also claimed-- literally unbelievably-- that Kytch devices allowed
devices to keep running even when opened for cleaning and repair, which could
lead to employees being injured. Kytch calls bullshit on this claim, which its
refers to as disparagement and defamation of the upstart company.

[shawn]

As I recall (which may be wrong) isn't this a problem that is specific
to McDonald's even though other brand franchises use Taylor machines.
As in Taylor has specifically made a machine that forces franchise
owners to call Taylor for support that other brand franchisees (like
Burger King or Wendy's ) don't use.

That's the thing that I never got. Why would McDonald's be supporting
Taylor with this problem for so long. I could see at some point there
may have been some McDonald's management that were especially friendly
with Taylor execs or were getting some sort of kickback, but this
problem has gone on for so long that it seems likely there's been
enough management turnover that the problem execs would have moved on.
So why does the problem continue to exist when it's a well known
problem?

[trotsky]

On 3/17/2022 12:05 AM, BTR1701 wrote:
> On Sep 2, 2021 at 5:48:21 PM PDT, "BTR1701" <atr...@mac.com> wrote:
>
>>>
>>
>> https://www.bostonglobe.com/2021/09/02/business/why-are-mcdonalds-mcflurry-machines-often-broken-ftc-wants-figure-it-out/
>>
>> No kidding. It's a coin flip every time I pull into a McD's for a chocolate
>> shake whether they'll tell me no shake for you because the machine is broken.
>> (I actually prefer the Wendy's Frosty, but they're so thick you have to eat
>> them with a spoon, which is problematic while driving.)
>>
>> The article says the machines are manufactured and maintained by a separate
>> company which basically holds the franchisees hostage, forcing them into
>> expensive maintenance contracts.
>>
>> McDonald's isn't exactly a tiny burger joint with a razor-thin profit margin.
>> If I was running this multi-billion dollar multi-national company, I'd tell
>> this other company to screw off and just start manufacturing the shake
>> machines in-house. A machine that makes soft-serve ice cream is hardly the
>> world's most complex technology. Just set up a manufacturing plant and make
>> ice cream machines for your franchisees and then teach them how to do basic
>> maintenance on them so they can fix the damn things themselves when they go
>> off-line.
>
> UPDATE:
>
> McDonald's Sued for Thwarting Third Party's Solution to Its Broken Ice Cream
> Machine Problem
>
>
> https://www.techdirt.com/2022/03/07/mcdonalds-sued-for-thwarting-third-partys-solution-to-its-broken-ice-cream-machine-problem/

Holy fuck that's interesting.