The Economy

Then corporate should find an ice cream machine manufacturer who lets other service techs work on their equipment.

 

Maybe YF can get into the ice cream machine repair business.

 

Powell sez "time has come" to reduce interest rates.

 

How this is bad news for the Dems. etc.

 

I linked two stories that provide more depth than the tweets. One of them estimated broken soft serve ice creams result in more than $600 in lost sales per day. Not huge, but every penny helps.

McDonald's certainly has the weight to tell a manufacturer "you want these in every McDonald's? Then you have to open the copyright to allow faster repairs." As far as I've seen, they haven't.

Same thing has been happening with iPhones, ag equipment and even personal automobiles. We just got my wife a new Jeep Grand Cherokee. If - at any point - I so much as get the oil changed any place than the dealer, then the warranty is voided. If a rock hits the windshield on the highway and I call Safelite instead of the dealer, the warranty on the engine is voided even though they never pop the hood.

 

Ray Kroc got control of McDonald's after trying to sell the McDonald brothers ice cream machines.
It's all part of the long game.

 

https://www.foodandwine.com/mcdonalds-ice-cream-machine-broken-8627641

 

They define the corporate structure and made the deal with Taylor that has become a burden to the franchisees. I daresay that McDonalds has enough pull to renegotiate that deal or find another supplier if corporate wanted to. Instead, the franchises are stuck with with the Taylor machines, their problems, and the costs associated with them, and are liable to be sued if they attempt any other sort of fix for the problem.

McDonald's ice cream makers do not have to be the butt of jokes of TV comedians and guys being funny on message boards. It's a choice that they are making, both to be the butt of jokes and to lose the sales when the machines are down. The fact that a website exists to track how many of them are broken and where they are located for the convenience of their customers should make it plain that a significant problem exists.

 

It does not have to be a plot to be an issue that has existed long enough to become a running joke. Perhaps it is as simple as a bad choice which should have already been addressed.

OTOH, sometimes a deal like this isn't exactly a plot, but there is a clause in the contract where money is kicked back to the corporation, or the corporation holds stock in the supplier and makes a profit on the deal which the franchisees are not privy to.