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We can now fix McDonald's ice cream machines

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Re: We can now fix McDonald's ice cream machines

#31

Post by lbourdages »

jessriedel wrote: post #17
mcdow wrote: post #9

Here's a great YT video on why McDonald's ice cream machines are always broken: https://youtu.be/SrDEtSlqJC4 TL;DW: there are some perverse incentives to keep them broken. Basically the owner operators are forced to use a particular brand by corporate. Corporate McDonalds has a deal with a particular ice cream machine company. That particular company is the only company owner operators are allowed to buy from, and th…

I don't understand the last sentence. If the machines are frequently broken, that damages the Macdonald's brand in the consumer's eyes. And if the franchisee's are paying unnecessary costs, making a Macdonald's franchise less lucrative for the owner-operator, that will lead to fewer franchises renewals and new franchises in the future.

I'm sure corporate has done the math and concluded that whatever money the machine provider pays them is higher than any expected losses in franchise revenue due to franchise owners quitting due to poor ice cream sales.

Re: We can now fix McDonald's ice cream machines

#32

Post by adgjlsfhk1 »

kulahan wrote: post #25
readthenotes1 wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your last sentence goes a bit too far. There are products that are "loss leaders" that the company does not want to actually sell

A loss leader is working if it's increasing customer traffic. Nobody is going to McD's because they have amazing/cheap/highly-available ice cream.

the loss leader is the ice cream machine

Re: We can now fix McDonald's ice cream machines

#33

Post by MathMonkeyMan »

kulahan wrote: post #25
readthenotes1 wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your last sentence goes a bit too far. There are products that are "loss leaders" that the company does not want to actually sell

A loss leader is working if it's increasing customer traffic. Nobody is going to McD's because they have amazing/cheap/highly-available ice cream.

The coffee is pretty good, though.

Re: We can now fix McDonald's ice cream machines

#34

Post by aeturnum »

jessriedel wrote: post #17
mcdow wrote: post #9

Here's a great YT video on why McDonald's ice cream machines are always broken: https://youtu.be/SrDEtSlqJC4 TL;DW: there are some perverse incentives to keep them broken. Basically the owner operators are forced to use a particular brand by corporate. Corporate McDonalds has a deal with a particular ice cream machine company. That particular company is the only company owner operators are allowed to buy from, and th…

I don't understand the last sentence. If the machines are frequently broken, that damages the Macdonald's brand in the consumer's eyes. And if the franchisee's are paying unnecessary costs, making a Macdonald's franchise less lucrative for the owner-operator, that will lead to fewer franchises renewals and new franchises in the future.

There's an uncertain future cost (basically an externality that impacts McDonald corporate) but in return they get a nice premium now and immediate uncertainty for franchisees. It's possible it's overall a net negative for MD corporate, but it's also possible it's an overall economically profitable trade (even though it's clearly immoral).

Re: We can now fix McDonald's ice cream machines

#35

Post by mcdow »

jessriedel wrote: post #17
mcdow wrote: post #9

Here's a great YT video on why McDonald's ice cream machines are always broken: https://youtu.be/SrDEtSlqJC4 TL;DW: there are some perverse incentives to keep them broken. Basically the owner operators are forced to use a particular brand by corporate. Corporate McDonalds has a deal with a particular ice cream machine company. That particular company is the only company owner operators are allowed to buy from, and th…

I don't understand the last sentence. If the machines are frequently broken, that damages the Macdonald's brand in the consumer's eyes. And if the franchisee's are paying unnecessary costs, making a Macdonald's franchise less lucrative for the owner-operator, that will lead to fewer franchises renewals and new franchises in the future.

Been a while since I first watched the video. I would imagine the ice cream machines are a relatively small part of the McDonald's business. As evidenced by the fact that McDonalds ice cream has been an issue for quite a while. I would imagine franchises of a similar caliber to McD's also exploit their owner-operators on a similar scale because they can, we just don't necessarily hear about it because McDonalds is the largest.

McDonald's isn't known for its quality anyway. I've had my fair share of sketchy McDonalds experiences. McDs is as large as it is because it is cheap, convenient, and ubiquitous. McDonalds has no qualms with cutting corners on quality, as evidenced by its entire menu.

Re: We can now fix McDonald's ice cream machines

#37

Post by wvenable »

jessriedel wrote: post #17
mcdow wrote: post #9

Here's a great YT video on why McDonald's ice cream machines are always broken: https://youtu.be/SrDEtSlqJC4 TL;DW: there are some perverse incentives to keep them broken. Basically the owner operators are forced to use a particular brand by corporate. Corporate McDonalds has a deal with a particular ice cream machine company. That particular company is the only company owner operators are allowed to buy from, and th…

I don't understand the last sentence. If the machines are frequently broken, that damages the Macdonald's brand in the consumer's eyes. And if the franchisee's are paying unnecessary costs, making a Macdonald's franchise less lucrative for the owner-operator, that will lead to fewer franchises renewals and new franchises in the future.

Modern capitalism isn't particularly rational. Money in the pocket is more tangible than minor brand damage.

If you want to be really cynical, you can assume that somebody at McDonald's and Taylor have crunched the numbers they know exactly how much they can squeeze their franchisees and the customer to effectively make money out of nothing. So many businesses operate this way now.

Re: We can now fix McDonald's ice cream machines

#38

Post by mschuster91 »

jessriedel wrote: post #17
mcdow wrote: post #9

Here's a great YT video on why McDonald's ice cream machines are always broken: https://youtu.be/SrDEtSlqJC4 TL;DW: there are some perverse incentives to keep them broken. Basically the owner operators are forced to use a particular brand by corporate. Corporate McDonalds has a deal with a particular ice cream machine company. That particular company is the only company owner operators are allowed to buy from, and th…

I don't understand the last sentence. If the machines are frequently broken, that damages the Macdonald's brand in the consumer's eyes. And if the franchisee's are paying unnecessary costs, making a Macdonald's franchise less lucrative for the owner-operator, that will lead to fewer franchises renewals and new franchises in the future.

> I don't understand the last sentence. If the machines are frequently broken, that damages the Macdonald's brand in the consumer's eyes.

Try to quantify that to the MBA bean counters, good luck.

No one cares about ice cream from Mc f..ing Donald's, given that most employees in fast food stores are high school kids and I got the runs more than once from that shit, I don't trust them anyway to follow up with the stringent hygiene requirements that serving ice cream demands. Burger patties at least are grilled/fried.

Re: We can now fix McDonald's ice cream machines

#39

Post by Aloisius »

kulahan wrote: post #25
readthenotes1 wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your last sentence goes a bit too far. There are products that are "loss leaders" that the company does not want to actually sell

A loss leader is working if it's increasing customer traffic. Nobody is going to McD's because they have amazing/cheap/highly-available ice cream.

I have definitely gone to McD specifically to get a shake on a hot day and driven away when told the ice cream machine was down.

Re: We can now fix McDonald's ice cream machines

#40

Post by gkoberger »

from-nibly wrote: post #36

Nice, the politicians were able to get some brownie points on a hot button issue without actually doing anything! Good for them, I bet they feel proud, they deserve some of the ice cream they so valiantly saved.

The US Copyright Office isn't elected, and the woman running it was appointed by a non-political appointee herself.

I have a pretty negative view of politics, too, but it doesn't mean we can't be happy when something good happens – no matter how small. The government doesn't pay well, and while we know the names of a dozen or so shitty self-serving jerks in Congress, most people in the government are genuine people doing it to help others.

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