We can now fix McDonald's ice cream machines • Hacker News Board

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

#201

Post by kevincox » Sat, Oct 26, 2024, 10:02 AM UTC

postepowanieadm wrote: post #188

8note wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The government of Canada is really missing out by not selling this bill as a reason to keep them in power

I saw some tweets claiming people would vote He Who Cannot Be Named if McDonalds ice cream machines get fixed.

For some reason it another the broken ice cream problem doesn't seem to be nearly as prevalent in Canada. I don't have ice cream at McDonald's often, but at least a handful of times a year and don't think I have ever encountered a broken machine. This is mostly around Toronto.

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

#202

Post by bombcar » Sat, Oct 26, 2024, 10:27 AM UTC

RussianCow wrote: post #192

megablast wrote: post #189

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do they even make a profit on ice creams? I doubt it.

Of course they do. The cost of the ingredients is on the order of cents, the marginal cost of labor negligible, and the cost of the machines can be amortized over many thousands of servings. But even if they didn't, it's a cheap way to get people to show up and potentially order other, higher margin items. If your machine is broken, you lose that funnel and your customers go elsewhere.

You don’t lose many customers - because they’re not required to light a huge “ice cream machine broke” before you get in the drive thru. And once you’re in line and ordering you’re unlikely to cancel just because the machine broke.

I’ve even had the app be wrong and let you order an ice cream when it doesn’t exist - then they lose money giving you a more expensive substitute.

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

#203

Post by bombcar » Sat, Oct 26, 2024, 10:29 AM UTC

MikeTheGreat wrote: post #168

SoftTalker wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

True, though it was not complicated. Just took a person about 45 minutes. That was to do the milkshake and the soft serve machine. Did it many, many times when I worked there.

Can I ask why it takes / took 45 minutes? That feels like a lot to clean one machine. Was that all 'active' time or was there a 'put things in the dishwasher / autoclave and let it sterilize for X minutes?' Were there a lot of separate parts to wash? Now I'm curious :)

Properly cleaning those types of machines is complicated. If you ever watch someone wash the soda machine it’s an hour+ process.

(And it’s often skipped, if you ever get soda that tastes off you’ve found someplace that doesn’t deep clean.)

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

#204

Post by ClumsyPilot » Sat, Oct 26, 2024, 10:30 AM UTC

bobsmooth wrote: post #127

SoftTalker wrote: post #5

All of this was unnecessary on the old ice cream machines. The downside was they had to be cleaned and sanitized every night and that meant you needed one more person on the closing team. It was all about saving labor costs.

And that you trust this person to clean the machine properly lest many people get food poisoning.

If they can’t be trusted with cleaning they should not be allowed in the kitchen.

This is like asking if a developer can be trusted with a laptop

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

#205

Post by bombcar » Sat, Oct 26, 2024, 10:31 AM UTC

omeid2 wrote: post #197

PedroBatista wrote: post #93

Does anyone else thinks this is actually a great incidental marketing campaign for McDonald's? Not only the free reach but also tons of people discussing the "problems" with a big co and how to "fix" them as they are an essential part of society, and this case ice-creams. Sure we focus on the big brain things like copyright, business malpractice and MBA lore but with it comes McDonald's embedded. I know this might so…

McDonalds provides the largest network of public toilets in the world. It is no small thing.

This is the biggest international travel trip I can give - download offline maps (Here, or google maps or Apple Maps all have offline maps now) and when in doubt locate a McDonald’s. WiFi and bathrooms, and sometimes even beer. ;)

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

#206

Post by lukan » Sat, Oct 26, 2024, 10:32 AM UTC

bombcar wrote: post #202

RussianCow wrote: post #192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Of course they do. The cost of the ingredients is on the order of cents, the marginal cost of labor negligible, and the cost of the machines can be amortized over many thousands of servings. But even if they didn't, it's a cheap way to get people to show up and potentially order other, higher margin items. If your machine is broken, you lose that funnel and your customers go elsewhere.

You don’t lose many customers - because they’re not required to light a huge “ice cream machine broke” before you get in the drive thru. And once you’re in line and ordering you’re unlikely to cancel just because the machine broke. I’ve even had the app be wrong and let you order an ice cream when it doesn’t exist - then they lose money giving you a more expensive substitute.

But next time you might go somewhere else.

Some people go there every day and they tell their friends - that sums up.

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

#207

Post by bombcar » Sat, Oct 26, 2024, 10:33 AM UTC

majormajor wrote: post #135

PedroBatista wrote: post #93

Does anyone else thinks this is actually a great incidental marketing campaign for McDonald's? Not only the free reach but also tons of people discussing the "problems" with a big co and how to "fix" them as they are an essential part of society, and this case ice-creams. Sure we focus on the big brain things like copyright, business malpractice and MBA lore but with it comes McDonald's embedded. I know this might so…

Either the McDonalds by me is fairly lucky or this is far less common than the meme makes it out to be. It doesn't seem like good marketing - I hadn't had it in years but wanted to try a promo mcflurry a couple years ago, and wasn't expecting it to work, which make me wonder if I shouldn't even bother going. That's the opposite of what they'd want. But then I went, and have gone probably a couple dozen times since th…

The machines go into maintenance if not cleaned in time. Smart franchises clean the machine in the morning or after closing each day so it “never runs out”.

Just like smart airlines always reboot the plane regularly instead of learning the 787 has to be rebooted every 56 day.

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

#208

Post by bombcar » Sat, Oct 26, 2024, 10:34 AM UTC

lukan wrote: post #206

bombcar wrote: post #202

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You don’t lose many customers - because they’re not required to light a huge “ice cream machine broke” before you get in the drive thru. And once you’re in line and ordering you’re unlikely to cancel just because the machine broke. I’ve even had the app be wrong and let you order an ice cream when it doesn’t exist - then they lose money giving you a more expensive substitute.

But next time you might go somewhere else. Some people go there every day and they tell their friends - that sums up.

True - it every time I’ve considered ice cream as an important part of the meal I’ve already disqualified McDonald’s (Dairy Queen or Culver’s is a step above).

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

#209

Post by hypeatei » Sat, Oct 26, 2024, 10:37 AM UTC

ClumsyPilot wrote: post #204

bobsmooth wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And that you trust this person to clean the machine properly lest many people get food poisoning.

If they can’t be trusted with cleaning they should not be allowed in the kitchen. This is like asking if a developer can be trusted with a laptop

> asking if a developer can be trusted with a laptop

This analogy doesn't seem to track with my experience: newer devs don't understand computers and filesystems at all :D

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

#210

Post by fsckboy » Sat, Oct 26, 2024, 10:43 AM UTC

jMyles wrote: post #173

subarctic wrote: post #41

> Meanwhile, Canada is in the final stages of considering legislation that would fix the Canadian version of the DMCA, a bill called C-244 that is in its third reading in the Senate and expected to move before the end of the month. If Canada legalized circumventing technological protection measures for the purposes of repair, we might just have to head north to find the tools we need to do repairs. That's good news,…

> It's nice when you hear about our government doing something good for once. Critically, what the government is doing here is reducing its own authority with regard to information, the internet, and ultimately at some level, thought. Sharing methods for basic home and business improvements, including repairs of machinery, is one of the most fundamental functions of society. It's rare (but of course not unheard of by…

just as an aside, in political science/international relations, a "state" is what you are calling a nation state. A "nation" is like canadian first nations or the cherokee nation or the german nation before there was a german state (not very long ago), i.e. it's an ethnicity/language.

A nation state is when a nation and a state are combined, like Italy (a country, a polity, where the italian people live) and Japan. The USA is not a nation-state, it is just a state, nor is Canada.