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If you’ve ever tried to order ice cream at McDonald’s, there’s a solid chance you walked away disappointed after being told the machine was broken. Now, it appears the federal government is finally gearing up to address that incredibly pressing issue.
I don’t think it’s a huge stretch to assume ice cream is fairly low on the list of the most popular items on the McDonald’s menu, but you’d also think a massive international company that’s mastered the art of fast food would have figured out a way to ensure it’s consistently available to its customers.
However, people’s inability to get their McFlurry fix has become A Thing to the point where someone actually designed an app that tracked the status of every single ice cream machine in the United States.
In 2022, McDonald’s acknowledged those frustrations while revealing it was preparing to install new machines in its restaurants in the hopes it would make a difference. However, it doesn’t appear it’s managed to get to the root of the problem.
According to people familiar with the matter, the machines in question are manufactured by the Taylor Company, which is the only entity that’s permitted to repair them (a very lucrative agreement that reportedly accounts for 25% of the $300 million in revenue it generates each year).
There are some cases where a “broken” machine is actually just going through a cleaning cycle that takes four hours to complete, but in order to fix a legitimately broken one, McDonald’s outposts need to schedule an appointment with a licensed technician (which can take days if not weeks).
According to The Verge, that headache could finally be addressed through some good, old-fashioned government intervention, as the Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Justice recently lobbied the US Copyright Office to issue an exemption to a software law that would eliminate the need to get a third-party involved to repair “commercial and industrial equipment.”
The filing doesn’t explicitly mention McDonald’s ice cream machines, but they would presumably fall under the purview of the statute in question. Here’s to hoping reason ultimately prevails.