Have you ever hit up Mickey D's hoping for an ice cream cone or a McFlurry, only to be
told you can't get one because the soft-serve machine is down?
Of course you have.
McDonald's ice cream machines are always broken, or so it seems.
What's up with this?
McDonald's has supposedly been serving up ice cream in some form or other since 1940,
so that's 80 years of disappointment!
What's going on here?
Supposedly, while the machines themselves may occasionally malfunction, in most cases
"the machine is down" means that the lengthy and labor-intensive cleaning process that
each machine needs is either underway or the McDonald's crew members don't have time to
go through the whole ordeal.
In 2019, a Mickey D's ex-employee shared with Twitter the real reason why nobody could ever
get a cone or a shake, saying:
"Btw, I used to work in McDonalds.
The ice cream machine was never broke, it just takes 3 hours to clean so we used to
say it was broke so we didn't have to serve you lot."
This was soon retweeted more than 10,000 times and garnered more than 71,000 likes.
Another former worker agreed:
"As an ex McDonald's employee, the ice cream machine was always working it just took too
long to clean it so we used to tell everyone it was broken hahaha."
"Laugh it up, fuzzball."
When a disappointed customer asked why they couldn't just use their words and tell people
the machine was being cleaned or worked on, yet another McDonald's worker replied:
"because people don't understand that you can't use it at all when its on a cleaning
cycle...they just think you're wiping it down or something, its easier to say its broken."
Finally, even a McDonald's corporate spokesperson got involved, saying
"Our shake and soft-serve ice cream machines undergo heat treatment cycles every 24 hours,
they're disassembled, sanitized and cleaned every 14 days.
We're sorry for any inconvenience."
Well, all that is maybe (finally!) about to change.
While McDonald's has not invested in replacing all of its ice cream machines with newer,
easier-to-clean versions as they once promised to do, they've supposedly given some franchisees
a piece of equipment that will make it simpler to keep the old machines clean and functioning
as they should.
This new piece of equipment was developed by a software company called Kytch, and is
being referred to by People simply as "the Kytch device."
According to its developer, this device will be able to ensure that the cleaning cycle
takes place when it's scheduled to happen.
"Foreign contaminant.
Whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa."
It can also correct human errors such as under- or over-filling the machine, and can even
collect data that will allow it to anticipate if part of the machine is about to break.
In such a case, it can warn the employees and even, this should be fun, narc on them
if one of the employees was responsible for the malfunction.
As far as McDonad's customers go, though, it may mean that nothing is changing.
While McDonald's has made the Kytch device available to its franchisees since May 2019,
the company isn't pushing any locations to adopt them.
Nor does the device actually reduce the amount of time needed to clean the machines, and,
most importantly, it is certainly not going to ensure that employees are actually telling
the truth about whether the machine is up and running.
"I'm telling you, this machine is broken."
Still, if your local McDonald's decides to implement the Kytch device, you'd think that
management is at least going to expect a certain level of ice cream availability.
In this case, there's less likelihood that the store will be able to get away with claiming
that their soft-serve machine is always offline.
At any rate, it might mean you might actually have a chance to try the new Oreo Shamrock
McFlurrys!
If your Mickey D's doesn't have one of these new devices, though, you may have as much
chance of scoring a Shamrock Shake as you do of finding leprechaun gold.
Check out one of our newest videos right here!
Plus, even more Mashed videos about your favorite stuff are coming soon.
Subscribe to our YouTube channel and hit the bell so you don't miss a single one.