If you’ve ever tried to get ice cream at McDonald’s (or if you’ve seen the internet memes about it), you’re likely aware that the ice cream machine at McDonald’s is always out of order. Busted ice cream machines at McDonald’s have become so notorious that a web developer created the website McBroken.com to track which McDonald’s have ice cream available. (As of writing, 10% nationwide are down.) But why is that? The stove isn’t broken. The deep fryer isn’t broken. The drink machine (usually) isn’t broken. For some reason, getting ice cream at the largest fast-food chain in the world is just the luck of the draw. If you check on social media, you’ll find some explanations: the employees already started cleaning it for the night; the machine breaks easily; the parts to replace it are expensive; it takes a while for the repair worker to come. While all of these factors certainly play a role, the real answer is more insidious.The machine at McDonald’s is always broken due to unchecked corporate power which allows McDonald’s to extract as much profit from franchise owners, workers, and customers as possible. This is how McDonald’s and their ice cream machine manufacturer, Middleby, extract profit via the ice cream machine problem:
* Middleby makes an ice cream machine that breaks frequently and is designed to be
impossible for employees to fix.
* In order to fix the machine, locations have to call expensive repair workers who work for
Middleby.
* McDonald’s forces its locations to use this machine, securing profits for Middleby (and, most
likely, itself).
2022.