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The broken nature of the McDonald’s Ice Cream Machine has been memed about and tweeted numerous times all over the Internet. How many times have we asked for a McFlurry® at the McDonald’s drive thru only to be told “Sorry, our ice cream machine isn’t working”? As of recently, these tweets may be a thing of the past as the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has finally announced their investigation into the mystery of the broken ice cream machine.
“McDonald’s chronic issue with their broken ice cream machine may be grouped into a larger topic of giving the American people the right to repair broken tech”, says reporter Milcia P. “The point of the investigation is the inability to repair broken things like broken laptops and phones due to illegal repair restrictions”.
First, the FTC is searching for the McDonald’s ice cream machine’s suppliers as well as the types of equipment. This is because the FTC must deduce whether the McDonald’s owners are allowed to work on the ice cream machine, in accordance with President Joe Biden’s “Right to Repair” initiative policy. According to this policy, “all developers and manufacturers shall publish the tools and documentation used to create the product in order to determine the ‘rights of repairment’.
“Intrinsic to the interest in our soft serve machines is our fans’ love of McDonald’s iconic McFlurry desserts and shakes,” says McDonalds to USA TODAY. “Nothing is more important to us than delivering on our high standards for food quality and safety, which is why we work with fully vetted partners that can reliably provide safe solutions at scale.” The restaurant owners also note that other fast-food restaurants have had issues with their machines such as Burger King, Wendy’s, and KFC.
Still, this statement does not stop the seemingly perpetual broken ice cream machine memes to trend on social media. “No matter what happens with COVID and our future, just remember that the ice cream machine at McDonalds will still be broken”, wrote one Twitter user. “Fix the ice cream machine on draw 4 Uno cards”, wrote another user. Some users even addressed the skepticism with McDonald’s saying “Are the machines even broken or does McDonald’s want the ice cream all for themselves”? Whatever the reason, the FTC will investigate further.
