McBroken
October 22, 2020 12:35 PM Subscribe
Twitter user @rashiq: I reverse engineered mcdonald's internal api and I'm currently placing an order worth $18,752 every minute at every mcdonald's in the US to figure out which locations have a broken ice cream machine
otoh: only a single McDonalds in the Minneapolis/St. Paul metro area has a broken ice cream machine. Possibilities: Do Minneapolitans consume ice cream in all weather? Do they enjoy fixing broken machines for the sake of a job well done?
posted by theodolite at 12:47 PM on October 22, 2020 [4 favorites]
posted by theodolite at 12:47 PM on October 22, 2020 [4 favorites]
That is oddly specific. Is there somewhere that explains why that number?
posted by jacquilynne at 12:48 PM on October 22, 2020
posted by jacquilynne at 12:48 PM on October 22, 2020
Often a lot of the franchises in a given area are owned by the same franchisee, so it may be that the primary Minneapolis franchise holder is just more conscientious about equipment maintenance and /or staff training than average.
posted by jacquilynne at 12:50 PM on October 22, 2020 [5 favorites]
posted by jacquilynne at 12:50 PM on October 22, 2020 [5 favorites]
FYI, his second tweet clarifies things a bit.
That is oddly specific. Is there somewhere that explains why that number?
I'm guessing he buys the least expensive thing at every store and that's what it totals up to?
I'm actually surprised how many have broken machines but I wonder if a lot of those stores just don't have ice cream machines but they report as broken?
I worked at a Burger King for 4 1/2 years and you do NOT want to be working on a shift when a popular item isn't available. The shake machine is down... people YELL at you. YOU. The 17 year old kid working the register. I don't mean just grumpy truckers, but suburban moms yell at you in front of their kids. Guys in expensive suits who are probably billionaires yell at you. Grandparents yell at you.
Work there long enough and you'll eventually have experienced a shortage of every product you sell. Or maybe you ran out of those long buns the chicken sandwiches come on so you make the chicken sandwiches with Whopper buns and every other person comes back and goes "WHAT THE HELL IS THIS?" or, god forbid, the truck didn't come and you have no burger patties and every single person says "but you're literally called BURGER King!"
I don't think I'm in favor of compulsory military service but I sure as shit am in favor of compulsory restaurant service. Everyone needs to experience being on the other side of the counter when there are no more chocolate shakes, only vanilla. People are THE WORST.
posted by bondcliff at 12:50 PM on October 22, 2020 [175 favorites]
That is oddly specific. Is there somewhere that explains why that number?
I'm guessing he buys the least expensive thing at every store and that's what it totals up to?
I'm actually surprised how many have broken machines but I wonder if a lot of those stores just don't have ice cream machines but they report as broken?
I worked at a Burger King for 4 1/2 years and you do NOT want to be working on a shift when a popular item isn't available. The shake machine is down... people YELL at you. YOU. The 17 year old kid working the register. I don't mean just grumpy truckers, but suburban moms yell at you in front of their kids. Guys in expensive suits who are probably billionaires yell at you. Grandparents yell at you.
Work there long enough and you'll eventually have experienced a shortage of every product you sell. Or maybe you ran out of those long buns the chicken sandwiches come on so you make the chicken sandwiches with Whopper buns and every other person comes back and goes "WHAT THE HELL IS THIS?" or, god forbid, the truck didn't come and you have no burger patties and every single person says "but you're literally called BURGER King!"
I don't think I'm in favor of compulsory military service but I sure as shit am in favor of compulsory restaurant service. Everyone needs to experience being on the other side of the counter when there are no more chocolate shakes, only vanilla. People are THE WORST.
posted by bondcliff at 12:50 PM on October 22, 2020 [175 favorites]
I was wondering whether he meant he was placing $18,752 worth of orders every minute, rather than one order every minute worth exactly $18,752. Although doing the latter makes sense if he wants to provide McDonald's an obvious datapoint to screen their records for bogus orders.
posted by ardgedee at 12:51 PM on October 22, 2020 [3 favorites]
posted by ardgedee at 12:51 PM on October 22, 2020 [3 favorites]
> to clarify how this works: mcdonald's keeps track which locations have a broken machine, I'm merely querying for those - no order gets executed, no ice cream is actually wasted
https://twitter.com/rashiq/status/1319358458429345795
posted by are-coral-made at 12:56 PM on October 22, 2020 [5 favorites]
https://twitter.com/rashiq/status/1319358458429345795
posted by are-coral-made at 12:56 PM on October 22, 2020 [5 favorites]
Do Minneapolitans consume ice cream in all weather?
I wouldn't necessarily say all weather, but certainly both hot weather and cold weather.
posted by aubilenon at 12:59 PM on October 22, 2020 [7 favorites]
I wouldn't necessarily say all weather, but certainly both hot weather and cold weather.
posted by aubilenon at 12:59 PM on October 22, 2020 [7 favorites]
It doesn't look like he's using ad tracking on the site. It looks like he's just doing this for fun? No BuzzFeed article? No Medium article? No, "I ordered $10 million worth of food and got 6,000 subscribers a minute!" click-bait article? What is this 2004?
posted by geoff. at 1:01 PM on October 22, 2020 [48 favorites]
posted by geoff. at 1:01 PM on October 22, 2020 [48 favorites]
Often a lot of the franchises in a given area are owned by the same franchisee
The local McDonald's tycoon in Kalamazoo must not give a fuck.
posted by paper chromatographologist at 1:05 PM on October 22, 2020 [1 favorite]
The local McDonald's tycoon in Kalamazoo must not give a fuck.
posted by paper chromatographologist at 1:05 PM on October 22, 2020 [1 favorite]
Big "Whatever happened to pizza at McDonald's?" energy.
posted by Lentrohamsanin at 1:07 PM on October 22, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by Lentrohamsanin at 1:07 PM on October 22, 2020 [1 favorite]
I live in the midwest and the majority of my ice cream cravings come in the winter - all those carbs and fats as a comfort food? Hell yeah.
posted by Dmenet at 1:07 PM on October 22, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by Dmenet at 1:07 PM on October 22, 2020 [1 favorite]
people YELL at you. YOU. The 17 year old kid working the register.
Yeah, it sucks to be the public face of a company when something's gone wrong that you have no control over.
(Fast cut to earlier that day, when that same kid is gleefully kicking the shit out of the shake machine and laughing.) :D
posted by Greg_Ace at 1:08 PM on October 22, 2020 [6 favorites]
Yeah, it sucks to be the public face of a company when something's gone wrong that you have no control over.
(Fast cut to earlier that day, when that same kid is gleefully kicking the shit out of the shake machine and laughing.) :D
posted by Greg_Ace at 1:08 PM on October 22, 2020 [6 favorites]
Interesting moment for the incident response team. I remember Reply All doing a story about hackers probing Domino’s by ordering cokes.
posted by Going To Maine at 1:10 PM on October 22, 2020 [5 favorites]
posted by Going To Maine at 1:10 PM on October 22, 2020 [5 favorites]
I was surprised to see three McDonalds's in Lake Charles, Louisiana are working.
posted by MrGuilt at 1:14 PM on October 22, 2020 [5 favorites]
posted by MrGuilt at 1:14 PM on October 22, 2020 [5 favorites]
Fast cut to earlier that day, when that same kid is gleefully kicking the shit out of the shake machine and laughing
I'll have you know I could disassemble, clean, and re-assemble a shake machine in under 20 minutes. If such a skill were in any way even remotely impressive you would probably be a little bit impressed, my friend.
posted by bondcliff at 1:41 PM on October 22, 2020 [42 favorites]
I'll have you know I could disassemble, clean, and re-assemble a shake machine in under 20 minutes. If such a skill were in any way even remotely impressive you would probably be a little bit impressed, my friend.
posted by bondcliff at 1:41 PM on October 22, 2020 [42 favorites]
There are a lot more McDonald'ses in my city than I would've guessed, and, to my surprise, their ice cream machines all work.
posted by box at 1:44 PM on October 22, 2020
posted by box at 1:44 PM on October 22, 2020
I live in the midwest and the majority of my ice cream cravings come in the winter
I love eating ice cream in the winter, outdoors, because it practically doesn't melt.
I can go for a half hour long walk around in the woods, nibbling on a single ice cream cone the whole time, and it doesn't become a sticky mess.
Personally, I avoid getting ice cream outdoors in the summer (this summer, uggh) because it goes from nice looking to running all over my hand in under a minute.
posted by c0nsumer at 1:44 PM on October 22, 2020 [5 favorites]
I love eating ice cream in the winter, outdoors, because it practically doesn't melt.
I can go for a half hour long walk around in the woods, nibbling on a single ice cream cone the whole time, and it doesn't become a sticky mess.
Personally, I avoid getting ice cream outdoors in the summer (this summer, uggh) because it goes from nice looking to running all over my hand in under a minute.
posted by c0nsumer at 1:44 PM on October 22, 2020 [5 favorites]
only a single McDonalds in the Minneapolis/St. Paul metro area has a broken ice cream machine. Possibilities: Do Minneapolitans consume ice cream in all weather? Do they enjoy fixing broken machines for the sake of a job well done?
No idea about ice cream but by far the #1 per store slurpee market in the world is, not exactly known for mild winters, Manitoba, Canada.
posted by Mitheral at 1:48 PM on October 22, 2020 [13 favorites]
No idea about ice cream but by far the #1 per store slurpee market in the world is, not exactly known for mild winters, Manitoba, Canada.
posted by Mitheral at 1:48 PM on October 22, 2020 [13 favorites]
The site is showing 8% currently broken; that is just a mind boggling large number for a company like McDonalds known for 100% control of their process.
posted by Mitheral at 1:51 PM on October 22, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by Mitheral at 1:51 PM on October 22, 2020 [1 favorite]
Since the ice cream machine at my local Mickey D's is working, I'm currently boggling at the apparent number of MacDonalds in some towns. Twin Falls, Idaho, population 44,000 has 4 Macdos? Ok one may be attached to a gas station...
posted by muddgirl at 1:54 PM on October 22, 2020
posted by muddgirl at 1:54 PM on October 22, 2020
> I don't think I'm in favor of compulsory military service but I sure as shit am in favor of compulsory restaurant service. Everyone needs to experience being on the other side of the counter when there are no more chocolate shakes, only vanilla. People are THE WORST.
I have worked with the public in a variety of jobs over the years; 100% this. Far too many people absolutely love to punch down, and the farther down the better. If I'd been working at a McDonalds when this shit went down I would have been praying for an earthquake or meteor strike.
posted by The Card Cheat at 1:56 PM on October 22, 2020 [5 favorites]
I have worked with the public in a variety of jobs over the years; 100% this. Far too many people absolutely love to punch down, and the farther down the better. If I'd been working at a McDonalds when this shit went down I would have been praying for an earthquake or meteor strike.
posted by The Card Cheat at 1:56 PM on October 22, 2020 [5 favorites]
This is my shake machine. There are many like it, but this one is mine.
My shake machine is my best friend. It is my life. I must master it as I must master my life.
Without me, my shake machine is useless. Without my shake machine, I am useless....
posted by cardboard at 2:00 PM on October 22, 2020 [18 favorites]
My shake machine is my best friend. It is my life. I must master it as I must master my life.
Without me, my shake machine is useless. Without my shake machine, I am useless....
posted by cardboard at 2:00 PM on October 22, 2020 [18 favorites]
Great episode of underunderstood about the preponderance of broken McDonalds specialty machines along these lines
posted by churl at 2:08 PM on October 22, 2020 [3 favorites]
posted by churl at 2:08 PM on October 22, 2020 [3 favorites]
I'll have you know I could disassemble, clean, and re-assemble a shake machine in under 20 minutes. If such a skill were in any way even remotely impressive you would probably be a little bit impressed, my friend.
I'm impressed! I did it as well and my success rate was maybe 80%. The 20% reassembly failures were spectacular.
posted by mookoz at 2:08 PM on October 22, 2020 [7 favorites]
I'm impressed! I did it as well and my success rate was maybe 80%. The 20% reassembly failures were spectacular.
posted by mookoz at 2:08 PM on October 22, 2020 [7 favorites]
I'm actually surprised how many have broken machines but I wonder if a lot of those stores just don't have ice cream machines but they report as broken?
My understanding is that the McFlurry machines are a pain to tear apart and put back together. To the point where some employees just slap on a "broken" label to avoid cleaning them. That would explain why he is "ordering" one from each location and the high number of broken ones.
posted by a non mouse, a cow herd at 2:13 PM on October 22, 2020 [3 favorites]
My understanding is that the McFlurry machines are a pain to tear apart and put back together. To the point where some employees just slap on a "broken" label to avoid cleaning them. That would explain why he is "ordering" one from each location and the high number of broken ones.
posted by a non mouse, a cow herd at 2:13 PM on October 22, 2020 [3 favorites]
only a single McDonalds in the Minneapolis/St. Paul metro area has a broken ice cream machine. Possibilities: Do Minneapolitans consume ice cream in all weather?
Theory: ice cream machines break down with use, which comes from orders. Minneapolis's ice cream machines are less broken beause they get used so rarely!
My understanding is that the McFlurry machines are a pain to tear apart and put back together. To the point where some employees just slap on a "broken" label to avoid cleaning them. That would explain why he is "ordering" one from each location and the high number of broken ones.
The mystery here is how McDonalds, of all fast food places, has broken machines, when Ray Kroc was a fucking milkshake mixer salesman who decided shake mixers was so good he should buy them instead of sell them.
posted by pwnguin at 2:20 PM on October 22, 2020 [3 favorites]
Theory: ice cream machines break down with use, which comes from orders. Minneapolis's ice cream machines are less broken beause they get used so rarely!
My understanding is that the McFlurry machines are a pain to tear apart and put back together. To the point where some employees just slap on a "broken" label to avoid cleaning them. That would explain why he is "ordering" one from each location and the high number of broken ones.
The mystery here is how McDonalds, of all fast food places, has broken machines, when Ray Kroc was a fucking milkshake mixer salesman who decided shake mixers was so good he should buy them instead of sell them.
posted by pwnguin at 2:20 PM on October 22, 2020 [3 favorites]
My understanding is that the McFlurry machines are a pain to tear apart and put back together.
My McDonald's experience is from the early-mid 80's, and at least back then it was a pain in the ass to disassemble, clean and sanitize, and the girl in the drive through would shut the machine down as soon as she could and then do a line of coke in the walk-in and then clean and sanitize the damn thing.
posted by mikelieman at 2:23 PM on October 22, 2020 [17 favorites]
My McDonald's experience is from the early-mid 80's, and at least back then it was a pain in the ass to disassemble, clean and sanitize, and the girl in the drive through would shut the machine down as soon as she could and then do a line of coke in the walk-in and then clean and sanitize the damn thing.
posted by mikelieman at 2:23 PM on October 22, 2020 [17 favorites]
The site is showing 8% currently broken; that is just a mind boggling large number for a company like McDonalds known for 100% control of their process.
Contrary to the "McDonalds does X!" stories you read, McDonalds is not a monolith and the operators are responsible for keeping their stores in working older, and not everyone is on the same page with their commitment to the cause.
My ex-bro-in-law was the corporate dude in-charge of all 600+ stores in SoCal (he's an operator himself these days), and he ruled with an iron fist. But, even then, they couldn't just make their operators do certain things. I remember him complaining that the DTLA operator had real worn out and thrashed looking stores (especially compared to the brand new and bright looking Quiznos that were encroaching into their turf), but the guy just printed money and he felt a dollar spent on sprucing up with a wasted dollar. But, corporate couldn't just order him to make things look nice and well kept.
That said, if you fuck up enough, McD will put you on the corporate equivalent of a Personal Improvement Plan and eventually revoke your franchise and make your store worthless, effectively forcing you to sell to someone less terrible at running a business. My guess is that, with the 8%, broken ice cream machines doesn't count as "fucking up".
posted by sideshow at 2:23 PM on October 22, 2020 [2 favorites]
Contrary to the "McDonalds does X!" stories you read, McDonalds is not a monolith and the operators are responsible for keeping their stores in working older, and not everyone is on the same page with their commitment to the cause.
My ex-bro-in-law was the corporate dude in-charge of all 600+ stores in SoCal (he's an operator himself these days), and he ruled with an iron fist. But, even then, they couldn't just make their operators do certain things. I remember him complaining that the DTLA operator had real worn out and thrashed looking stores (especially compared to the brand new and bright looking Quiznos that were encroaching into their turf), but the guy just printed money and he felt a dollar spent on sprucing up with a wasted dollar. But, corporate couldn't just order him to make things look nice and well kept.
That said, if you fuck up enough, McD will put you on the corporate equivalent of a Personal Improvement Plan and eventually revoke your franchise and make your store worthless, effectively forcing you to sell to someone less terrible at running a business. My guess is that, with the 8%, broken ice cream machines doesn't count as "fucking up".
posted by sideshow at 2:23 PM on October 22, 2020 [2 favorites]
So, I checked the website, and I can see the ~13 stores my ex-bro-in-law owns (at least the ones I know def belong to him) all have working ice cream machines.
posted by sideshow at 2:27 PM on October 22, 2020 [2 favorites]
posted by sideshow at 2:27 PM on October 22, 2020 [2 favorites]
Okay -- so... what are the Mowgly Research Station Atlantic Ocean and Knight Rider Research Station Atlantic Ocean?
Theory: there are secret government/military/corporate/cyberpunk/whatever research bases on ships in the ocean somewhere, and they've got McDonalds on them, and this guy just manage to discover them...
posted by Xiphias Gladius at 2:29 PM on October 22, 2020 [6 favorites]
Theory: there are secret government/military/corporate/cyberpunk/whatever research bases on ships in the ocean somewhere, and they've got McDonalds on them, and this guy just manage to discover them...
posted by Xiphias Gladius at 2:29 PM on October 22, 2020 [6 favorites]
This is my shake machine, this is my gun!
One is for eating, one is for fun!
posted by Saxon Kane at 2:38 PM on October 22, 2020 [3 favorites]
One is for eating, one is for fun!
posted by Saxon Kane at 2:38 PM on October 22, 2020 [3 favorites]
Does this mean McDonald's's ice cream machines are ... are networked?
Or are we just taking it on faith that if the machine is broken the local management are conscientiously updating their restaurants' online profiles?
I think we're dealing with a stale data situation.
posted by emdeesee at 2:39 PM on October 22, 2020
Or are we just taking it on faith that if the machine is broken the local management are conscientiously updating their restaurants' online profiles?
I think we're dealing with a stale data situation.
posted by emdeesee at 2:39 PM on October 22, 2020
Mowgly Research Station Atlantic Ocean and Knight Rider Research
Probably test stores for new layouts, equipment, kiosk OS upgrades etc.
posted by pwnguin at 2:58 PM on October 22, 2020
Probably test stores for new layouts, equipment, kiosk OS upgrades etc.
posted by pwnguin at 2:58 PM on October 22, 2020
"but you're literally called BURGER King!"
This doesn't seem unreasonable to me. I hadn't been to BK for over 5 years and we stopped off at one with colleagues on the first stage of a business trip. No burgers. I guess its bad luck, but its a bad look. I didn't shout obviously, we weren't in the US. No coffee either.
posted by biffa at 3:02 PM on October 22, 2020 [1 favorite]
This doesn't seem unreasonable to me. I hadn't been to BK for over 5 years and we stopped off at one with colleagues on the first stage of a business trip. No burgers. I guess its bad luck, but its a bad look. I didn't shout obviously, we weren't in the US. No coffee either.
posted by biffa at 3:02 PM on October 22, 2020 [1 favorite]
In my (embarrassingly extensive) experience, "the machine is broken" actually means "the machine is off for the night/needs to be refilled/needs to be cleaned", not that the machine can't be made to work in a relatively short time frame if anyone actually in the store at the time felt like it was a priority.
I don't begrudge fast food workers for having priorities that don't align with my own, especially for what they get paid. Especially since their main priority seems to be making sure nobody shouts at them when the people who get paid almost enough to care show up.
posted by wierdo at 3:22 PM on October 22, 2020 [8 favorites]
I don't begrudge fast food workers for having priorities that don't align with my own, especially for what they get paid. Especially since their main priority seems to be making sure nobody shouts at them when the people who get paid almost enough to care show up.
posted by wierdo at 3:22 PM on October 22, 2020 [8 favorites]
Or are we just taking it on faith that if the machine is broken the local management are conscientiously updating their restaurants' online profiles?
I've reached out to my ex-bro-in-law to ask exactly this. I'll report back if he responds in a timely manner.
posted by sideshow at 3:30 PM on October 22, 2020 [3 favorites]
I've reached out to my ex-bro-in-law to ask exactly this. I'll report back if he responds in a timely manner.
posted by sideshow at 3:30 PM on October 22, 2020 [3 favorites]
All the boys it brings to the yard.
posted by Greg_Ace at 3:42 PM on October 22, 2020 [19 favorites]
posted by Greg_Ace at 3:42 PM on October 22, 2020 [19 favorites]
Finally, an app that shows you which yards do NOT currently have all the boys in it.
posted by CarrotAdventure at 3:49 PM on October 22, 2020 [11 favorites]
posted by CarrotAdventure at 3:49 PM on October 22, 2020 [11 favorites]
Wierdo has it. The shake machine is down because we just cleaned it and we’re not cleaning that damn thing again tonight we’ve got the fryers to do next and that takes forever oh now someone wants 40 tacos fuck you (Jack in the Box, ~20 years ago).
posted by hototogisu at 3:50 PM on October 22, 2020 [8 favorites]
posted by hototogisu at 3:50 PM on October 22, 2020 [8 favorites]
Oh snap my local's machine is indeed broken!
posted by 922257033c4a0f3cecdbd819a46d626999d1af4a at 4:21 PM on October 22, 2020
posted by 922257033c4a0f3cecdbd819a46d626999d1af4a at 4:21 PM on October 22, 2020
My McDonald's experience is from the early-mid 80's, and at least back then it was a pain in the butt to disassemble, clean and sanitize, and the girl in the drive through would shut the machine down as soon as she could and then do a line of coke in the walk-in and then clean and sanitize the damn thing.
I just realized why so many of my coworkers at RAX in Sandy, Utah in 1984 had red eyes and runny noses.
posted by mecran01 at 4:21 PM on October 22, 2020 [5 favorites]
I just realized why so many of my coworkers at RAX in Sandy, Utah in 1984 had red eyes and runny noses.
posted by mecran01 at 4:21 PM on October 22, 2020 [5 favorites]
The HN article has an interesting comment:
Here's some detail, as someone that has worked with those machines before (internally and externally).posted by geoff. at 4:26 PM on October 22, 2020 [5 favorites]
In the good old days the soft serve and shake machines were taken apart every night and every piece was washed and bleach-sanitized by hand. Then it was reassembled in the morning. This would leave a lot of room for error and possible contamination in the process. And the sight of a shake machine hitting full pressure with a misaligned O-ring in the barrel is a lovely one indeed.
So the newer machines take a different route: they self-pasturize. The machine goes out of service and slowly heats everything up to a bacteria-killing temperature (including the dairy mix inside), then cools everything back down to freezing temperature to serve.
This process takes about four to five hours. But if you set the clock wrong, the machine will go into its cycle at some super-inconvenient time. There are other triggers that can force a self-clean but in general it's not "broken", it's just doing this process at a bad time for you.
I'm curious how this data is being sourced. The last I checked there was an effort to put cloud-based telemetry into every unit and have them report home constantly (both to the equipment maker and to McD), but that was never intended to be public data.
EDIT: Ah, I didn't RTFT. He's using the public ordering site to scrape it (and now the title has changed). But that does mean there's some working connection from the equipment to the McCloud now. That's cool. Or maybe a manager is doing it by hand.
Okay -- so... what (is the) Knight Rider Research Station Atlantic Ocean?
In addition to being a self driving car/submarine, KITT 2020 is also an ice cream machine
posted by otherchaz at 4:35 PM on October 22, 2020 [10 favorites]
In addition to being a self driving car/submarine, KITT 2020 is also an ice cream machine
posted by otherchaz at 4:35 PM on October 22, 2020 [10 favorites]
Not to be that guy, but isn't this potentially quite illegal, if McDonald's wanted to pursue it?
posted by aspersioncast at 4:46 PM on October 22, 2020
posted by aspersioncast at 4:46 PM on October 22, 2020
New York having the highest percentage of broken machines in the country aligns with my expectations of NYC McDonaldses as well as the city’s critical infrastructure more broadly.
posted by turbowombat at 4:57 PM on October 22, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by turbowombat at 4:57 PM on October 22, 2020 [1 favorite]
But that does mean there's some working connection from the equipment to the McCloud now. That's cool. Or maybe a manager is doing it by hand.
This tweet sounds right:
This tweet sounds right:
It’s completely manual. If we run out of a product (Spicy Nuggets), we can put a product outage on that item in the register which will immediately remove the ability to purchase it from in-store, our app & McDelivery. You have to manually remove the product outage when needs beposted by zamboni at 4:58 PM on October 22, 2020
His map has my daughter's preschool in the wrong place, and a different school where her school actually is. Either it's very, very out of date, or it's just nonsense. Either way, I don't see why I should place my faith in its ability to predict whether the ice cream machine a few blocks down the street is working. Not in times such as these.
posted by Naberius at 5:18 PM on October 22, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by Naberius at 5:18 PM on October 22, 2020 [1 favorite]
I’m wondering what the internal communications at McDonald’s is like right about now, with their corporate policies being broadcast round the world live?
posted by hwestiii at 5:20 PM on October 22, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by hwestiii at 5:20 PM on October 22, 2020 [1 favorite]
I'll have you know I could disassemble, clean, and re-assemble a shake machine in under 20 minutes. If such a skill were in any way even remotely impressive you would probably be a little bit impressed, my friend.
What I do have is a very particular set of skills. Skills that make me a nightmare to people like you.
posted by Naberius at 5:21 PM on October 22, 2020 [11 favorites]
What I do have is a very particular set of skills. Skills that make me a nightmare to people like you.
posted by Naberius at 5:21 PM on October 22, 2020 [11 favorites]
Ok, talked to bro-in-law. The dude who made this is leaving out some steps, at least for the US stores, or is somewhat confused on how the API works.
In the US (and likely the world), there is no centralize ordering system run by McDonalds. If you go to McDonalds.com, you are redirected to you choice of Postmates, UberEats, or Door Dash. That's in Orange County, so YMMV for available services in other parts of the country. If you use the iOS app for mobile pickup, it looks like it's direct through McDonalds, but it really isn't, it's actually through one of those three (I believe UberEats, at least for now).
So, the way those services know if the ice cream machine works or not is if the manager (or whomever) goes to each of the iPads given to them by the delivery services and marks what is or isn't available. So, I can order ice cream at my local stores, but if I couldn't, someone would need to go to each of the services' iPads and manually mark those items as unavailable. Once the machine gets fixed (or, if they had marked nuggets as out, when a new batch of nugs comes in), they have to manually again go and turn those back on.
My ex-BIL actually heard about this thing this morning (it made the rounds of the various operator WhatsApps groups), he saw that once store did show a broken machine, and when he called the store for status it turned out they had not manually turned it back on after it had last been prepared. If you were in the store, you could order all the milkshakes you wanted.
So, if the McBroken dude revered engineered the iOS app, it's possible that API aggregates whatever service you country offers for delivery and from his perspective it's just McDonalds. Otherwise, he's hitting UberEats in the US, Deliveroo in the UK, etc, etc. But, the main point is someone working at the store has to manually click the machine as good or bad. My BIL says he's people are really on top of this because it's a gigantic clusterfuck for everyone if a customer orders and pays for a milkshake (or nugs) and the UberEats dude shows up to find that he cannot fulfill the order.
posted by sideshow at 5:28 PM on October 22, 2020 [12 favorites]
In the US (and likely the world), there is no centralize ordering system run by McDonalds. If you go to McDonalds.com, you are redirected to you choice of Postmates, UberEats, or Door Dash. That's in Orange County, so YMMV for available services in other parts of the country. If you use the iOS app for mobile pickup, it looks like it's direct through McDonalds, but it really isn't, it's actually through one of those three (I believe UberEats, at least for now).
So, the way those services know if the ice cream machine works or not is if the manager (or whomever) goes to each of the iPads given to them by the delivery services and marks what is or isn't available. So, I can order ice cream at my local stores, but if I couldn't, someone would need to go to each of the services' iPads and manually mark those items as unavailable. Once the machine gets fixed (or, if they had marked nuggets as out, when a new batch of nugs comes in), they have to manually again go and turn those back on.
My ex-BIL actually heard about this thing this morning (it made the rounds of the various operator WhatsApps groups), he saw that once store did show a broken machine, and when he called the store for status it turned out they had not manually turned it back on after it had last been prepared. If you were in the store, you could order all the milkshakes you wanted.
So, if the McBroken dude revered engineered the iOS app, it's possible that API aggregates whatever service you country offers for delivery and from his perspective it's just McDonalds. Otherwise, he's hitting UberEats in the US, Deliveroo in the UK, etc, etc. But, the main point is someone working at the store has to manually click the machine as good or bad. My BIL says he's people are really on top of this because it's a gigantic clusterfuck for everyone if a customer orders and pays for a milkshake (or nugs) and the UberEats dude shows up to find that he cannot fulfill the order.
posted by sideshow at 5:28 PM on October 22, 2020 [12 favorites]
Breaking: Corporate higher ups are officially (at least internally) calling this "fake news", so maybe this dude is 100% full of shit and some people are getting lucky on the website results matching real life. BIL was shocked at the 8% failure number, and said in his corporate days he'd run into periods where the failure of the stores he oversaw was 50%. So, 8% would be an almost unbelievable improvement, and perhaps it is!
posted by sideshow at 5:34 PM on October 22, 2020 [3 favorites]
posted by sideshow at 5:34 PM on October 22, 2020 [3 favorites]
I'm sad to hear that happening to be out of something is a cluster fuck for them. Personally, IDGAF, I just get my money back for the missing item in like two or three taps. It somehow wouldn't surprise me if the delivery services turn it into an unnecessary thing on the back end, though.
posted by wierdo at 5:37 PM on October 22, 2020
posted by wierdo at 5:37 PM on October 22, 2020
In 2020 if someone calls something "fake news", it's 100% true.
posted by haileris23 at 5:37 PM on October 22, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by haileris23 at 5:37 PM on October 22, 2020 [1 favorite]
In 2020 if someone calls something "fake news"
That's me editorializing my BIL's already paraphrased response.
posted by sideshow at 5:41 PM on October 22, 2020
That's me editorializing my BIL's already paraphrased response.
posted by sideshow at 5:41 PM on October 22, 2020
Not to be that guy, but isn't this potentially quite illegal, if McDonald's wanted to pursue it?
It's potentially a CFAA violation depending on how successful a prosecutor would be in convincing a jury that some combination of unauthorized access and knowing transmission of information occurred. Of course, the problem with the CFAA is that its language is very vague so historically this has been quite doable, even in cases like this where no financial or fraud type of activity is happening. I would imagine this would end at a cease and desist before an actual federal case was brought.
posted by axiom at 5:51 PM on October 22, 2020
It's potentially a CFAA violation depending on how successful a prosecutor would be in convincing a jury that some combination of unauthorized access and knowing transmission of information occurred. Of course, the problem with the CFAA is that its language is very vague so historically this has been quite doable, even in cases like this where no financial or fraud type of activity is happening. I would imagine this would end at a cease and desist before an actual federal case was brought.
posted by axiom at 5:51 PM on October 22, 2020
The McDonalds app allows for ordering for pickup through the McDonalds app. It does say that Delivery is thru Uber eats but for all intents and purposes it looks to me like order for pickup is through an internal API. Unless they are sending order info to UberEats who then sends it to the store but doesn't deliver?
posted by muddgirl at 5:57 PM on October 22, 2020
posted by muddgirl at 5:57 PM on October 22, 2020
Like I 100% believe that the status of ice cream machines is set manually by the manager and not informed by some IoT cloud shit, but I don't believe there isn't an internal ordering system.
posted by muddgirl at 6:00 PM on October 22, 2020 [2 favorites]
posted by muddgirl at 6:00 PM on October 22, 2020 [2 favorites]
Wait, did someone say fast food edge computing?
posted by Nonsteroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drug at 6:00 PM on October 22, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by Nonsteroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drug at 6:00 PM on October 22, 2020 [1 favorite]
Not sure if it's been posted yet, but the broken ice cream machines are not actually broken. The workers are lying. I know, because I used to be one of those lying fast food workers.
You're almost done with your shift, you're tired from standing all day, you just want to get out of there and chill, when a customer comes up and orders an ice cream. It's almost empty, so for more ice cream means a cleaning job that takes forever, then the setting up the new ice cream...a job despised by everyone.
So instead of saying all that, workers will simply say "I'm so sorry, but the ice cream machine is not working at the moment." Easy out!
posted by zardoz at 6:03 PM on October 22, 2020 [1 favorite]
You're almost done with your shift, you're tired from standing all day, you just want to get out of there and chill, when a customer comes up and orders an ice cream. It's almost empty, so for more ice cream means a cleaning job that takes forever, then the setting up the new ice cream...a job despised by everyone.
So instead of saying all that, workers will simply say "I'm so sorry, but the ice cream machine is not working at the moment." Easy out!
posted by zardoz at 6:03 PM on October 22, 2020 [1 favorite]
agree with Zardoz. I worked at Pizza Hut and if someone called in a carry out order within 30 minutes of closing, after we’d already cleaned and broken things down in hopes of getting home before 1 am, we would ABSOLUTELY tell people we were out of dough.
posted by freecellwizard at 6:06 PM on October 22, 2020
posted by freecellwizard at 6:06 PM on October 22, 2020
Wait, did someone say fast food edge computing?
Can't decide if this is a parody white paper or not. You know what they say, you have a problem. Add a network, now you have two problems.
posted by muddgirl at 6:09 PM on October 22, 2020 [1 favorite]
Can't decide if this is a parody white paper or not. You know what they say, you have a problem. Add a network, now you have two problems.
posted by muddgirl at 6:09 PM on October 22, 2020 [1 favorite]
OK I made that up.
posted by muddgirl at 6:13 PM on October 22, 2020 [3 favorites]
posted by muddgirl at 6:13 PM on October 22, 2020 [3 favorites]
The HN article has an interesting comment
Hey, that was me! I've worked both as a McD crewmember in my youth and, ironically, on some engineering projects for them (via supplier companies) later in life. And I've exploded a few shake machines in my time as well... both then and now.
posted by JoeZydeco at 6:15 PM on October 22, 2020 [7 favorites]
Hey, that was me! I've worked both as a McD crewmember in my youth and, ironically, on some engineering projects for them (via supplier companies) later in life. And I've exploded a few shake machines in my time as well... both then and now.
posted by JoeZydeco at 6:15 PM on October 22, 2020 [7 favorites]
but I don't believe there isn't an internal ordering system.
I guess we can argue the definition of "internal", but it's a separate service not managed by McDonalds where orders show up on an iPad and are outside the flow of orders placed in store.
posted by sideshow at 6:16 PM on October 22, 2020
I guess we can argue the definition of "internal", but it's a separate service not managed by McDonalds where orders show up on an iPad and are outside the flow of orders placed in store.
posted by sideshow at 6:16 PM on October 22, 2020
orders show up on an iPad and are outside the flow of orders placed in store.
Even with counter or drive through pickup? Interesting.
What about those kiosks they've been rolling out?
posted by Nonsteroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drug at 6:28 PM on October 22, 2020
Even with counter or drive through pickup? Interesting.
What about those kiosks they've been rolling out?
posted by Nonsteroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drug at 6:28 PM on October 22, 2020
this is like McBallonBoy
posted by glonous keming at 6:29 PM on October 22, 2020
posted by glonous keming at 6:29 PM on October 22, 2020
Can't decide if this is a parody white paper or not.
Oh that Chik-Fil-A stuff is totally real. And it's pretty cutting edge.
What's funny is that only a year or two ago having all of the things in the restaurant sending data back to the mothership was considered....nice but not totally important. What was important was the register data showing much was sold and getting those card swipes in the bank. If the shake machine repairman could know a motor was starting to go dead...that could be nice too (did a project like that for a big c-store chain).
But, now, it's Pandemic 2020 and we want to order from 200 different UberGrubDashBinQuicky apps AND the company's own app and have the restaurant (1) track the order and (2) actually know when something is in stock or not and (3) hold off on firing the order until the customer or driver is in range of the restaurant and not a millisecond earlier or later. THAT is an awesome engineering task that is actually being worked on by the big companies... there's a reason McDonald's bought a predictive analytics company last year. They had some kickass timing on that one.
And yeah, I've been in a few McD stores physically and seen the pile of iPads bolted to the wall, each running a different pickup app. Just like every other restaurant in 2020.
posted by JoeZydeco at 6:30 PM on October 22, 2020 [2 favorites]
Oh that Chik-Fil-A stuff is totally real. And it's pretty cutting edge.
What's funny is that only a year or two ago having all of the things in the restaurant sending data back to the mothership was considered....nice but not totally important. What was important was the register data showing much was sold and getting those card swipes in the bank. If the shake machine repairman could know a motor was starting to go dead...that could be nice too (did a project like that for a big c-store chain).
But, now, it's Pandemic 2020 and we want to order from 200 different UberGrubDashBinQuicky apps AND the company's own app and have the restaurant (1) track the order and (2) actually know when something is in stock or not and (3) hold off on firing the order until the customer or driver is in range of the restaurant and not a millisecond earlier or later. THAT is an awesome engineering task that is actually being worked on by the big companies... there's a reason McDonald's bought a predictive analytics company last year. They had some kickass timing on that one.
And yeah, I've been in a few McD stores physically and seen the pile of iPads bolted to the wall, each running a different pickup app. Just like every other restaurant in 2020.
posted by JoeZydeco at 6:30 PM on October 22, 2020 [2 favorites]
Huh. I had to think about the one in my town that's not working...the address was unfamiliar to me. Then I realized it's the one in the old WalMart. So who knows what's going on there.
And as for the people on Twitter complaining about him not using his powers for the greater good of humanity...Mrs. lhauser will tell you there is no greater good than figuring out if the ice cream machine is working before getting in the drive-thru line.
posted by lhauser at 6:42 PM on October 22, 2020 [1 favorite]
And as for the people on Twitter complaining about him not using his powers for the greater good of humanity...Mrs. lhauser will tell you there is no greater good than figuring out if the ice cream machine is working before getting in the drive-thru line.
posted by lhauser at 6:42 PM on October 22, 2020 [1 favorite]
Even with counter or drive through pickup? Interesting.
I was referring to the iOS app where you can "Mobile Order", which is where you place an order and someone comes out to give you your food. The kiosks are just like registers you run yourself, those place regular orders where you get an order number and all that.
posted by sideshow at 6:45 PM on October 22, 2020
I was referring to the iOS app where you can "Mobile Order", which is where you place an order and someone comes out to give you your food. The kiosks are just like registers you run yourself, those place regular orders where you get an order number and all that.
posted by sideshow at 6:45 PM on October 22, 2020
The dude who made this is leaving out some steps, at least for the US stores, or is somewhat confused on how the API works.
Per his Twitter he's worked at McK and MSFT. He wrote an article for the WSJ on disassembling TikTok to find what they were tracking. He most assuredly knows what he's talking about. A github page or a quick "about us" discussing how he's determining this would be great. I don't think he's actively deceiving people but it is misleading advertising. I see it all the time in the industry similar and if you dig into it, it is someone manually deciding. Not some realtime telemetry.
On a side note at the beginning of Covid I was uniquely positioned with a product that took all the apps (Aloha, Uber Eat, etc.) and unified them into one. No one wanted it before Covid, during Covid everyone is too afraid to invest in anything and now there's other non-technical reasons for it. Also getting anything into any restaurant is nearly impossible. As others have stated restaurant owners are incredibly cheap. Even if I can say that apps are error prone simply because you have to enter the same thing or 3 different tablets, I have no data backing that up. Makes it really hard to prove 20% error rate, multiplied times whatever hourly rate in loss profits, etc. You have to show really hard data to invest even a $1k product in a store. Hell we were going to give it away for free, didn't matter.
What it came down to was that restaurant wanted me to pay them to use my product because to them they weren't thinking it was saving time or directly benefiting. Even adding basic telemetry to machine ... cheap, cheap telemetry run off an LTE transmitter ... absolutely nothing to for the restaurant to do* was impossible. Actually paying the restaurants was achievable but there was a chicken and egg with investment money where we couldn't get money without restaurants and we couldn't pay people to use our software ontop of developing and deploying it. Maybe if we had significant VC funds, and there'd be ways to generate revenue if we could have collected analytics data but this is getting way off topic.
posted by geoff. at 6:54 PM on October 22, 2020
Per his Twitter he's worked at McK and MSFT. He wrote an article for the WSJ on disassembling TikTok to find what they were tracking. He most assuredly knows what he's talking about. A github page or a quick "about us" discussing how he's determining this would be great. I don't think he's actively deceiving people but it is misleading advertising. I see it all the time in the industry similar and if you dig into it, it is someone manually deciding. Not some realtime telemetry.
On a side note at the beginning of Covid I was uniquely positioned with a product that took all the apps (Aloha, Uber Eat, etc.) and unified them into one. No one wanted it before Covid, during Covid everyone is too afraid to invest in anything and now there's other non-technical reasons for it. Also getting anything into any restaurant is nearly impossible. As others have stated restaurant owners are incredibly cheap. Even if I can say that apps are error prone simply because you have to enter the same thing or 3 different tablets, I have no data backing that up. Makes it really hard to prove 20% error rate, multiplied times whatever hourly rate in loss profits, etc. You have to show really hard data to invest even a $1k product in a store. Hell we were going to give it away for free, didn't matter.
What it came down to was that restaurant wanted me to pay them to use my product because to them they weren't thinking it was saving time or directly benefiting. Even adding basic telemetry to machine ... cheap, cheap telemetry run off an LTE transmitter ... absolutely nothing to for the restaurant to do* was impossible. Actually paying the restaurants was achievable but there was a chicken and egg with investment money where we couldn't get money without restaurants and we couldn't pay people to use our software ontop of developing and deploying it. Maybe if we had significant VC funds, and there'd be ways to generate revenue if we could have collected analytics data but this is getting way off topic.
posted by geoff. at 6:54 PM on October 22, 2020
New York having the highest percentage of broken machines in the country aligns with my expectations of NYC McDonaldses as well as the city’s critical infrastructure more broadly.
I remember once reading a description of NYC as a huge, old, enormously complex machine, which, if shut down for even a moment, could never be started up again.
posted by Artifice_Eternity at 6:56 PM on October 22, 2020 [7 favorites]
I remember once reading a description of NYC as a huge, old, enormously complex machine, which, if shut down for even a moment, could never be started up again.
posted by Artifice_Eternity at 6:56 PM on October 22, 2020 [7 favorites]
I was referring to the iOS app where you can "Mobile Order", which is where you place an order and someone comes out to give you your food. The kiosks are just like registers you run yourself, those place regular orders where you get an order number and all that.
The mobile app also would give you an order number that could be called out by an employee at the counter or entered at the drive thru. You're saying this order stream is different from the two other order streams, which are the same order stream?
posted by muddgirl at 7:12 PM on October 22, 2020 [1 favorite]
The mobile app also would give you an order number that could be called out by an employee at the counter or entered at the drive thru. You're saying this order stream is different from the two other order streams, which are the same order stream?
posted by muddgirl at 7:12 PM on October 22, 2020 [1 favorite]
The mobile app also would give you an order number that could be called out by an employee at the counter or entered at the drive thru. You're saying this order stream is different from the two other order streams, which are the same order stream?
I can't speak to McD's specifically but nearly all systems rely on double entry. You get an entry in on a tablet as if someone called up the store to place an order, then enter it in the store's POS. The kiosks in-store, however, integrate into the existing POS order flow.
The reason all those apps are successful and scalable is that they don't rely on a fragile API that must be built across store and systems. If someone can take your order over the phone, they can take it over Uber Eats, Dash Door and the rest. I would not be surprised if the McD's mobile app had a similar flow of a tablet in store receiving an order that must be entered by an employee in the POS when it comes in.
Again, these apps allow a lot of flexibility because of the human intervention. The labor cost of the having a server do it versus building and maintaining an API that works across stores is trivial. Building a greenfield fast food restaurant? Probably would have telemetry and everything integrated. If you don't have it then it makes more sense to utilize existing workflows.
posted by geoff. at 7:40 PM on October 22, 2020
I can't speak to McD's specifically but nearly all systems rely on double entry. You get an entry in on a tablet as if someone called up the store to place an order, then enter it in the store's POS. The kiosks in-store, however, integrate into the existing POS order flow.
The reason all those apps are successful and scalable is that they don't rely on a fragile API that must be built across store and systems. If someone can take your order over the phone, they can take it over Uber Eats, Dash Door and the rest. I would not be surprised if the McD's mobile app had a similar flow of a tablet in store receiving an order that must be entered by an employee in the POS when it comes in.
Again, these apps allow a lot of flexibility because of the human intervention. The labor cost of the having a server do it versus building and maintaining an API that works across stores is trivial. Building a greenfield fast food restaurant? Probably would have telemetry and everything integrated. If you don't have it then it makes more sense to utilize existing workflows.
posted by geoff. at 7:40 PM on October 22, 2020
I can't speak to McD's specifically but nearly all systems rely on double entry.
I suppose I'm surprised because this is not how it works at Starbucks, which is the only system I'm at all familiar with. Mobile orders automatically print out and are routed through the bar the same way as POS orders. I guess I assumed they would all work the same way.
posted by muddgirl at 7:50 PM on October 22, 2020 [2 favorites]
I suppose I'm surprised because this is not how it works at Starbucks, which is the only system I'm at all familiar with. Mobile orders automatically print out and are routed through the bar the same way as POS orders. I guess I assumed they would all work the same way.
posted by muddgirl at 7:50 PM on October 22, 2020 [2 favorites]
If you use Aloha or one of the other major systems you can definitely set it up so it gets sent directly to the POS. The experience is definitely not great from a UX perspective and you don't get the benefit from being on DoorDash or GrubHub. Of course you can build Aloha integration into DoorDash as there's really APIs for everything and what I was trying to do but any cost whatsoever is a cost that's too high for most businesses.
Grocery stores have much higher revenue but are even more behind. Their issues revolve more around not capturing CC info from customers and not capturing loyalty programs. Plus it turns grocery stores into warehouses and there's a very real fear that apps like InstaCart will eventually just bypass them all together.
Grocery stores are funny because they don't really have much of a need for things like Amazon Go. This is again a really complex topic not really for this thread but it is a bit like "Who killed the electric car?" except incredibly benign. You could have cashier-less checkouts but that's not really a cost center for stores, a lot of companies have a vested interest in keeping checkout lines (Hershey, Mars see this as huge areas of lift in sales), and the entire user journey is not really conducive to contemporary buying patterns.
posted by geoff. at 8:16 PM on October 22, 2020 [1 favorite]
Grocery stores have much higher revenue but are even more behind. Their issues revolve more around not capturing CC info from customers and not capturing loyalty programs. Plus it turns grocery stores into warehouses and there's a very real fear that apps like InstaCart will eventually just bypass them all together.
Grocery stores are funny because they don't really have much of a need for things like Amazon Go. This is again a really complex topic not really for this thread but it is a bit like "Who killed the electric car?" except incredibly benign. You could have cashier-less checkouts but that's not really a cost center for stores, a lot of companies have a vested interest in keeping checkout lines (Hershey, Mars see this as huge areas of lift in sales), and the entire user journey is not really conducive to contemporary buying patterns.
posted by geoff. at 8:16 PM on October 22, 2020 [1 favorite]
the truck didn't come and you have no burger patties and every single person says "but you're literally called BURGER King!"
I worked at McDonald's in high school and one night we ran out of fucking FRIES at 10pm. Our owner had a few stores in the area and had to bring some from a store in another town. That was a very unhappy 30ish minutes.
I mostly worked the drive-thru and the shake machine was the front counter's problem, lucky for me.
posted by LizBoBiz at 3:09 AM on October 23, 2020 [2 favorites]
I worked at McDonald's in high school and one night we ran out of fucking FRIES at 10pm. Our owner had a few stores in the area and had to bring some from a store in another town. That was a very unhappy 30ish minutes.
I mostly worked the drive-thru and the shake machine was the front counter's problem, lucky for me.
posted by LizBoBiz at 3:09 AM on October 23, 2020 [2 favorites]
> Grocery stores are funny because they don't really have much of a need for things like Amazon Go. This is again a really complex topic not really for this thread but it is a bit like "Who killed the electric car?" except incredibly benign.
Can't it be glibly summarized more or less as: Groceries benefit from slowing customers down rather than speeding them up.
The more items shoppers pass, and the more time they have to spend staring at items, the more they're likely to buy and the more money the store makes. It's why the floors are arranged to put staples at the back of the store, forcing customers to walk back and forth past dozens of displays of impulse purchase items. If groceries competed on the same terms fast food shops do, they would have the dairy case and toilet paper at the front door.
posted by ardgedee at 6:36 AM on October 23, 2020 [2 favorites]
Can't it be glibly summarized more or less as: Groceries benefit from slowing customers down rather than speeding them up.
The more items shoppers pass, and the more time they have to spend staring at items, the more they're likely to buy and the more money the store makes. It's why the floors are arranged to put staples at the back of the store, forcing customers to walk back and forth past dozens of displays of impulse purchase items. If groceries competed on the same terms fast food shops do, they would have the dairy case and toilet paper at the front door.
posted by ardgedee at 6:36 AM on October 23, 2020 [2 favorites]
Albertsons' stubborn insistence on having a wall o' bread at the front of the store probably played a large factor in their eventual demise. It was literally the first thing to change about the physical store when the one next to my apartment was bought as Supervalu shuttered the chain.
posted by wierdo at 8:37 AM on October 23, 2020
posted by wierdo at 8:37 AM on October 23, 2020
which, if shut down for even a moment, could never be started up again
Am contemplating this as a heuristic for ... life? Sentience?
Ice cream machines: not sentient.
posted by clew at 10:05 AM on October 23, 2020
Am contemplating this as a heuristic for ... life? Sentience?
Ice cream machines: not sentient.
posted by clew at 10:05 AM on October 23, 2020
I worked at McDonald's in high school and one night we ran out of fucking FRIES at 10pm
Someone must have really screwed up your delivery order, then. From my recollection our store had like a month's worth of fries in the basement freezer at any given point in time.
I do recall that we ran out of buns once and had to scramble to another store in the franchise to get some. But that was only because the truck was a few hours late.
posted by JoeZydeco at 10:14 AM on October 23, 2020
Someone must have really screwed up your delivery order, then. From my recollection our store had like a month's worth of fries in the basement freezer at any given point in time.
I do recall that we ran out of buns once and had to scramble to another store in the franchise to get some. But that was only because the truck was a few hours late.
posted by JoeZydeco at 10:14 AM on October 23, 2020
Ice cream machines: not sentient
Ice cream machines make ice cream. Is ice cream really that different from ... thoughts? It's not really different from my thoughts, right now.
posted by aubilenon at 11:56 AM on October 23, 2020
Ice cream machines make ice cream. Is ice cream really that different from ... thoughts? It's not really different from my thoughts, right now.
posted by aubilenon at 11:56 AM on October 23, 2020
Adding to the stories of running out of essential items:
Hell hath no fury like a customer who wants a frosty mug of root beer during the lunch rush in a tourist city in Texas in the dead of summer at a restaurant that advertised frosty mugs of root beer, and is denied one because of the intersection of the laws of physics and the ordering priorities of the owners.
I had men (it was always men) literally scream "FALSE ADVERTISING!!" at me, the minimum-wage-making cashier, because the just-washed mugs hadn't had enough time to sit in the freezer and become frosty. I'd invite them to call the owner and complain that there weren't enough mugs for us to always have frosty ones ready to go, but none of them ever took me up on that.
posted by telophase at 1:55 PM on October 23, 2020 [2 favorites]
Hell hath no fury like a customer who wants a frosty mug of root beer during the lunch rush in a tourist city in Texas in the dead of summer at a restaurant that advertised frosty mugs of root beer, and is denied one because of the intersection of the laws of physics and the ordering priorities of the owners.
I had men (it was always men) literally scream "FALSE ADVERTISING!!" at me, the minimum-wage-making cashier, because the just-washed mugs hadn't had enough time to sit in the freezer and become frosty. I'd invite them to call the owner and complain that there weren't enough mugs for us to always have frosty ones ready to go, but none of them ever took me up on that.
posted by telophase at 1:55 PM on October 23, 2020 [2 favorites]
« Older How to online conference in 2020? Make a MUD! | But how does it taste Newer »
This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments
posted by theodolite at 12:44 PM on October 22, 2020 [6 favorites]