McDonald's & Kytch: The battle for (working) Ice Cream Machines

McDonald's and its ice cream machine constantly out of service started to become a meme in the United States, an urban legend…until the internet caught up and someone decided to do something: a website fed by users to report this situation.

Around 50% of them are constantly “not working”. It turned out to be true, a fact.

People started to dig in, out of curiosity or simply just for fun, until a startup called Kytch saw an opportunity and jumped in, bringing the internet of things with a modern and user-friendly interface.

Out of all the equipment used, the franchisees are contractually obliged to use that specific machine manufactured by Taylor, which belongs to the Middleby Corporation. Yes, they make the equipment that makes those delicious McFlurrys. As expected, it is a very generic looking food processing equipment with poor UX, cryptic codes and highly technical, with a huge user manual.

Dairy products are especially susceptible to bacteria growth so equipment must be thoroughly cleaned daily. Taylor machines have a built in 4 hours cycle to do that. You might be thinking, then why aren’t employees doing that AFTER they close? Well, they do. But thing is, if something fails during that time, or it was not properly done, whoever arrives to open the store finds a machine that you will not be able to operate unless it goes through the cycle and/or call a qualified…TAYLOR technician.

Vendor relationships

Despite what it has been said, calling this a conspiracy and even something “shady” from McDonald's, is not right. Both companies have a long story of working together, which means they understand their needs and have a strong relationship beyond business. I can only imagine that they operate at times as one.

I have experienced first-hand these kind of situations during my time in the poultry business: manufacturers of equipment…